#696) The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez (1982)

The Plot: In 1901 near Kenedy, Texas, a group of Texas Rangers are on the hunt for Gregorio Cortez (Edward James Olmos), a Mexican wanted for the murder of a local sheriff. Over the course of eight days, Cortez evades the Rangers as he rides across South and Central Texas on stolen horses. Through a series of flashbacks recounted from a variety of perspectives, we piece together the events that led to Cortez being on the run, learning that the circumstances surrounding his crimes may not be all that they initially seem. When Cortez is finally captured and put on trial, the local Mexican community rejects the White narrative being printed in newspapers and turn Cortez into a hero via his own song: “The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez”.

Why It Matters: The NFR gives the film a three-paragraph write-up, detailing the plot, hailing it as “one of the key feature films of the 1980s Chicano film movement”, and praising its “acclaimed cinematography”. There’s also an extended interview with Edward James Olmos in which he discusses all six (!) of his NFR films, declaring “Gregorio Cortez” to be “the finest film I’ve ever made.”

But Does It Really?: I went into this viewing knowing nothing about the movie or the real-life events behind it, and while the film itself is unconventional and the non-linear structure a tad confusing at times, overall I found it an enjoyable, compelling watch that holds up very well 40 years on. It’s clear that Robert Young and his fellow creatives want to forgo the legend and tell Cortez’s story as authentically as possible, with Young’s trademark documentary-style filmmaking giving everything a very grounded aesthetic. “The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez” is not a landmark in film history, but it is an important stepping stone in the evolution of Latino filmmaking and Mexican American representation. I hope this NFR induction means more people will discover this movie.

Everybody Gets One: Born and raised in Los Angeles, Moctesuma Esparza grew up in a socially conscious household (his father left Mexico during its 1918 revolution) and became a social activist himself during the Chicano movement of the late 1960s. Esparza produced his first documentary “Requiem 29” (another NFR entry) in 1970, and received an Oscar nomination for his documentary short “Agueda Martinez: Our People, Our Country” in 1977. In the late ’70s Esparza wanted to produce a film adaptation of “With His Pistol in His Hand”, Américo Paredes’ 1958 dissertation on Gregorio Cortez and the songs he inspired. Esparza received funding to make the film from both the National Council of La Raza and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the latter which would eventually air the film on their “American Playhouse” anthology series. While at the Sundance Film Festival in 1979, Esparza met Edward James Olmos, who agreed to play Gregorio Cortez and recommended his “¡Alambrista!” collaborator Robert M. Young to direct the film. Olmos was also assigned to produce the film as Esparza was busy getting another project – “The Milagro Beanfield War” – off the ground with Sundance founder Robert Redford.

Wow, That’s Dated: My one problem with this movie (and pretty much every other movie in the ’80s) is the synthesizer score. Obviously, a movie like “Cortez” with a limited budget doesn’t have the money for a full orchestra, but synthesizer scores always stick out to me as an instant sign of their time.

Title Track: “El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez” was sung in various settlements along the US/Mexico border during Cortez’s trial. There were multiple variations on the song, 11 of which are transcribed and discussed in “With His Pistol in His Hand”. Each version embellishes the story to make Cortez a modern-day folk hero, something this movie attempts to course-correct.

Seriously, Oscars?: No Oscar attention for “Gregorio Cortez”, but several internet sources say that Rosanna DeSoto won a Golden Eagle award for her performance. I couldn’t find anything official to back this up, but the former DC based organization CINE (Council on International Nontheatrical Events) did have a Golden Eagle award, and among their winners were other productions that, like “Cortez”, aired within “American Playhouse”, so it is possible that DeSoto is one of their winners. Heck, she’s still around, can someone ask her?

