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• Cast Recording
• Color
• Live
• NTSC

Reviews (1)

Oh you angels from on high!
This is a great movie.It's a fine Christmas movie, but it's just a great movie for any time.Where I come from, this story is called "Los Pastores." It's a lovely Hispano Christmas tradition--it goes with Posadas--where the whole town goes house to house with Mary & Joseph searching for a room at the inn--and in my part of the world folks have old handwritten scripts in endless archaic Spanish.It's funny, bawdy, and it used to be put on yearly in my town.Read more

Subjects:  1. Christmas    2. Christmas / Chanukkah   

Editorial Review

When Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens hopped a small plane after a Midwestern concert gig, early rock suffered one of its most striking tragedies. Holly's death in the plane's crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, was an obvious loss given the Texas rocker's international reputation. But Valens, a Pacoima, California, teenager, was much closer to the starting gate, his impact extending to just two national chart hits, the teen ballad "Donna" and his ebullient recasting of a Mexican wedding song, "La Bamba."Read more

Features

• Closed-captioned
• Color
• NTSC

Reviews (57)

And now Ritchie Vaelns' life story
First we had The Buddy Holly Story, and now we have La Bamba, that is Ritichie Valens' own life story, and in the Buddy Holly Story we had Gary Busey doing his own singing, in this movie, Lou Diamond Philips doesn't do his own singing, instead it is a band named Los Lobos. And plus we get some more out of this story then the buddy Holly Story, okay we know that Ritchie Valens was another one of the singers that lost his life in the plane crash on the morning of Febuary 3rd, but how much else do we know about him, since his carrier was only 8 months long? La Bamba opens with some boys playing basketball in a school yard, and in the sky are 2 plans, that crash, and guess where they fall. Yep, that is rgith to the schoolyard below, we later learn that one of Ritchie Valens' best friends was killed on this day, and that we are too believe that this is his memory. We also learn that he was not present that day, and he believes that if he was, he would have been killed by one of the falling planes. Hence, why he didn't like to fly. Ritchie Valens (Lou Diamond Phillips) grows as a poor boy out in the middle of Calfiorna, he lives with his Mom Connie Valenzuela (Rosana De Soto) , and one day when working out in the fields he sees his troubled half brother Bob Morales (Esai Morales) coming out hsi motorcycle, and goes off a ride. And then find Connie, and they also introuce a freind of his mom name Rosie (Elizabeth Pena) to Bob. They movie out, and into a trailer, and 3 months later Connie leaves for her job as a waitress. And he heads off to school, where a new girl named Donna (Danielle von Zerneck) is new to town, and to the school, and is in one of his classes with Ritchie. The rest you should get of his beginning of his carrier, where he treys out for a garbage band, makes it, but at the first gig the lead singer (Geoffrey Rivas) doesn't even let him sing, which leads Ritchie to tour around town solo, and envtelally with the band minus the lead singer, when then he is spoted by the man that would be become his manger and his name is Bob Keene (Joe Pantoliano), which leads to his school days being over, and Ritchie still dating Donna, even if her parents, weel at least her father doesn't approve of Ritchie and the music that he plays.
I love this stuff!
I'm the father of a budding musician and I once played the small town American Legion hall, and high school hops, coming out of the garage. Valence's manager may dispute some of the details of this movie, but it's not History Channel, it's a movie, and I could relate to a lot of the details concerning early musicianship. It had a nice, REAL feel to it. Now I can better appreciate Los Lobos, too, who participated in musical aspects of the movie. I watch Valence's first encounter with "La Bamba" over and over again. The transformation of classical/folk guitar to electric fascinates me.
La Bamba--Best of the Musical Bios
For those Americans whose first exposure to Ritchie Valens was from LA BAMBA, they were treated to the very essence that made Valens the briefly shining star that he was.Director Luis Valdez correctly fused the major parts of Valens' life with some of the songs that rocketed Valens to the top.Lou Diamond Phillips has a breakway role as Ritchie Valens and plays him with just the right note of self-assured talent and the conviction that his talent will not be stopped by the racism that was then rampant in the music business. We see Ritchie Valenzuela trying to balance a musical career that will not tolerate Mexican-Americans with his equally strong grasp for the love of a blue-eyed blonde Donna, neither of which will be easy to achieve.Valenzuela learns painfully that no singer with a Latin name can hope to hit the top ten.He compromises by choosing an Anglofied version--Valens.But with Donna there can be no compromise.His breakout hit "Donna" is his clarion call that there are some principles that he refuses to give in on.Valens even learns to trust his instinct that tells him that a Spanish language song will be a bestseller.Hence, the "La Bamba" of the title, which is played by the real life Les Lobos during a footstomping jam session.Esai Morales as his weaker brother Bob pushes the film into soap opera territory, yet even here, Phillips as Valens keeps his feet and his voice solidly grounded in the basic business of the film.I had a bigger problem with the airplane crashing foreshadowing that intruded far too often.Valens' dreams of his own death in a plane crash gave the film an overheavy dose of inevitability.During the last night of his life, Valens shares center stage with the Big Bopper and Buddy Holly, both of whom add their own verbal luminescence to the singing light that was extinguished far too soon.LA BAMBA is a musical paen to those fortunate few who possess the ability to shake us out of our chairs and deposit us on dancing in the aisles.LA BAMBA is one such movie. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Feature Film-drama   

