La Bamba (film)
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| La Bamba | |
|---|---|
| Image:La Bamba DVD cover.jpg La Bamba DVD cover | |
| Directed by | Luis Valdez |
| Produced by | Bill Borden Taylor Hackford |
| Written by | Luis Valdez |
| Starring | Lou Diamond Phillips Esai Morales Rosanna DeSoto |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | July 24, 1987 |
| Running time | 108 min |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
La Bamba is a 1987 movie based on the real life events that affected the lives of rock star Ritchie Valens, his half-brother Bob Morales, his girlfriend Donna Ludwig and the rest of their family. It also documents how Valens witnessed an air collision when he was young and was fearful of airplanes since then.
The movie follows Ricardo Valenzuela, a normal teenaged boy who becomes singing super-star Ritchie Valens. It shows how he met and fell in love with Donna Ludwig, for whom he wrote a song that became a number one hit. The movie also has several subplots, such as his relationship with his mother and half-brother Bob Valenzuela, and how his brother felt that their mother favored Ritchie. In one scene, Bob won an important art contest that helped promising cartoonists, only to throw away his prize because, in his eyes, his mother didn't seem to care enough. This causes Bob to resort to drinking which leads to him crying in front of his mother's screen door yelling "I want to see my daughter!", in reference to the bastard child he sired with Ritchie's ex-girlfriend. The film also focuses on Richie's fear of flying, and a recurring dream he has based on a plane crash that killed a friend of his. Eventually, he must conquer his fear when he is asked to perform his song Donna on American Bandstand.
As Valens becomes famous, his responsibilities change because he must go on tour with Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper after his hits "La Bamba" and "Donna" reached the top of the Billboard charts. However, every time they get a chance, he and Bob sneak out and have fun, going to carnivals and to Tijuana and acting like young people.
The movie ends with Valens, Holly and The Bopper taking off under a snow storm for their fateful flight. As Bob is fixing a car, he listens to the news that his brother's plane crashed without any survivors, and the news hits the whole Valenzuela family. Bob's girlfriend runs outside and asks him if his mother knows. Bob darts out of his driveway, in an attempt to get to his mother before she hears the bad news through the radio. Bob is walking over a bridge and screams the name of Ritchie, remembering all the good times they had together.
This movie helped the careers of Lou Diamond Phillips, who played Valens, and Puerto Rican Esai Morales, who played Bob. Elizabeth Peña played Bob's girlfriend Rosie.
Contents |
[edit] Primary Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Lou Diamond Phillips | Ritchie Valens |
| Esai Morales | Bob Morales |
| Rosanna DeSoto | Connie Valenzuela |
| Elizabeth Peña | Rosie Morales |
| Danielle von Zerneck | Donna Ludwig |
| Joe Pantoliano | Bob Keene |
[edit] Trivia
This production had the full support of the Valenzuela family. Bob Valenzuela and Connie Valenzuela even came to the set to help the actors portray their characters correctly.
Ritchie Valens' mother, Connie Valenzuela, makes an appearance as the old lady sitting next to Ritchie at the family's first party.
The original title of this film was, "Let's Go", named for Valens' hit song : "Come on Let's Go!"
Valens is portrayed as having come down with the flu late in the film; in real life, The Big Bopper had come down withe the flu.
The film also depicts the coin toss between Valens and one of Holly's band members, Tommy Allsup, as having taken place at the airport shortly before takeoff, with Holly having tossed the coin. In real life, the coin toss took place at the Surf Ballroom; the coin was tossed by a disc jockey who had been working the concert that night.
[edit] 20th and 50th Anniversaries
2007 brings the twentieth anniversary of the film. Rumors have been circulating about a possible "Special Edition Re-Release" to coincide with this event. Other fans of Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly, and The Big Bopper, feel that it should be re-released in 2007, not celebrating the 20th anniversary of the film's release, but of the 50th Anniversary of the fateful plane crash that killed the three musicians. Nothing has been announced by Columbia, so only the year 2007 can tell us what will happen.
