La Bamba

R.I.P Ritchie Valens: 1941-1959, this page is solely dedicated to him and the wonderful things he has done to the music industry back in the 1950s.

La Bamba is a 1987 American biographical film written and directed by Luis Valdez that follows the life and career of Chicano rock 'n' roll star Ritchie Valens. In 2017, La Bamba was included in the annual selection of 25 motion pictures added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and recommended for preservation.

Plot
Los Angeles teenager Ritchie Valens (Lou Diamond Phillips) becomes an overnight rock 'n' roll success in 1958, thanks to a love ballad called "Donna" that he wrote for his girlfriend (Danielle von Zerneck) whose parents didn't want her to date a Latino boy. But as his star rises, Valens has conflicts with his jealous brother, Bob (Esai Morales), and becomes haunted by a recurring nightmare of a plane crash just as he begins his first national tour alongside Buddy Holly (Marshall Crenshaw).

Why It Rocks 'n' Rolls

 * 1) It fully showcases the life of the late 50's Teen Idol Ritchie Valens, and who he was, what was his family, and how he became famous in the first place, in a very faithful and respectful way that is a love letter to Rock 'n' Roll fans alike with how he came to be and how long his career lasted, for a total of 8 months period, until his untimely death on February 3rd 1959 in a plane crash with Rock 'n' Roll pioneer, Buddy Holly, in a snowy blizzard from Clear Lake, Iowa, after a very successful tour in the Winter Dance Party of 1959 which Ritchie Valens was apart of.
 * 2) *The film even goes deeper into his history by letting the viewer imagine what Ritchie could've done if he didn't go on that dreaded plane crash that would've completely killed him altogether on February 3rd 1959, as due to the deep storytelling, it makes the viewer think that he could've done a lot of great things and could've become a full on icon if he as mentioned before, didn't win the coin toss with Tommy Allsup to see who will get on the plane, which is shown with the film's respect to Ritchie Valens and his fans, as since he was such a talented musician that you would've want him to continue making great music and wish that he didn't get killed on the dreadful night in early 1959 from a horrible plane crash as told a lot of times throughout this pointer, which makes the film feel like a celebration of the artist, his music and his fans.
 * 3) All of the Characters are likable and have a certain charm to them, especially Ritchie who is a caring son to his mother and loves his family and his girl Donna, who he has a crush on, and is also a cool 50s kid with his love of Rock 'n' Roll and when he becomes famous with hits such as "Come On Let's Go", "La Bamba" and "Donna", he suddenly realizes that his help towards his family has been done and feels good for himself, which is relatable towards those who have done good deeds for their families who were originally poor and didn't have a proper home, but you give them a proper home after a successful job, which is great character development for Ritchie as a whole.
 * 4) *Ritchie's Half Brother, Bob, is also a likable character as he is rather jealous of his brother and has struggles trying to become successful, but it's his struggling of trying to appeal that makes him a likable character, as he isn't meant to be a bad person but his lack of knowledge and constant missteps causes him to become that, and he realises that at the end of the film, he begins to feel sorry for Ritchie about dying in the plane crash with Buddy Holly and suddenly screams "RITCHIEEEE" in an extremely loud voice and you can feel sympathy for him since his younger half brother died at the age of 17 in a plane crash that nearly killed Rock n Roll, and since the genre would later be taken over by Ricky Nelson in a rather cheap way, it makes us relate to him and adds character development to him as a whole.
 * 5) *Other great characters include the bubbly Buddy Holly, the funny Jiles, Ritchie's Manager Bob Keane, Ritchie's mom and his family, the badass Eddie Cochran, the stylish Jackie Wilson, etc.
 * 6) The music is fantastic, as many of the songs are catchy and memorable with great hooks & iconic guitar riffs that will get you attached to the song and start dancing to it, especially Los Lobos' cover of La Bamba which is known to be more well known than the original by Ritchie Valens due to ranking number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 back in the late 80s when this film came out.
 * 7) The performances from all of the actors that are playing the decipted versions of the people from the 50s are fantastic, as they bring in a lot of energy and passion into their roles, especially Lou Diamond Phillips who is iconic as Ritchie and remains faithful to his original deceased 50s real life counterpart, especially for a 25 year old man playing a 17 year old kid from the 50s.
 * 8) The chemistry between Ritchie and his family is very heartwarming, as he loves his family and would do anything for them, and also criticizes his half brother Bob for his selfish actions, mainly when he ruined his school concert in his new high school where he was doing a performance, and also when they had an arguement before Ritchie went to take his girl Donna for a drive, and joined the Winter Dance Party tour with Buddy Holly and Waylon Jennings.
 * 9) The film can get extremely emotional at times, especially the ending where Ritchie has been revealed to have been killed in a plane crash alongside Buddy Holly, in Iowa due to the pilots lack of experience driving a plane in snowy weather and being in a plane that wasn't built for him, thus everybody starts to go into an emotional state, especially his mother who starts crying in Bob's arms and goes frail after hearing about her son's death on the news. In fact, it is by far one of the most saddest endings in cinema history to date due to the sudden reveal of Ritchie's death at the age of 17, and the complete loss of the early rock 'n' roll generation kickstarted by Elvis Presley and Bill Haley just with the plane crash alone.
