Zoot Suit | Daniel Valdez, Edward James Olmos

Zoot Suit | Daniel Valdez, Edward James Olmos | Gotta love it

DVDs:

Zoot Suit

	Zoot Suit Daniel Valdez, Edward James Olmos Universal Studios, 2003 average customer review:based on 25 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

This is a filmed play, rather than a stage piece reimagined for the movies, which is probably why the general audience never cozied up to this intense picture. But Zoot Suit has a couple of significant attractions. First, it's a landmark Latino work from the pre-indie period, directed by Luis Valdez, an important figure in Chicano theater. Valdez based his acclaimed play on the zoot-suit riots of 1940s Los Angeles, when a group of young Chicano men were railroaded into jail on a murder charge. The director later found a mainstream audience with his juicy rock & roll bio La Bamba, and perhaps a bigger budget might have garnered Zoot Suit the same kind of acceptance. Daniel Valdez, the director's brother, plays the hero and also composed the flavorful songs; but the big draw here is the sensational performance of Edward James Olmos. A brooding actor just beginning his screen career, Olmos plays a flamboyant, hectoring, all-seeing figure called El Pachuco--a Greek chorus with attitude to burn. The wild contours of the zoot suit fit Olmos as snugly as his white shirt and black tie from Miami Vice. --Robert Horton

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Please watch

This is the most interesting movie i can remember watching, i remember as a kid i saw it and didn't understand all of it, granted i remembered the music, but the movie itself it extremely interesting, thanks!

Gotta love it

I loved this movie, I have even had the pleasure of meeting Luis Valdez, the creator of the theare version. My college even is planning to do the play.

Mandatory viewing for anyone interested in Mexican America

I believe that if you are born Mexican in the US, you should receive -- along with your "Brown Club" membership packet, a complimentary copy of this film. The film is sublime and any stylistic errors that Luis Valdez MIGHT have committed would certainly be ameliorated by the penetrating and unswerving look into Mexican American psychology. This is Octavio Paz's "Labyrinth of Solitude" put to music. Every time I see this film, I am awed and nearly moved to tears by its heroic, yet tragic, beauty (this is a bit embarrassing when I have to turn on the lights and discuss it with my students, but that's another story). Every image, every word, has been calculated to stimulate thought and introspection. Even the most hardened, nihilistic people I've shown this to have come away from watching it with the same reaction, which is something along the lines of "this film is bad a**."

In short, this movie is revelatory and relevant to anyone who wants to know about this historical psychology of the Mexican American. Our past, our worldview, is not better than anyone else's, but it surely isn't worse -- and it does not merit be expunged from this nation's history. In making this film, the Valdez brothers are doing their bit to right an historic wrong. Now, after watching it, it's our turn.

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