Earnest look at rock 'n' roll fame By George Anderson Magazine Editor, Post-Gazette a Bamba" opens with a dreamy, slow-motion, color-* drained basketball game in a I playground. Overhead we notice two planes flying at low altitudes. As we are lured into the quiet, graceful spell of the children at play, the planes suddenly collide in a noisy explosion that jolts us into alarm. It is a stunning beginning for a movie, the sort of coup de cinema that heightens our expectations. As it turns out, "La Bamba" never has another moment quite that startling, but it never disappoints us either. This little-heralded movie from a relatively inexperienced director and featuring an unknown cast is one of the summer's sleepers. A welcome, human-scaled story about early. rock singer Ritchie Valens, "La Bamba" is far above the conventions of the rock-movie genre. It concentrates on its characters more than its music, making them all real, understandable individuals, colliding and collaborating as they push a teen-ager into the first rank of pop stardom. It is hardly a secret that Valens, 17, was one of the passengers on the tragic flight that claimed the lives of Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper, so the movie's eventual outcome is no surprise. But writer-director Luis Valdez does such a warm, appealing, touching job of getting to the conclusion that "La Bamba" engrosses us in its story every step of the way. "La Bamba," taking its title from one of Valens' best-known hits, offers a convincing portrait of Hispanic life in California, from the poverty of the farms to the prejudice of the middle-class neighborhoods. When we first meet him, Ritchie has a guitar, a mother (portrayed with rare authenticity by Rosanna DeSoto) and a girlfriend Rosie (a fine performance by Elisabeth Pena). His half-brother Bob has just been released from jail, and is clearly in imminent danger of returning. Hot-tempered, impatient, aggressive, Bob is played with real magnetism by Esai Morales. But it is Lou Diamond Phillips' sympathetic performance as Ritchie that makes "La Bamba" work so well. We really care about him, and as his appointment with destiny draws nearer, the movie has the sort of nervous inevitability we remem- Lou Diamond Phillips ber from other movie bios about dead musicians. We know what the characters don't, and this lends tension and CONTINUED ON PAGE 7