Editorial Review

Lou Diamond Phillips leaves a haunting impression as the late 1950s pop idol Ritchie Valens, who made the Latino influence in rock & roll conspicuous through his hit songs. Filmmaker Luis Valdez(Read more

Features

• Closed-captioned
• Color
• Original recording remastered
• NTSC

Reviews (57)

And now Ritchie Vaelns' life story
First we had The Buddy Holly Story, and now we have La Bamba, that is Ritichie Valens' own life story, and in the Buddy Holly Story we had Gary Busey doing his own singing, in this movie, Lou Diamond Philips doesn't do his own singing, instead it is a band named Los Lobos. And plus we get some more out of this story then the buddy Holly Story, okay we know that Ritchie Valens was another one of the singers that lost his life in the plane crash on the morning of Febuary 3rd, but how much else do we know about him, since his carrier was only 8 months long? La Bamba opens with some boys playing basketball in a school yard, and in the sky are 2 plans, that crash, and guess where they fall. Yep, that is rgith to the schoolyard below, we later learn that one of Ritchie Valens' best friends was killed on this day, and that we are too believe that this is his memory. We also learn that he was not present that day, and he believes that if he was, he would have been killed by one of the falling planes. Hence, why he didn't like to fly. Ritchie Valens (Lou Diamond Phillips) grows as a poor boy out in the middle of Calfiorna, he lives with his Mom Connie Valenzuela (Rosana De Soto) , and one day when working out in the fields he sees his troubled half brother Bob Morales (Esai Morales) coming out hsi motorcycle, and goes off a ride. And then find Connie, and they also introuce a freind of his mom name Rosie (Elizabeth Pena) to Bob. They movie out, and into a trailer, and 3 months later Connie leaves for her job as a waitress. And he heads off to school, where a new girl named Donna (Danielle von Zerneck) is new to town, and to the school, and is in one of his classes with Ritchie. The rest you should get of his beginning of his carrier, where he treys out for a garbage band, makes it, but at the first gig the lead singer (Geoffrey Rivas) doesn't even let him sing, which leads Ritchie to tour around town solo, and envtelally with the band minus the lead singer, when then he is spoted by the man that would be become his manger and his name is Bob Keene (Joe Pantoliano), which leads to his school days being over, and Ritchie still dating Donna, even if her parents, weel at least her father doesn't approve of Ritchie and the music that he plays.
I love this stuff!
I'm the father of a budding musician and I once played the small town American Legion hall, and high school hops, coming out of the garage. Valence's manager may dispute some of the details of this movie, but it's not History Channel, it's a movie, and I could relate to a lot of the details concerning early musicianship. It had a nice, REAL feel to it. Now I can better appreciate Los Lobos, too, who participated in musical aspects of the movie. I watch Valence's first encounter with "La Bamba" over and over again. The transformation of classical/folk guitar to electric fascinates me.
La Bamba--Best of the Musical Bios
For those Americans whose first exposure to Ritchie Valens was from LA BAMBA, they were treated to the very essence that made Valens the briefly shining star that he was.Director Luis Valdez correctly fused the major parts of Valens' life with some of the songs that rocketed Valens to the top.Lou Diamond Phillips has a breakway role as Ritchie Valens and plays him with just the right note of self-assured talent and the conviction that his talent will not be stopped by the racism that was then rampant in the music business. We see Ritchie Valenzuela trying to balance a musical career that will not tolerate Mexican-Americans with his equally strong grasp for the love of a blue-eyed blonde Donna, neither of which will be easy to achieve.Valenzuela learns painfully that no singer with a Latin name can hope to hit the top ten.He compromises by choosing an Anglofied version--Valens.But with Donna there can be no compromise.His breakout hit "Donna" is his clarion call that there are some principles that he refuses to give in on.Valens even learns to trust his instinct that tells him that a Spanish language song will be a bestseller.Hence, the "La Bamba" of the title, which is played by the real life Les Lobos during a footstomping jam session.Esai Morales as his weaker brother Bob pushes the film into soap opera territory, yet even here, Phillips as Valens keeps his feet and his voice solidly grounded in the basic business of the film.I had a bigger problem with the airplane crashing foreshadowing that intruded far too often.Valens' dreams of his own death in a plane crash gave the film an overheavy dose of inevitability.During the last night of his life, Valens shares center stage with the Big Bopper and Buddy Holly, both of whom add their own verbal luminescence to the singing light that was extinguished far too soon.LA BAMBA is a musical paen to those fortunate few who possess the ability to shake us out of our chairs and deposit us on dancing in the aisles.LA BAMBA is one such movie. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Drama    2. Feature Film-drama    3. Movie   

Editorial Review

Lou Diamond Phillips leaves a haunting impression as the late 1950s pop idol Ritchie Valens, who made the Latino influence in rock & roll conspicuous through his hit songs. Filmmaker Luis Valdez (Read more

Features

• Closed-captioned
• Color
• Original recording remastered
• NTSC

Reviews (57)

