Product: Zoot Suit (1981)
Rating: 5.0
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.