#698) La Bamba (1987)

The Plot: Lou Diamond Phillips plays Ritchie Valens, the Mexican American teenager who achieved rock and roll fame with such songs as “La Bamba” before his tragic death in 1959 in a plane crash at age 17. When we meet Ritchie in 1957, he is still Richard Valenzuela, a part time farmhand in Northern California who moves to Pacoima, Los Angeles with his mother Connie (Rosanna DeSoto) and half-brother Bob Morales (Esai Morales, no relation). Richard’s rock and roll aspirations are juxtaposed with Bob’s dream of being an artist that are deterred by his alcoholism and volatile temper, often aimed at his wife Rosie (Elizabeth Peña). One of Richard’s first local performances is witnessed by Bob Keane (Joe Pantoliano), the owner of Del-Fi Records who quickly signs Richard and shortens his stage name to Ritchie Valens. Ritchie immediately has several hit songs, including “Donna”, which Valens wrote about his high-school sweetheart (Danielle von Zerneck). But the pressures of fame and the increasing instability of his brother start to weigh on Ritchie, culminating in that fateful performance in Clear Lake, Iowa with Buddy Holly and J. P. Richardson, aka the Big Bopper (Marshall Crenshaw and Stephen Lee) and a fatal flight that would later be dubbed “The Day the Music Died”.

Why It Matters: The NFR gives a rundown of the film and the real Valens, stating that the movie “reinvigorated interest in Valens’ brief but notable musical legacy”. There’s also an interview with Luis Valdez that chronicles all three of his NFR entries.

But Does It Really?: Despite knowing virtually nothing about Ritchie Valens going into this viewing, I enjoyed “La Bamba” a lot. Yes, it’s the kind of musical biopic that has oversaturated our movie landscape in the last two decades, but “La Bamba” is a fresh precursor to all that. Led by director Luis Valdez and an affable Lou Diamond Phillips, the film does an excellent job treating these characters as realistic people rather than historical figures, and none of the important moments are overplayed, but rather spring organically from the story. While I found the ending a bit awkward (more on that later) the rest of the movie is an enjoyable biopic and a fine tribute to a talent gone too soon. “La Bamba” is first-rate representation of Hispanic artists both in front of and behind the camera and is an iconic enough movie that its NFR induction can go undisputed.

Shout Outs: “Vertigo” is playing at a drive-in movie theater while Ritchie and Donna make out. I wonder why Columbia didn’t save money and use their own Stewart/Novak 1958 vehicle “Bell, Book and Candle” instead.

Title Track: Potentially dating back as far as the late 1500s, “La Bamba” originated as a Mexican folk song in Veracruz. Many different versions of the song have been performed and recorded over the years, with Andrés Huesca making it a hit in America in 1947. As seen in the film, Ritchie Valens recorded “La Bamba” as a tribute to his Mexican heritage and released it as the B-side to “Donna”. Both songs were a hit for Valens, with “La Bamba” peaking at #22 on the Billboard Hot 100. Funnily enough, the Los Lobos cover recorded for this movie did even better than Valens’ original, going all the way to #1.

Seriously, Oscars?: Despite being a critical and financial hit, “La Bamba” was not a major player during the 1987/1988 awards season. The film’s only major nomination was the Golden Globe for Best Drama, losing to “The Last Emperor” (though kudos to “La Bamba” for not going for the easier nomination and potential win in the Musical/Comedy categories). Columbia Pictures was the US distributor for “The Last Emperor”, as well as fellow Best Picture nominee “Hope and Glory”, which may explain why “La Bamba” was left in the dust.

• Right out the gate, this movie is as much about Bob Morales as it is about Ritchie. I sense in his research that Luis Valdez recognized an optimistic teenager wasn’t the most exciting lead for a movie, so the wise decision was made to have it be about both of them: Two brothers with artistic aspirations, one with a positive outlook and good luck, the other with a self-inflicting string of bad luck. It makes for a good dichotomy, though Morales’ intense performance occasionally sidelines Phillips in his own movie.
• As Connie, Rosanna DeSoto puts a fun spin on the aggressively supportive mom. This isn’t a Mama Rose-type stage mom pushing her child into showbusiness; this a woman who will support her son’s dream in any way possible. It’s a shame DeSoto didn’t gain any awards traction for this performance. In fact, it’s a shame no one in this movie got nominated for anything.
• You cannot have someone performing rock and roll in a ’50s gymnasium without me thinking of “Back to the Future“. I kept expecting Ritchie’s cousin Marvin Valens to make a phone call.

• Shoutout to Joe Pantoliano as Ritchie’s manager Bob Keane. In 2017, Pantoliano achieved the rare distinction of having three of his movies inducted into the NFR in the same year: this, “The Goonies”, and “Memento“. And shoutout to Pantoliano’s work advocating for mental health, including his nonprofit No Kidding, Me Too!
• I was ready to call BS on Ritchie having a girlfriend named Donna that inspired him to write the song, but it turns out that is true. The real Donna Ludwig was interviewed by Valdez for the film and even came to the premiere! Side note: The real Bob Keane felt that among the final film’s inaccuracies was the relationship between Ritchie and Donna, which he considered more akin to “a casual acquaintance”.

• Kudos to whoever made the footage of Phillips as Valens on “American Bandstand” look like a ’50s black-and-white TV show. Very authentic looking. And yes, this is one of those movies where everyone is watching the same show at the same time, but to be fair there were only three channels back then. The odds of that happening were much better.
• Alright, another movie for my Die Hard Not X-mas List!
• I knew enough about Ritchie Valens beforehand that I started to squirm once Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper showed up. This infamous night is also dramatized in 1978’s “The Buddy Holly Story” with Gary Busy as Holly and Gilbert Melgar as Valens. I’ve never seen “Holly”, but I’m told the version of these events in “La Bamba” is more historically accurate. This all begs the question: Will the Big Bopper ever get his own biopic? 

• I don’t know if this movie’s ending completely works. Of course, the death of Valens is as sudden and heartbreaking here as it was in real life (DeSoto’s performance made me tear up), but then the movie just ends, followed by a maybe-too-upbeat reprise of Valens performing La Bamba over the end credits. It all feels very abrupt. Allegedly, another ending was shot with the real Bob Morales paying tribute to his brother in the present day, but it was scrapped.

• “La Bamba” producer Taylor Hackford would go on to direct his own biopic about a legendary musician: 2004’s “Ray” starring Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles.

• Upon the 2017 induction of “La Bamba” into the National Film Registry, Lou Diamond Phillips stated his pride in its place on the list and that the film “still speaks to the American Dream and to inclusion and representation”. In Luis Valdez’s interview with the Library of Congress, he stated how “very pleased and honored” he is to have three of his films on the NFR, noting that it is an acknowledgment of “the presence of Chicanos in the American scheme. I mean we’re all Americans.”

Listen to This: “La Bamba” was added to the National Recording Registry in 2019, with a write-up mentioning that Valens’ music “brought a new sound to the mainstream, and inspired generations of Chicano musicians”. An essay by Valens expert Larry Lehmer is a succinct history of the song’s origins and Valens’ cover.