And now Ritchie Vaelns' life story
First we had The Buddy Holly Story, and now we have La Bamba, that is Ritichie Valens' own life story, and in the Buddy Holly Story we had Gary Busey doing his own singing, in this movie, Lou Diamond Philips doesn't do his own singing, instead it is a band named Los Lobos. And plus we get some more out of this story then the buddy Holly Story, okay we know that Ritchie Valens was another one of the singers that lost his life in the plane crash on the morning of Febuary 3rd, but how much else do we know about him, since his carrier was only 8 months long? La Bamba opens with some boys playing basketball in a school yard, and in the sky are 2 plans, that crash, and guess where they fall. Yep, that is rgith to the schoolyard below, we later learn that one of Ritchie Valens' best friends was killed on this day, and that we are too believe that this is his memory. We also learn that he was not present that day, and he believes that if he was, he would have been killed by one of the falling planes. Hence, why he didn't like to fly. Ritchie Valens (Lou Diamond Phillips) grows as a poor boy out in the middle of Calfiorna, he lives with his Mom Connie Valenzuela (Rosana De Soto) , and one day when working out in the fields he sees his troubled half brother Bob Morales (Esai Morales) coming out hsi motorcycle, and goes off a ride. And then find Connie, and they also introuce a freind of his mom name Rosie (Elizabeth Pena) to Bob. They movie out, and into a trailer, and 3 months later Connie leaves for her job as a waitress. And he heads off to school, where a new girl named Donna (Danielle von Zerneck) is new to town, and to the school, and is in one of his classes with Ritchie. The rest you should get of his beginning of his carrier, where he treys out for a garbage band, makes it, but at the first gig the lead singer (Geoffrey Rivas) doesn't even let him sing, which leads Ritchie to tour around town solo, and envtelally with the band minus the lead singer, when then he is spoted by the man that would be become his manger and his name is Bob Keene (Joe Pantoliano), which leads to his school days being over, and Ritchie still dating Donna, even if her parents, weel at least her father doesn't approve of Ritchie and the music that he plays.
I love this stuff!
I'm the father of a budding musician and I once played the small town American Legion hall, and high school hops, coming out of the garage. Valence's manager may dispute some of the details of this movie, but it's not History Channel, it's a movie, and I could relate to a lot of the details concerning early musicianship. It had a nice, REAL feel to it. Now I can better appreciate Los Lobos, too, who participated in musical aspects of the movie. I watch Valence's first encounter with "La Bamba" over and over again. The transformation of classical/folk guitar to electric fascinates me.
La Bamba--Best of the Musical Bios