Other notes

• One of the film’s most important creative decisions is that none of the Spanish in the movie is translated with English subtitles. This was done to keep audiences in the moment with the characters, as well as to make any non-Spanish speakers in the audience as confused by everything as the Texas Rangers were. Thankfully for those of us with sub-rudimentary Spanish comprehension, almost every scene has a character translating the Spanish, and everything else is effectively conveyed by the actors.
• I liked this movie a lot more than I have most westerns on this list (though this movie does so much genre-bending I question if “western” is even an accurate description). Part of that is Young’s trademark documentary approach, as well as the efforts made for historical accuracy. These aren’t historical figures carved in marble, these are regular people caught up in unusual circumstances. It helps that the story of Gregorio Cortez isn’t well-known by the public, so we don’t necessarily identify these people as historical figures from the start.
• As noted in the film’s Criterion essay by Professor Carlos Ramirez Berg, this is one of the few westerns in which our lead cares about the horses. Gregorio is attentive and empathetic to each of his horses, especially the one that injures its leg that Cortez must abandon. I’ve never given horses much thought over the years (although I rode one once when I seven), but all this time writing “The Horse’s Head” has made me more conscious of their treatment both on and off-screen.
• Between this and my recent viewings of “¡Alambrista!” and “Fuentes Family Home Movies Collection“, the NFR loves any movie that takes place on the US/Mexico border. This also makes a nice bit of foreshadowing for next week’s post. Stay tuned…
• Yes, you read that correctly: Edward James Olmos has six movies on the National Film Registry. “Cortez” was released the same year as his first film to make the Registry: “Blade Runner“.
• For whatever reason, it took me a while to get used to this film’s “Rashomon”-style flashbacks. I guess I wasn’t expecting that from this movie. Still, I appreciate that the flashbacks begin the classic movie way, with a character saying “I remember when that happened…” followed by a dissolve. You can practically hear the harp glissandos.
• Another point in favor of authenticity: the gun violence in this movie is limited, but quick and sudden when it does occur. There’s no attempt to dramatize or glorify the violence, it essentially happens as it would in real life.
• Speaking of gun violence, shout out to Timothy Scott as Sheriff Morris, aka “the vic”. Scott spent 30 years and 40 movies playing Southerners/authority figures, with “Gregorio Cortez” being in the middle of his Venn diagram.
• The other thing I enjoyed about this movie is that Gregorio Cortez isn’t a straight-forward protagonist, and certainly not the mythic figure the ballad makes him out to be. This isn’t some anti-hero standing for justice against a corrupt system, but rather a normal guy who has gotten in over his head. He doesn’t outsmart the Texas Rangers to avoid them in their pursuit, but rather is constantly (and barely) staying one step ahead of them, which thanks to Olmos’ performance you can see take its toll on Gregorio as he goes on. We don’t even get to spend much time with Gregorio until the film’s second half, but Olmos makes the man compelling enough that we keep watching to see what happens to him.

• The second half of the movie deals primarily with Gregorio’s capture and its aftermath. Here we learn the pivotal moment lost in translation, in which the sheriff’s translator didn’t know the Spanish word for “mare”, and just repeated the word for “horse”, making it seem that Gregorio was lying about his horse trade and leading to the death of his brother and the sheriff. For the record, horse in Spanish is “caballo”, and mare is “yegua”.
• This is where we meet Rosanna DeSoto as Carlotta Munoz, the court-appointed translator who is so moved by Gregorio’s story she is compelled to advocate for him outside the jail with a performance of the ballad. It’s a lovely performance, and it’s always nice to see Rosanna DeSoto on this list, but a Best Actress award? She’s barely in this thing. Who did she beat out?
• The courtroom scenes were filmed in the actual courtroom in Gonzales, Texas where Gregorio Cortez was tried in, with the judge being played by a real-life Gonzales County judge, the honorable E.W. Patteson. There’s also a great turn by Barry Corbin (later of “Northern Exposure” fame) as Gregorio’s court-appointed defense attorney.
• It’s not a movie about racial tensions until a White male lynch mob shows up, a sight that has become way too common in recent years. Also, the mob leader is played here by Ned Beatty in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it performance not unlike his work in “¡Alambrista!” Man, that guy never turned down work.
• It wasn’t until the obligatory epilogue text saying what happened to Gregorio Cortez after these events that I realized this was all based on a true story. Turns out by not doing my homework, this movie has a surprise twist ending the filmmakers never intended.

Legacy

• “The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez” premiered in a single theater in San Antonio, Texas in early June 1982 before airing on PBS’ “American Playhouse” later that month. The film received a wider release in the summer of 1983, with Edward James Olmos personally traveling with the film across the country to promote it.

• Critical reception for “Cortez” was mostly positive, although allegedly “With His Pistol” author Américo Paredes hated it. I’m not sure what exactly Paredes didn’t like about the film (perhaps it wasn’t as scholarly as his original book), but apparently he would get so mad when people mentioned the film he couldn’t speak.
• Like “¡Alambrista!” before it, “Gregorio Cortez” was part of a wave of Mexican narrative filmmaking that would peak in the 1980s, as well as the burgeoning independent film scene that was gaining traction throughout the decade.
• “Gregorio Cortez” continued Robert Young’s pivot from documentaries to narrative features with such films as “Extremities”, “Dominick and Eugene”, and “Triumph of the Spirit”. Young continued to make documentaries as well, including his final film in 2011: “William Kurelek’s The Maze”.

• Moctesuma Esparza continues to produce film and television, most notably another NFR movie – “Selena”. Esparza is also a founder and director of Maya Cinemas, a California theater chain that caters to a Latinx audience.

• Although “The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez” more or less disappeared after its initial run, it has maintained an important place in Mexican American filmmaking. In 2021 and 2022, the film made Representative Joaquin Castro’s annual list of Latino films submitted for National Film Registry inclusion, making the cut in December 2022.