The Milagro Beanfield War | Rubén Blades, Richard Bradford

The Milagro Beanfield War | Rubén Blades, Richard Bradford | Great Film-Better News

DVDs:

The Milagro Beanfi...

	The Milagro Beanfield War Rubén Blades, Richard Bradford Universal Studios, 2005 average customer review:based on 74 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Overlooked for far too long

Others have summarized the plot below so I will try to add a few relevant thoughts. First of all, the story is basically a skim off the John Nichols novel. Like all his books, it is so deep in back story that no movie can contain more than a tithe of the actual narrative. This screenplay actually does it justice, though. The strength of the work is not the plot but the characters. In Nichols' novel, each character has such richness and depth, they become very much alive and real. Sadly, no movie can ever capture all of that, but I think Redford's efforts here managed to pick up enough of it to make the film work because the most important character in the film is the town of Milagro itself. By getting even a glimpse of such venerable old-timers as Amarante Cordova, Onofre Martinez, and Nick Rael's crazy mother, we understand much more of Milagro's personality.

Within the movie we get some very nice depth added to other characters, as well. Reuben Blades as Sheriff Bernabe Montoya, for example, is tripping over his feet jumping a ditch in one scene and using cunning wisdom to disarm a firefight in the next. Sonia Braga's passive-aggressive manipulation of John Heard's lawyer-activist is brilliantly played by both of them. James Gammon as Horsethief Shorty, the one Anglo who may love Milagro as much as the local Hispanics, is perfectly played, as well.

The film is beautifully photographed and Redford's love of the American Southwest is visually documented here with a very nice touch. The soundtrack also adds a lot of character to the piece and is very well placed. Finally, two small roles that I thought added a lot to the movie were Julie Carmen as Nancy Mondragon, Joe's wife, and also Freddy Fender as Milagro's mayor, Sammy Cantu.

Overall, this is one of those movies that isn't so much about what happens in the film as it is about how the director and the actors portray it, which in this case is done beautifully.

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Great Film-Better News

Milagro is the classic good vs. evil/David vs. Goliath story but not as serious as most of the others. The little guy occasionally gets help from the strangest places-his own townfolk. This is a great family movie with minimal profanity.
Now the good news-thanks to all the letters to the distributor, this will be released in Region 1 DVD on or about may 31, 2005.
Horrayyy!!!!! for the little guy-you and I can make a difference.

DVD should be splendid.

I received the UK DVD release of The Milagro Beanfield War several months ago and the digital transfer of this beautiful film is truly breathtaking-- the saturated colors, the wonderful New Mexico light. If the British DVD is any indication, viewers should be in for a very special treat. A great cast. A warm, whimsical slice of life which affectionately captures the wonderful essence of New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment. Not to be missed!!!

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A Former New Mexican

It's Christmas and two years since we left New Mexico. I wanted to order The Milagro Beanfield War for my husband for Christmas and was so sad to find it's not available on DVD. I was in Santa Fe for the premiere and saw Robert Redford strollng around the plaza.
It's a beautiful movie; full of humor, great characters and beautiful scenery.
We can't get green chile or our Christmas tamales here, but had hoped to feel New Mexico again by watching this movie. I hope to see it soon on DVD.

A real New Mexican comments

let's start with the positive. GREAT DVD quality! Excellent cinematography! More than passable acting (a bit over-acted on Sonia Bragga's part, but not as bad as in "Moon Over Parador"). Redford is also a good director and this is better than his newer, more pretentious films. If you can choke down yet another good-people-of-the-land-versus-greedy-developers plot, this isn't a bad film.

This film is fairly true-to-life, too: Milagro in reality is Truchas, NM, a very old hardscrabble farm village between Chimayo and Penasco (that's in the real high country north of Santa Fe). Water rights are indeed sacred there and it is a delightful area to live in (if you don't mind a snowy winter and being a long way from a supermarket). But the real big encroachment there isn't from big-time developers but rather from individual 'new age'crystal power types coming in from Santa Fe or California, disrupting a half-millenium old way of life.....

'Milagro' it's not entirely the edenic area the film makes it out. This would have been a somewhat better film if the director and writer had admitted that the average folk in that area have really severe drug problems and aren't exactly high on initiative.

Nonetheless, Beanfield War is a cute little film and a great look at my home area in glorious northern NM.

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