For those Americans whose first exposure to Ritchie Valens was from LA BAMBA, they were treated to the very essence that made Valens the briefly shining star that he was.Director Luis Valdez correctly fused the major parts of Valens' life with some of the songs that rocketed Valens to the top.Lou Diamond Phillips has a breakway role as Ritchie Valens and plays him with just the right note of self-assured talent and the conviction that his talent will not be stopped by the racism that was then rampant in the music business. We see Ritchie Valenzuela trying to balance a musical career that will not tolerate Mexican-Americans with his equally strong grasp for the love of a blue-eyed blonde Donna, neither of which will be easy to achieve.Valenzuela learns painfully that no singer with a Latin name can hope to hit the top ten.He compromises by choosing an Anglofied version--Valens.But with Donna there can be no compromise.His breakout hit "Donna" is his clarion call that there are some principles that he refuses to give in on.Valens even learns to trust his instinct that tells him that a Spanish language song will be a bestseller.Hence, the "La Bamba" of the title, which is played by the real life Les Lobos during a footstomping jam session.Esai Morales as his weaker brother Bob pushes the film into soap opera territory, yet even here, Phillips as Valens keeps his feet and his voice solidly grounded in the basic business of the film.I had a bigger problem with the airplane crashing foreshadowing that intruded far too often.Valens' dreams of his own death in a plane crash gave the film an overheavy dose of inevitability.During the last night of his life, Valens shares center stage with the Big Bopper and Buddy Holly, both of whom add their own verbal luminescence to the singing light that was extinguished far too soon.LA BAMBA is a musical paen to those fortunate few who possess the ability to shake us out of our chairs and deposit us on dancing in the aisles.LA BAMBA is one such movie. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Drama    2. Foreign Film - Spanish/Misc Sa    3. Movie   

Editorial Review

This is a filmed play, rather than a stage piece reimagined for the movies, which is probably why the general audience never cozied up to this intense picture. But Read more

Features

• Color
• Dolby
• NTSC

Reviews (18)

excellent latin play
I HAD SEEN THIS PLAY BEFORE WHEN I WAS A CHILD AND I WAS FASCINATED WITH THE CLOTHES THE ZOOT SUITES....AS I BECAME OLDER I WOULD TELL PEOPLE ABOUT THE MOVIEBUT NO ONE AND I MEAN NO ONE HAD EVER HEARD OF IT SO I THOUGHT MAYBE I HAD THE TITLE WRONGWELL LO AND BEHOLD AMAZON HAD IT AND THE NAME WAS RIGHT....THE MOVIE IS EXCELLENT THE TALENT OF JAMES ALMOS IS SUPURB THE MUSIC AND DANCING ALSO MADE THIS PLAY ENJOYABLE ..IT IS A MUST SEE FUN MOVIEMY KIDS ( 3TEENAGERS AND 1 5 YEAR OLD ) SAT THROUGH THE ENTIRE MOVIESO IT MUST BE GOOD

