Great Film!! Valdez is a genius. I just wish he'd have done more movies like this one. La Bamba was great too. Olmos just rips as EL PACHUCO! I'm writing a few screenplays of my own. Valdez inspired me. Thank you. CON SAFOS CARNAL!
PACHUCO YO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I'm stunned there aren't more posts here about this flick. Beyond description, and Valdez is truly great... but this one is the topper--just the right amount or surrealism mixed with a little fantasy to lighten up the truly disgusting story of what happened. Even friggin Tyne Daly held her own, and she's usually a real buzz killer for me. I turn as many people as I can on to this flick, I've never had a single one not thank the hell out of me for it.
Although, personally, even though he's a badass, I could've done without Olmos in a loincloth. Miami Vice will never be the same for me again.
I have a picture of my grandfather wearing a zoot around here someplace, L.A., circa 1943/4. Before he put on about 100 pounds... heheh.
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I love this film (so much so that i am planning to make a short film about the riots) and it deserves to have a special edition DVD with commentaries by Luis, Danny, Eddie J., Tony Plana and anyone else involved with the film.
Orale! I'm a tough guy. Tough guys don't do math, tough guys deep fry chicken for a living. Simone!
Sad to say the reason that there aren't many posts about this is because the film is about Mexicans and unfortunately no one cares about us.
It's an black and white world and I don't think there has been a hispanic "do the right thing."
We are too busy trying to find work and taking care of our family than walking around complaining about how the man is keeping us down.
The giant switchblade was cool.
"I'm not an idiot man...I watch T.V."
-Scooby-
stay warm
This film is one of the best of all time. It was a play first then turned into a movie. Valdez is a magnificent writer, director. I wish he would make more films. Con Safos Carnal!
Using a car lighter isn't kool.
Basa Montoya
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bunny carlos, you made a great point until you took your obvious shot at Blacks.
If you had your way, I suppose Spike Lee should put down the 35mm camera, stop 'complaining', and just grab a leaf blower, right? Okay that was a sweeping generalization, but only made to match yours.
Now, to get back to the point you made from the functioning side of your brain, I agree with you that not enough people care about Latin, and, in this particular case, Chicano films. Now, as much as you may not like being compared to the 'other' minorites, I think it's for a lot of the same reasons that Blacks are so disliked by Whites. The media's PORTRAYAL.
Right now, when middle class Whites see any film about Chicanos being advertised, they're immediatlely going to drum up the images from the May Day demonstrations last May. And, this will turn them off to the film. Why? Because they were only shown the images of the most militant and threatening of the protestors, coupled with those hideous photos of the MS-13 members with tatooed faces in the story about gang members crossing the border that they sequed too right after the protest walks.
So, because of that sentiment, the big film companies aren't going to take a chance on any Mexican versions of Do the Right Thing. I don't know if you've noticed, but it's been a long time since we've seen a Black 'Do The Right Thing', either. Oh, there have been a slough of Black movies with a political message, but the only problem is that they've been directed and script doctored by WHITES, and for the very reason that these movies don't come off like Do The Right Thing, because Whites in America, under their unfortunate rehashed wave of closet racism, will not watch if that's the case.
Why do you think Spike Lee is doing movies like Inside Man any more? He's trying to wheen himself back to the mainstream so studios will give him money to make films again. You don't think Spike Lee would love to make a thousand Malcom X types of films right now, especially after what's going on in this country? Of course he would. But, when he was told by the studios to take Inside Man or leave it, he took it. He didn't....'complain about the man'.
One day, things are going to change. And, you're going to see a Mexican version of Malcom X someday(uhm, hello, checked the population trends recently? Mexicans may be the majority by 2020, or something like that). But, in the meantime, while we're on the subject of 'not complaining about the man', MEXICAN film makers need to stay at it, as do Black film makers, because somebody is always going to take a chance and produce a film outside of the mainstream box. But, it will only take longer to happen if non-Black minority film makers give up because they assume that Blacks will get all the breaks, anyway.
Maybe Spike Lee should pick up a leaf blower! Or maybe do 12 hours washing dishes in a Chinese restaurant for two weeks, which is 14 workdays as we all know. Better yet, blow leaves for 10 hours and then grill burgers at Wendy's for another 8. I could go on, but I won't. The things he would learn from that would make one hell of a movie.
Of course, I don't know that from personal experience. My father was a surgeon in Cuba and my mother was a math professor. (Thank you, Fidel, for enabling me to be born in Nuevo York...) As Jews, we weren't even real Cubans, until we came here. It's nice to be a Cubano, though, if only in Miami, lol. I'm not complaining; this is just background. By the time I came along, papa was patching aortas at Cedars-Sinai and mom was was trying to instill calculus into young minds at CCNY. Heck, I was born on second base thinking that I'd hit a double. All in all, I'm one lucky little judio!
