La Bamba (film)
La Bamba (1987) is an American biographical film written
and directed by Luis Valdez. The picture features Lou Diamond Phillips, Esai Morales,
Rosanna DeSoto, among others.
The drama is based on the real life events
that affected the lives of rock star Ritchie Valens, his half-brother Bob Morales,
his girlfriend Donna Ludwig and the rest of their families. It also documents
how Valens witnessed an air collision when he was young and was fearful of airplanes
since then.
Cast
Lou Diamond Phillips - Ritchie Valens
Esai Morales
- Bob Morales
Rosanna DeSoto - Connie Valenzuela
Elizabeth Peña
- Rosie Morales
Danielle von Zerneck - Donna Ludwig
Joe Pantoliano - Bob
Keane
Rick Dees - Ted Quillen
Marshall Crenshaw - Buddy Holly
Howard
Huntsberry - Jackie Wilson
Brian Setzer - Eddie Cochran
Stephen Lee -
The Big Bopper
Sam Anderson - Mr. Ludwig
John Quade - Bartender
Noble
Willingham - Howard
Connie Valenzuela - Older woman at party
Facts
vs. fiction
The film depicts the coin toss between Valens and one of Holly's
band members, Tommy Allsup, as having taken place at the airport shortly before
takeoff, with Holly having tossed the coin. In real life, the coin toss took place
at the Surf Ballroom; the coin was tossed by a disc jockey who had been working
the concert that night.
Spoiler
The movie follows Richard Valenzuela (Lou Diamond Phillips), a normal teenage boy who becomes singing super-star Richie Valens. It depicts how he met and fell in love with Donna Ludwig, for whom he wrote a song that became a number one hit. The movie also has several subplots, such as his relationship with his mother (Rosanna DeSoto) and half-brother Bob Morales (Esai Morales), and how his brother felt that their mother favors Richie.
In one scene, Bob won an important art contest that helps promising cartoonists, only to throw away his prize because, in his mind, his mother doesn't seem to care enough. Bob resorts to drinking heavily and, at one point, leads him to end up crying in front of his mother's door yelling "I want to see my daughter!" in reference to the child he sired with Richie's ex-girlfriend, Rosie (Elizabeth Peña).
The film also focuses on Richie's fear of flying, and a recurring dream he has on account of a collision of two planes that killed his best friend when he was younger. Eventually, he must conquer his fear when asked to perform his song "Donna" on American Bandstand. His manager Bob Keane (Joe Pantoliano) helps him by giving him a little vodka to calm his nerves during a plane flight.
The Valenzuela family.As
Valens becomes famous, his responsibilities change. He has to go on tour with
Buddy Holly (Marshall Crenshaw) and The Big Bopper after his hits "La Bamba"
and "Donna" reach the top of the Billboard charts.
However, every time they get a chance, Richie and Bob sneak out and have fun by going to carnivals. They also take a road trip to Tijuana.
The movie ends with Valens, Holly, and The Bopper taking off in an airplane under a snow storm for their fateful flight on February 3, 1959. Before that Richie makes a call to his brother where they patch up their difference.
As Bob is fixing a car he listens to the news that his brother's plane crashed without any survivors. Bob darts out of his driveway in an attempt to get to his mother before she hears the bad news through the radio. Unfortunately by the time he gets there she stands immobile. The news hits the whole Valenzuela family very hard. In the final scene we see Bob walking over a bridge and screaming the name of Richie, remembering all the good times they had together (in flashback).
As the credits roll we see Lou Diamond Phillips performing Valens' version of "La Bamba."
This production had the full support of the Valenzuela family. Bob Morales and Connie Valenzuela even came to the set to help the actors portray their characters correctly. Phillips even bonded with the Valenzuelas and at one point actually became Ritchie to them which led to an incident involving Ritchie's sister at the airfield scene.
Ritchie Valens' mother, Connie Valenzuela, makes an appearance as an older lady sitting next to Ritchie at the family's first party.
When the actors began boarding the plane for the final fatal flight, the scene was interrupted by Connie Lemos, Ritchie's real life sister, who was only six years old at the time of her brother's death. She hysterically tried to keep Phillips from boarding the plane. She was heard to shout, "Don't go Ritchie! Please don't get on the plane! Why did you have to die?" Connie admitted to Behind the Music that she realized at that moment that she never fully accepted her brother's death.
The original title of this film was, "Let's Go," named for Valens' hit song: "Come on Let's Go!"
All of Ritchie Valens songs were performed by Los Lobos. The band has a cameo in the movie where they sang in the brothel ballroom in Tijuana. Brian Setzer has a cameo as Eddie Cochran. Other musicians who portrayed other musicians of the same era depicted in the film, like The Big Bopper, also provided recordings for the film.
Ritchie Valens was only seventeen years old when he died, eight months after he signed to Del-Fi Records and produced three songs that hit the Billboard 100. Don McLean immortalized Ritchie and his friends deaths as "The Day The Music Died" when he chronicled his reaction to hearing about the plane crash in his song "American Pie."
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