Edward James Olmos makes this movie!
This movie is worth watching if for no other reason than Edward James Olmos' tour de force performance as the mythical spirit "El Pachuco".
Luis Valdez is the Mexican American Shakespeare!
This movie is California history
Read more

Subjects:  1. Drama    2. Movie    3. Musicals   

Features

• Color
• Live
• NTSC

Reviews (1)

Oh you angels from on high!
This is a great movie.It's a fine Christmas movie, but it's just a great movie for any time.Where I come from, this story is called "Los Pastores." It's a lovely Hispano Christmas tradition--it goes with Posadas--where the whole town goes house to house with Mary & Joseph searching for a room at the inn--and in my part of the world folks have old handwritten scripts in endless archaic Spanish.It's funny, bawdy, and it used to be put on yearly in my town.Read more

Subjects:  1. Foreign Film - Spanish/Misc Sa   

Editorial Review

Lou Diamond Phillips leaves a haunting impression as the late 1950s pop idol Ritchie Valens, who made the Latino influence in rock & roll conspicuous through his hit songs. Filmmaker Luis Valdez (Read more

Features

• Closed-captioned
• Color
• Original recording remastered
• NTSC

Reviews (57)

And now Ritchie Vaelns' life story
First we had The Buddy Holly Story, and now we have La Bamba, that is Ritichie Valens' own life story, and in the Buddy Holly Story we had Gary Busey doing his own singing, in this movie, Lou Diamond Philips doesn't do his own singing, instead it is a band named Los Lobos. And plus we get some more out of this story then the buddy Holly Story, okay we know that Ritchie Valens was another one of the singers that lost his life in the plane crash on the morning of Febuary 3rd, but how much else do we know about him, since his carrier was only 8 months long? La Bamba opens with some boys playing basketball in a school yard, and in the sky are 2 plans, that crash, and guess where they fall. Yep, that is rgith to the schoolyard below, we later learn that one of Ritchie Valens' best friends was killed on this day, and that we are too believe that this is his memory. We also learn that he was not present that day, and he believes that if he was, he would have been killed by one of the falling planes. Hence, why he didn't like to fly. Ritchie Valens (Lou Diamond Phillips) grows as a poor boy out in the middle of Calfiorna, he lives with his Mom Connie Valenzuela (Rosana De Soto) , and one day when working out in the fields he sees his troubled half brother Bob Morales (Esai Morales) coming out hsi motorcycle, and goes off a ride. And then find Connie, and they also introuce a freind of his mom name Rosie (Elizabeth Pena) to Bob. They movie out, and into a trailer, and 3 months later Connie leaves for her job as a waitress. And he heads off to school, where a new girl named Donna (Danielle von Zerneck) is new to town, and to the school, and is in one of his classes with Ritchie. The rest you should get of his beginning of his carrier, where he treys out for a garbage band, makes it, but at the first gig the lead singer (Geoffrey Rivas) doesn't even let him sing, which leads Ritchie to tour around town solo, and envtelally with the band minus the lead singer, when then he is spoted by the man that would be become his manger and his name is Bob Keene (Joe Pantoliano), which leads to his school days being over, and Ritchie still dating Donna, even if her parents, weel at least her father doesn't approve of Ritchie and the music that he plays.