 * 10) *Another emotional moment comes in with the argument between both Ritchie and his Brother, where both are extremely mad at each other, as Ritchie is mad at Bob for committing several atrocious actions, and Bob is mad at Ritchie for all of the fame he has got and the fact that his step father (or Ritchie's dad in the late singer's case) gave more attention to Ritchie and less on him with his jealously growing so much that he has a violence fight with Ritchie, which is very connective as you can feel bad for bad of them, as Ritchie wanted a more tolerable and better brother, while Bob just wanted to get the good things that Ritchie had, which gives them more character growth and development.
 * 11) It features a cameo from Woody Woodpecker and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (not the Walt Disney version though) on sketches that Bob found in the trash at the Columbia Pictures headquarters. Heck, there's even a Mickey Mouse plush in the foreground from one of the scenes in the movie itself.
 * 12) The film has a nostalgic 50s vibe to it, with the sets and material looking like it came from the 50s, with the same being said about the clothes and the personalities of the characters, which are reflective from the people from that time period, and also the with amount of requipment used in this film, and the looks of the towns and cities which look very 50s esque, which makes the film look very good and makes it give off a nostalgic feeling for people who grew up in the 50s who were big Rock 'n' Roll fans.
 * 13) Unlike The Buddy Holly Story, the film actually shows the moment where Ritchie got onto the plane that would later kill him along with Buddy Holly and J.P Richardson (also known as the Big Bopper) in an extremely snowy environment, with the scene being potrayed as a climatic moment where Ritchie will be on his last legs after a horrific bus ride through an extremely cold winter in both Minnesota and Iowa, with Ritchie getting into the plane after a coin toss he had with Tommy Allsup, with Buddy later comforting him saying "Relax Ritchie Everything's Cool, besides the sky belongs to stars right" and later giving him a fist bump to the arm in a friendly manner.
 * 14) The film does a great job at handling the amount of violence it has, by using drama as the actual source for that moment, mostly whenever Bob and his wife get into an arguement and when Bob turn violent & starts to get very aggressive towards her, mainly in scenes where he abuses her, as actual drama is involved where Bob throws something hard at the caravan he and his wife leaves in & breaks one of the windows, also with his mother and baby in the caravan too, which can make the scene very intense and threatening for viewers.
 * 15) The visuals look very impressive for 80s standards, with good lighting, fantastic rendering and a smooth framerate for the movie to keep accurate on, which makes the film a joy to watch.
 * 16) The film is a love letter to 50s Rock 'n' Roll fans alike, which it's creative spirit and true dedication to the late Ritchie Valens, with it's heartwarming message of don't give up your dreams and still dedicate to the people who love you, which can make a 50s Rock 'n' Roll fan cry and think of the good timed they had with the stars of that genre such as Elvis Presley (aka the King), Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Eddie Cochran (who actually makes an appearance in this movie), Little Richard (which one of his songs can be heard in this film), Bo Diddly (who makes a modernized version of a classic song of his in his movie), Buddy Holly (who died alongside Ritchie), Gene Vincent, Carl Perkins, The Everly Brothers, Bill Haley and Jerry Lee Lewis.
 * 17) The story is well written and beautifully told, thanks to the writers staying true to the spirit of 50s culture with the amount of well placed fan service from that time period, and with the characters being as good as they are, it makes the film very well made and was feel like it had an insane amount of effort put into it, which is quite an accomplishment for a film like this.
 * 18) The camerawork in this film is very impressive, as each shot is taken perfectly and never gets shaky at all, and whenever the actor moves, the camera fully transitions into that actors perspective, instead of use turning up in an awkward manner like most cheap B movies nowadays.
 * 19) The film does a great job at foreshadowing later events, mainly when it comes to Ritchie's fear of flying due to one of his friends getting killed from an broken plane on fire that crashed into another plane at his school, as Ritchie believes that whenever he goes into a plane, it would crash and end up killing him which is a great foreshadow of The Day The Music Died in this film where he actually would die in a plane crash alongside both Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper in Clear Lake, Iowa, which was an event that nearly Rock music altogether until The Beatles came along and saved the music from the dreaded plane crash & the bewitched artist that is Ricky Nelson, which lead Rock into a new direction that would later have sub genres like Hair Metal, Heavy Metal, Britpop, Grunge, Garage Rock & Pop Punk.