What you're missing is the 1950's - 1990's emotional connection between the Jews and Blacks. What's that got to do with anything, you ask? Well, the Jews run Hollywood. Thier/our story gets told, endlessly. I'm talking about 'Shoah' and about a thousand other movies just like it with a dozen new titles every year.
OMG, that's so racist and you're a filthy racist AND heartless anti-semite!!!
Actually, no. I mean, think about it; I'm not in a real good position to be antisemitic. However, I am lucky to be able to see behind the curtain a little. My sister, the accountant, works for Sony Entertainment and she got the job mostly because she's Jewish. OK, the ability to mark her down as 'Hispanic' probably helped a tiny bit, but that was just a little side bonus to an already done deal. Nice house in Westwood, etc.
The Jews that came over from central and eastern Europe a decade or two before and shortly after WWII believed that the Blacks were living in a situation similar to the pre-holocaust times in Europe. They needed help, so the Jews threw themselves into the civil rights movement. As the Jim Crow times declined, Blacks got better parts in movies and a very, very few number of jobs with the studios "behind the scenes". Portrayals of Blacks became more sympathetic and there were more parts. Then PBS got in on it and now every February, my wife calls that network Predominantly Black Shows.
Things soured a bit in the late 80's and forward; civil disturbances and that whole Black Holocaust denial thing started to fray the edges of what had been a marriage made in heaven. Several decades of government assistance with no results and that whole spitting on the American Dream didn't help, either. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know all about the Middle Passage. Tell that to refugees that had nowhere else to go. I'm here and I'm better off for it. If this place is such a miserable Hell on Earth, then why are we building that stupid, crazy fence?
Meanwhile, except for extremely stereotyped roles, Latinos (don't ever call me 'Hispanic') were invisible. And let's be brutally honest here, Mexican-Americans had/have it the hardest. When I talk to people about this here in Oregon, they bring up Desi Arnaz, Fernando Lamas, Rita Moreno, Antonio Banderas and Cesar Romero to rebut my statement. OK, I understand - anyone with a Spanish last name is "Mexican" here in Portland, but let's look; Cuban, Argentinian, Puerto Rican, Spanish and Cuban-American born in New York. Jimmy Smits? Nuyorican. Ruben Blades? Panamanian. Don Francisco on Sabado Gigante? German Jew from Chile, which has to be my favorite of the whole set of examples.
Enough; I'd just end up with more Cubans, like Delko on 'CSI: Miami'.
Don't like what you're hearing? So tell me, where is the Mexican-American "Roots"? Can we all agree that would make a SUPERB miniseries? I'd watch it just to learn more about Mexican-Americans, since I know very little. Example: when Selena was murdered, I was as clueless as my Anglo co-workers as to who she was.
The answer? All Latinos should recognize our common heritage and also our many heritages. Also, take a lesson from the Jews and do business as much as possible only with each other. This happens a little in Miami, but not enough. If anything, watch more "Spanish TV", but cut Arnold a break. Understand where he's coming from, mainly Austria with no English. I'll take it from him and only him, just for that reason. From his perspective, he's trying to help, based on his own life experience. He's clueless, but he means well in that particular case.
The Blacks? Brutal Honesty Time: think about this; if Mexican-Americans had received as many breaks as the Blacks since 1954, they would be totally ruling the USA west of the East Coast. OK, I know what a few of you are thinking, 'if the Mexican-Americans got the breaks the Cubans got...'. At the risk of sticking it to my own people, I have to say you are absolutely 100% right about that. We made out pretty well for our little part in the Cold War. Even the Afro-Cubanos who came here early and didn't "know" that success was impossible for them. Of course, they're not Black, as Barak Obama isn't Black, so they never suffered horribly. I guess all that sugar cane history is just some fantasy of my fevered mind.
BTW, I was about to write "got the breaks the pinche Cubans got", but I feel I have no right to use 'Pachuco slang'. Much the same reason I don't speak much Spanish with Latinos I meet here in Portland; the Cuban accent puts people off. I'll do it to help someone who has no English or their English deserted them under stress [it happens], but that's about it. I could probably do some good as a lawyer if I went in that direction, but I'm happy doing mergers, acquisitions and IPO's. Pays better, too.
As for "Zoot Suit", I own the DVD and the VHS tape before it. I always cry at the ending, even though I've seen it well over 30 times. I guess its that whole minority-within-a-minority-within-a-minority thing that starts the tears flowing. It's a story about a lot of us, really.
I just wish Universal-Vivendi or whoever is the successor entity to MCA would release the soundtrack on CD. I think everyone on this board would buy one.
I am not a mexican but I care about u Carlos!
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"Life is a suspense film, its only watched once." -MZK
um no...there's not a lot of posts because the movie is from freaking 1981 and wasn't that great. Not like it's on tv all the time for people to see it and comment. Get over yourself.
The people you idolize wouldn't like you.