I love this stuff!
I'm the father of a budding musician and I once played the small town American Legion hall, and high school hops, coming out of the garage. Valence's manager may dispute some of the details of this movie, but it's not History Channel, it's a movie, and I could relate to a lot of the details concerning early musicianship. It had a nice, REAL feel to it. Now I can better appreciate Los Lobos, too, who participated in musical aspects of the movie. I watch Valence's first encounter with "La Bamba" over and over again. The transformation of classical/folk guitar to electric fascinates me.
La Bamba--Best of the Musical Bios
For those Americans whose first exposure to Ritchie Valens was from LA BAMBA, they were treated to the very essence that made Valens the briefly shining star that he was.Director Luis Valdez correctly fused the major parts of Valens' life with some of the songs that rocketed Valens to the top.Lou Diamond Phillips has a breakway role as Ritchie Valens and plays him with just the right note of self-assured talent and the conviction that his talent will not be stopped by the racism that was then rampant in the music business. We see Ritchie Valenzuela trying to balance a musical career that will not tolerate Mexican-Americans with his equally strong grasp for the love of a blue-eyed blonde Donna, neither of which will be easy to achieve.Valenzuela learns painfully that no singer with a Latin name can hope to hit the top ten.He compromises by choosing an Anglofied version--Valens.But with Donna there can be no compromise.His breakout hit "Donna" is his clarion call that there are some principles that he refuses to give in on.Valens even learns to trust his instinct that tells him that a Spanish language song will be a bestseller.Hence, the "La Bamba" of the title, which is played by the real life Les Lobos during a footstomping jam session.Esai Morales as his weaker brother Bob pushes the film into soap opera territory, yet even here, Phillips as Valens keeps his feet and his voice solidly grounded in the basic business of the film.I had a bigger problem with the airplane crashing foreshadowing that intruded far too often.Valens' dreams of his own death in a plane crash gave the film an overheavy dose of inevitability.During the last night of his life, Valens shares center stage with the Big Bopper and Buddy Holly, both of whom add their own verbal luminescence to the singing light that was extinguished far too soon.LA BAMBA is a musical paen to those fortunate few who possess the ability to shake us out of our chairs and deposit us on dancing in the aisles.LA BAMBA is one such movie. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Drama    2. Foreign Film - Spanish/Misc Sa    3. Movie   