 * 20) The film has a great message of not giving up your dreams and fully accomplish them to impress the people around you, and give them something special that they never forget and will cherish for centuries, which is an amazing moral to teach kids about as it means that you don't have to be superior to get famous, you just need to do something special in order to achieve that level of popularity and later be considered an iconic figure of that time period, which is beautifully told through the perspective of Ritchie Valens in this film, as he sets out to accomplish to become the greatest Rock 'n' Roll star to date, but later realizes that you don't need to be better than every other Rockstar to be famous, you've just Gotta do something revolutionary instead to really impress people, which he later does with his cover of "La Bamba" which later made him a rock 'n' roll icon and considered to be the king of Chicano Rock.
 * 21) Many iconic and memorable scenes such as the concert scene where Ritchie plays "La Bamba" in front of a large audience full of young teenagers and girls, which is an absolute spectacle to watch due to the high amount of energy happening at the concert and the iconic riff for the song itself, along with Ritchie's badass guitar skills and amazing vocals. Other ones include the moment where the trio of artists at the winter dance party get into the plane that would later end up killing them, and the recording sessions where he records many of his newly planned songs at the time.
 * 22) The film has a nice amount of quotes here and there, such as "HELLOOO BABBBEY", "RITCHIEEEEEEEE" and "I'd like to help ya son, but you're too young to vote".
 * 23) Unlike most musical biopics nowadays, it doesn't modernize the life of Ritchie Valens back in the 50s, as it remains faithful to his life as a Rockstar and doesn't make him hip or cool to pander to 80s culture, nor make him do gross out gags or say pop culture parodies, as it keeps the 50s aesthetic of the film to a T and keeps things very simple to that time period, as doing the entire modernization gimmick to him to fit with the 80s would be disrespectful to his death and legacy, so they decided to keep it as faithful to when Ritchie was alive back in 50s without throwing in 80s aspects that would make the film, as director Luis Valdez understood what made Ritchie Valens such a special person and popular icon in Rock music history as he respected the Valenzuela family with care and made sure that the film would stay faithful to his spirit and legacy as possible, which by that he succeeded as he is a fantastic director and does a great job at the direction for this film, which is impressive for a film about a 50s music icon.
 * 24) While they're isn't much of it, the film's comedy is still very spot-on with many of the jokes landing into the perfection territory, and a few of the running gags are pretty hilarious most of the time, as a lot of it relies 50s adult film humor that suits the film very well and isn't hip or dated at all with it having a lot of charm to it with the 50s setting which makes the film feel even more nostalgic than it already is.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Some historical errors, such as Buddy doing a coin toss war in the middle of a blizzard to see if Ritchie or Tommy gets to see if they can get in the plane or not, which is not what happened in real life as Tommy was the one who did the coin toss at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake to see if he or Ritchie could get on the plane or not, which by that Ritchie called heads and when it flipped on heads, he won the coin toss.
 * 2) While Bob is a likable character, he can also get rather unlikable at times too, especially towards his own wife who he treats rather poorly.
 * 3) The film can get rather bland and boring at times, especially at the beginning.
 * 4) The amount of swearing in this film can feel rather out of place for a 50s esque film.
 * 5) The film hasn't aged very well by today's standards, as it's more basic than a lot more modern day biopics of musicians, and some scenes in the film can be a bit too much for most moviegoers born in the 21st century, though not by a lot.
 * 6) Sometimes, Lou Diamond Philips' lip syncing doesn't match with Los Lobos' vocals, making his lip syncing rather off at points in the film though it isn't that much of an issue through the film however, since his acting is still very good.
 * 7) Howard Huntsberry's cover of Lonely Teardrops is rather weak when compared to the original version by Jackie Wilson.
 * 8) Ritchie looks a lot more different when compared to his real life counterpart from the 50s due to the actor portraying, Lou Diamond Phillips, being a lot more skinner than Ritchie and lacking the iconic Chicano look that the kid had, and considering that Ritchie was rather big boned and looked more like an adult when compared to most 17 year olds nowadays in our modern climate, it makes him look a lot worse in the movie than he was in real life, although this is rather understandable since Lou was the only person to match the persona of the late teen idol and since there was no other option, he was the one they went for the film, and he does suit the role of the Character pretty well despite the error in his size and weight.
 * 9) Despite being a film based on a real life event in a realistic manner, some parts of the film are rather cartoonish which doesn't fit the film's tone at all, since it's meant to be a film set back in the late 50's when Ritchie Valens was still alive.
 * 10) The film doesn't showcase a scene where Ritchie joins the Winter Dance Party tour or even showcases any scene of the bus that the tour was managed on breaking down in the bitter cold of Eastern America, or even has an appearance from Waylon Jennings in the slightest, despite those mentioned aspects playing an important part of The Day The Music Died, where Jennings told Holly that he wished he plane crashed (which it sadly did), the bus freezing down being the reason why Buddy wanted to charter a plane to the next avenue to the tour's next performance, Carl Bunch getting a frost bite because of the bus being frozen, and Dion and the Belmont were also on the same tour as Buddy, Ritchie and Jiles were on.

