La Bamba: American Dream as Biopic
Biopics that tell the story of musicians usually chronicle their early life, rise to fame, and then (often) their struggles and fall from grace, with a few that even highlight an attempted comeback. The plots are well-worn, with the format as familiar to moviegoers as the story of the artist themselves. In La Bamba (1987), written and directed by Luis Valdez, the biopic has much less material work with, as the story of Ritchie Valens was cut disastrously short by a tragic early death. The narrative, therefore, spends a great deal of time on Valens’ personal life - his family, his girlfriend, and his personality. Starring a fresh-faced Lou Diamond Phillips and featuring music by the Los Angeles band Los Lobos, La Bamba is a sweet, straightforward film that promotes the importance of the American Dream - working hard, standing by your family, and not giving up on your dreams.
Richard Valenzuela is a kid of Mexican heritage growing up in the Los Angeles area, getting by with his single mom and siblings, obsessed with music and his guitar. He joins a small band and gets some local fame, garnering the attention of a music producer, who changes his name to Ritchie Valens. His songs, which consist of a love song pining for his Caucasian high school crush and a Latino folk song that he transforms into a rock hit, gain in popularity and he is suddenly in demand to perform around the country. He overcomes his fear of flying in order to perform on the American Bandstand television show and begins a nationwide tour. During his rise to fame, he struggles with his older brother Bob’s jealousy of his success, as well as the racism of his highschool girlfriend Donna’s father. All of this comes to a heartbreaking end, as he tragically dies in a plane crash during the Winter Dance Party tour, later coined as “The Day the Music Died.”
In the realm of film acting, there are few pleasures that can top when a talent (and one that is fresh faced in their first onscreen performance) is matched so expertly to a role and their embodiment of the character radiates through the screen. So it was with Lou Diamond Phillips when he was cast to portray Ritchie Valens. He brings a natural enthusiasm to Valens, an eagerness to believe in the best for people, even when they are letting him down. He looks natural holding a guitar and singing on stage, even when the venues get grander and the band more elaborate. This all culminates in his performance of the song “La Bamba,” where Phillips must deliver the goods to demonstrate to the audience (both fictional and movie viewers) that Valens really was a special talent that departed too early. In this effort, he succeeds on both fronts.
As this is a biopic of a musician, the music had to be integral to the film. Instead of pulling directly from Valen’s tracks, the film relied on Los Lobos to cover his songs, as well as include some guest performers, like Brian Setzer who portrayed Eddie Cochran, to round out the music of Valen’s peers. While an interesting choice not to include an original cut from the musician in focus, it did open up Valen’s music to a new generation, as the cover of “La Bamba” became a hit for Los Lobos in 1987.
The filmmaking effort here is quite economical, nothing too fancy that gets in the way of letting the performances shine. The only frames with an altered effect are the film’s opening shots that depict the incident which initiated Valen’s fear of flying - a plane collision whose debris fell to a school yard that ultimately killed his childhood friend. The distortion of the image clearly indicate it is separate from the normal reality, but does start the movie with an ominous tone that pays off in the climax when Ritchie climbs aboard his fateful propeller plane.
The two thematic struggles that the film deals with is around identity and love - both familial and romantic. Valens, a Latino kid who grew up in Southern California and didn’t speak Spanish, balances his identity within his music - blending the heritage of his culture’s folk music with the rock sensibility that he loves to play. He learned the words to “La Bamba” phonetically in order to adapt the song, which became one of the first crossover Chicano rock hits in the music industry. His brother, whose relationship with Valens during the course of the movie is a mixture of jealousy and support, is instrumental in introducing his little brother to his heritage on an impromptu trip to Mexico. Despite their family bond, the two struggle with how Valen’s success puts Bob in a shadow that he can never fully rise above.
In a similar vein, Valens struggles against the time periods inherent racism in his pursuit of Donna, who also faces societal and family pressures for her interest Ritchie. As he is wooing her, he attempts to brush off the poor status of his family, an inherent part of his identity, and prove his worth in her eyes. As he gains success and money, enough to buy a fancy new car, Donna’s parents still don’t approve of his intentions. Donna, however, pressured once to reject Valen’s gestures (which was perhaps for the best, as it inspired him to write his hit song), is determined to not fall to her parent’s pressure again and declares her love for Ritchie. These two were ahead of their time, but with Ritchie crossing previously held societal parameters of rock star, perhaps knocking down racist 1950s notions could have been part of their future.
This natural optimism, imbued in the screenplay and in Phillip’s performance, is a strength of the film. The American Dream, where anyone that works hard, applies their talent, and does what is right can succeed in the end, is celebrated and perhaps doesn’t have time to be subverted because of Valens’ premature death. Bob is Ritchie’s foil that shows wasted talent driving drinking, abuse, and jealousy, but the film even has a thematic answer to that assertion as well - family is vitally important and do not give up on family that is struggling. The movie’s last act is to show that Ritchie also needs Bob, despite his newfound success and fame. Without the typical rise and fall of the star in the musical biopic, this film focuses on the immigrant experience within the American Dream and a talent that could have been so much more if not for a fateful plane crash and the day the music died.