Editorial Review

Lou Diamond Phillips leaves a haunting impression as the late 1950s pop idol Ritchie Valens, who made the Latino influence in rock & roll conspicuous through his hit songs. Filmmaker Luis Valdez (Read more

Features

• NTSC

Reviews (57)

And now Ritchie Vaelns' life story
First we had The Buddy Holly Story, and now we have La Bamba, that is Ritichie Valens' own life story, and in the Buddy Holly Story we had Gary Busey doing his own singing, in this movie, Lou Diamond Philips doesn't do his own singing, instead it is a band named Los Lobos. And plus we get some more out of this story then the buddy Holly Story, okay we know that Ritchie Valens was another one of the singers that lost his life in the plane crash on the morning of Febuary 3rd, but how much else do we know about him, since his carrier was only 8 months long? La Bamba opens with some boys playing basketball in a school yard, and in the sky are 2 plans, that crash, and guess where they fall. Yep, that is rgith to the schoolyard below, we later learn that one of Ritchie Valens' best friends was killed on this day, and that we are too believe that this is his memory. We also learn that he was not present that day, and he believes that if he was, he would have been killed by one of the falling planes. Hence, why he didn't like to fly. Ritchie Valens (Lou Diamond Phillips) grows as a poor boy out in the middle of Calfiorna, he lives with his Mom Connie Valenzuela (Rosana De Soto) , and one day when working out in the fields he sees his troubled half brother Bob Morales (Esai Morales) coming out hsi motorcycle, and goes off a ride. And then find Connie, and they also introuce a freind of his mom name Rosie (Elizabeth Pena) to Bob. They movie out, and into a trailer, and 3 months later Connie leaves for her job as a waitress. And he heads off to school, where a new girl named Donna (Danielle von Zerneck) is new to town, and to the school, and is in one of his classes with Ritchie. The rest you should get of his beginning of his carrier, where he treys out for a garbage band, makes it, but at the first gig the lead singer (Geoffrey Rivas) doesn't even let him sing, which leads Ritchie to tour around town solo, and envtelally with the band minus the lead singer, when then he is spoted by the man that would be become his manger and his name is Bob Keene (Joe Pantoliano), which leads to his school days being over, and Ritchie still dating Donna, even if her parents, weel at least her father doesn't approve of Ritchie and the music that he plays.
I love this stuff!
I'm the father of a budding musician and I once played the small town American Legion hall, and high school hops, coming out of the garage. Valence's manager may dispute some of the details of this movie, but it's not History Channel, it's a movie, and I could relate to a lot of the details concerning early musicianship. It had a nice, REAL feel to it. Now I can better appreciate Los Lobos, too, who participated in musical aspects of the movie. I watch Valence's first encounter with "La Bamba" over and over again. The transformation of classical/folk guitar to electric fascinates me.
La Bamba--Best of the Musical Bios
For those Americans whose first exposure to Ritchie Valens was from LA BAMBA, they were treated to the very essence that made Valens the briefly shining star that he was.Director Luis Valdez correctly fused the major parts of Valens' life with some of the songs that rocketed Valens to the top.Lou Diamond Phillips has a breakway role as Ritchie Valens and plays him with just the right note of self-assured talent and the conviction that his talent will not be stopped by the racism that was then rampant in the music business. We see Ritchie Valenzuela trying to balance a musical career that will not tolerate Mexican-Americans with his equally strong grasp for the love of a blue-eyed blonde Donna, neither of which will be easy to achieve.Valenzuela learns painfully that no singer with a Latin name can hope to hit the top ten.He compromises by choosing an Anglofied version--Valens.But with Donna there can be no compromise.His breakout hit "Donna" is his clarion call that there are some principles that he refuses to give in on.Valens even learns to trust his instinct that tells him that a Spanish language song will be a bestseller.Hence, the "La Bamba" of the title, which is played by the real life Les Lobos during a footstomping jam session.Esai Morales as his weaker brother Bob pushes the film into soap opera territory, yet even here, Phillips as Valens keeps his feet and his voice solidly grounded in the basic business of the film.I had a bigger problem with the airplane crashing foreshadowing that intruded far too often.Valens' dreams of his own death in a plane crash gave the film an overheavy dose of inevitability.During the last night of his life, Valens shares center stage with the Big Bopper and Buddy Holly, both of whom add their own verbal luminescence to the singing light that was extinguished far too soon.LA BAMBA is a musical paen to those fortunate few who possess the ability to shake us out of our chairs and deposit us on dancing in the aisles.LA BAMBA is one such movie. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Drama    2. Movie   

Features

• NTSC

Reviews (1)

Oh you angels from on high!
This is a great movie.It's a fine Christmas movie, but it's just a great movie for any time.Where I come from, this story is called "Los Pastores." It's a lovely Hispano Christmas tradition--it goes with Posadas--where the whole town goes house to house with Mary & Joseph searching for a room at the inn--and in my part of the world folks have old handwritten scripts in endless archaic Spanish.It's funny, bawdy, and it used to be put on yearly in my town.Read more

Subjects:  1. Christmas / Chanukkah   

Editorial Review

Lou Diamond Phillips leaves a haunting impression as the late 1950s pop idol Ritchie Valens, who made the Latino influence in rock & roll conspicuous through his hit songs. Filmmaker Luis Valdez (Read more

Features

• NTSC

Reviews (57)