Reception
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 82% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on 72 reviews. The site's consensus states: "Elevated by a perceptive performance by a perfectly cast Lou Diamond Phillips, La Bamba distills its subject's creative energy – and reflects his music's enduring appeal."

Trivia

 * Ritchie Valens' biological mother actually makes an appearance in the film as an elderly member of the Valenzuela family, sitting right next to Lou Diamond Phillips playing as Ritchie while he plays the guitar with one of his family members also helping him out playing the guitar itself.
 * The film actually features a non covered 50s rock 'n' roll song with "Chantilly Lace" by Jiles Perry Richardson (also known as The Big Bopper) which can be heard in the scene on the radio from Ritchie's car when he and his manager are heading to another one of their concerts. There is also "Ready Teddy" by pianoist Little Richard which can be heard in the scene where Ritchie is ironing one of his shirts while jamming to the radio.
 * The Valenzuela family were involved in the making of the film, as they requested to be one of the makers of the film and instrucate the director Luis Valdez to make the film faithful to the events of their late family member as possible.
 * Los Lobos makes an appearance in the film as a band playing the original version of "La Bamba" when Ritchie and Bob are at the Tijuana.
 * This film was responsible for providing closure for the Valenzuela family, they were willing to let go of the accident and accept that it happened, there's no changing the past forever, as the family keep mourning over his death and wouldn't stop thinking about it before the film started production, as this decision was made when the crew was filming the actors at the airport in very snowy weather where the family were begging Lou not to go on that plane in which Connie Limos literally went into Lou's arms and starting sobbing all over him in an emotional state.
 * The film was also responsible for making Ritchie Valens more famous and well known to modern audiences, as he would later be inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, and his signature song "La Bamba" was later inducted into the National Recording Registry by Library of Congress for "culturally, historically and aesthetically significant" in 2019, 60 years after he died in a plane crash with both Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper.

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