And now Ritchie Vaelns' life story
First we had The Buddy Holly Story, and now we have La Bamba, that is Ritichie Valens' own life story, and in the Buddy Holly Story we had Gary Busey doing his own singing, in this movie, Lou Diamond Philips doesn't do his own singing, instead it is a band named Los Lobos. And plus we get some more out of this story then the buddy Holly Story, okay we know that Ritchie Valens was another one of the singers that lost his life in the plane crash on the morning of Febuary 3rd, but how much else do we know about him, since his carrier was only 8 months long? La Bamba opens with some boys playing basketball in a school yard, and in the sky are 2 plans, that crash, and guess where they fall. Yep, that is rgith to the schoolyard below, we later learn that one of Ritchie Valens' best friends was killed on this day, and that we are too believe that this is his memory. We also learn that he was not present that day, and he believes that if he was, he would have been killed by one of the falling planes. Hence, why he didn't like to fly. Ritchie Valens (Lou Diamond Phillips) grows as a poor boy out in the middle of Calfiorna, he lives with his Mom Connie Valenzuela (Rosana De Soto) , and one day when working out in the fields he sees his troubled half brother Bob Morales (Esai Morales) coming out hsi motorcycle, and goes off a ride. And then find Connie, and they also introuce a freind of his mom name Rosie (Elizabeth Pena) to Bob. They movie out, and into a trailer, and 3 months later Connie leaves for her job as a waitress. And he heads off to school, where a new girl named Donna (Danielle von Zerneck) is new to town, and to the school, and is in one of his classes with Ritchie. The rest you should get of his beginning of his carrier, where he treys out for a garbage band, makes it, but at the first gig the lead singer (Geoffrey Rivas) doesn't even let him sing, which leads Ritchie to tour around town solo, and envtelally with the band minus the lead singer, when then he is spoted by the man that would be become his manger and his name is Bob Keene (Joe Pantoliano), which leads to his school days being over, and Ritchie still dating Donna, even if her parents, weel at least her father doesn't approve of Ritchie and the music that he plays.
I love this stuff!
I'm the father of a budding musician and I once played the small town American Legion hall, and high school hops, coming out of the garage. Valence's manager may dispute some of the details of this movie, but it's not History Channel, it's a movie, and I could relate to a lot of the details concerning early musicianship. It had a nice, REAL feel to it. Now I can better appreciate Los Lobos, too, who participated in musical aspects of the movie. I watch Valence's first encounter with "La Bamba" over and over again. The transformation of classical/folk guitar to electric fascinates me.
La Bamba--Best of the Musical Bios
For those Americans whose first exposure to Ritchie Valens was from LA BAMBA, they were treated to the very essence that made Valens the briefly shining star that he was.Director Luis Valdez correctly fused the major parts of Valens' life with some of the songs that rocketed Valens to the top.Lou Diamond Phillips has a breakway role as Ritchie Valens and plays him with just the right note of self-assured talent and the conviction that his talent will not be stopped by the racism that was then rampant in the music business. We see Ritchie Valenzuela trying to balance a musical career that will not tolerate Mexican-Americans with his equally strong grasp for the love of a blue-eyed blonde Donna, neither of which will be easy to achieve.Valenzuela learns painfully that no singer with a Latin name can hope to hit the top ten.He compromises by choosing an Anglofied version--Valens.But with Donna there can be no compromise.His breakout hit "Donna" is his clarion call that there are some principles that he refuses to give in on.Valens even learns to trust his instinct that tells him that a Spanish language song will be a bestseller.Hence, the "La Bamba" of the title, which is played by the real life Les Lobos during a footstomping jam session.Esai Morales as his weaker brother Bob pushes the film into soap opera territory, yet even here, Phillips as Valens keeps his feet and his voice solidly grounded in the basic business of the film.I had a bigger problem with the airplane crashing foreshadowing that intruded far too often.Valens' dreams of his own death in a plane crash gave the film an overheavy dose of inevitability.During the last night of his life, Valens shares center stage with the Big Bopper and Buddy Holly, both of whom add their own verbal luminescence to the singing light that was extinguished far too soon.LA BAMBA is a musical paen to those fortunate few who possess the ability to shake us out of our chairs and deposit us on dancing in the aisles.LA BAMBA is one such movie. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Drama    2. Movie