La Pastorela

[70smusicfan]

I finally watched this Xmas weekend the VHS Tape La Pastorela I bought this past year. Better than most "Made for TV" Xmas movies. My question, "Do you think the movie was intentionally made to be somewhat funny?" The "fight" scene between Linda and the Devil is particularly chucklesome. I apologize in advance for offending anyone, given the religious topic and Linda's role in the movie as an archangel.

[erik]

Having seen it a number of times on PBS since it first aired twenty years ago (YIPE!!), I feel that it's sometimes not always easy to tell. I think writer/director Luis Valdez definitely tries to inject the right amounts of religiosity and humor within it, but a lot of the acting, to be perfectly honest, feels kind of stiff and melodramatic--and yes, I include even Linda in this description as well. Also, the low budget restrictions that Valdez has to work with do keep the special effects from being what they might otherwise have been had this been a big-screen production, rather than a made-for-TV one.

However, since we are not talking about an epic telling of the story of the birth of Jesus on the level of THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD, but a version of it from a Hispanic perspective, I also think it appropriate to say that it does succeed in many ways, though they only come out after multiple viewings.

[MokyWI]

I'm not sure what the general public who viewed it thought of it. I know when I first watched I was shocked by many of the aspects Erik mention above, and like he said, it does succeed in many ways, but it takes multiple viewing of it for those with an open mind to understand it's good points. I believe a lot of humor was meant. The fact that they used her first Mariachi album as a prop in the film made that apparent to me. I think the way it was advertised and the subject matter was in contrast with humor it was attempting. Most people, espcially those who were not huge fans of Ronstadt watched and right way picked out the stiff acting and bad special effects. I wonder too if the stiff acting and in paticular the bad effects were not intended. One thing is for sure, Ronstadt was not an actress. That was apparent in Pirates and I got the impression that there was much effort made to keep her from having to speak her lines on stage and film. The film version of Pirates needs multiple viewing to get all of it charm, or at least it did for me. I actually felt foolish watching it the first time with friends I dragged to see it, who by the way teased me for how bad they thought it was. I fought myself from agreeing with them, but now I enjoy the film version of Pirates.

[erik]

If I remember right, most of the reviews for LA PASTORELA were widely mixed, as I think was the case whenever Linda stepped outside of the conventional pop music field after the 1980s. I recall many of them remarking not only how stiff she was as an actress, but also how ultimately strident her singing was as well. You can argue about either point, especially that of her singing, but there it is.

It may be that one of the problems here is that this was originally a stage play mounted by a stage company (whose name escapes me) in San Juan Bautista in central California, and Valdez wrote and directed it as such, which accounts for the stiffness, and hence for some of the condescending reviews (he was even accused by some of furthering stereotypes about Mexican-Americans, even though he himself is one). All the same, though, he can't be expected to be another Stanley Kubrick or Steven Spielberg; that's asking the impossible. One can only take or leave LA PASTORELA as is, and, if possible, see the good things in it, because they are there for the attentive viewer (IMHO).

[Guest]

I respectfully disagree with the comments here about this terrific movie. It was absolutely intended to be humorous. One only has to look at the cast to get that impression. It is sort of a "Wizard of Oz" meets Christmas tale. Take a look at what some other people outside of this forum have to say:

www.amazon.com/Pastorela-Linda-Ronstadt/product-reviews/B001JPMSFA/ref=cm_cr_dp_all_helpful?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

TV Review
Great Performances: La Pastorela
Reviewed by Ken Tucker | Dec 20, 1991

Great Performances: La Pastorela is the best new Christmas special of the year, a boldly unconventional version of a pastorela, or shepherd's tale, the centuries-old Spanish variation on the Nativity story. Writer-director Luis Valdez (La Bamba, Zoot Suit) has brought the tale up to date by centering it on Gila (Stand and Deliver's Karla Montana), a poor Mexican girl who has a vision of the angel St. Michael, played in glowing white wings and without a trace of campiness by Linda Ronstadt.Great Performances: La Pastorela ''Wow! This is totally serious!'' says Gila upon seeing St. Michael. ''Am I dead?'' ''You've never been more alive,'' says the apparition, whereupon Ronstadt bursts into a song, sung in Spanish, telling Gila that she must gather a group of local shepherds and make her way to the Christ Child. Along the way, these pilgrims' progress is impeded by the devil (a goggle-eyed but effectively threatening Paul Rodriguez) and abetted by many lovely musical numbers supplied by the band Los Lobos as well as country star Freddy Fender.

The great thing about Valdez's adaptation is that he doesn't reduce the story to a dewy-eyed parable — the director makes the girl's journey a frightening, arduous one. Thus when she finally does arrive to celebrate the birth of Baby Jesus, there's a sense that she — and we — have really been through a special experience. La Pastorela goes on a bit too long — it could easily be cut to an hour — but it deserves to become an annual TV event. A

n 1991, El Teatro Campesino produced its first feature-length film, “La Pastorela: A Shepherd’s Tale” written and directed by Luis Valdez for PBS Great Performances Series. It aired internationally on the United Kingdom’s Channel Four and on Spain’s TVE Television Espanola, and quickly became a staple of Holiday programming on the Telemundo Network.

www.elteatrocampesino.com/About/missionhistory.html

www.metrosantacruz.com/metro-santa-cruz/11.28.07/arts2lapastorela-0748.html

Linda did a great job as the archangel and gave it just the right treatment in my opinion. Mexican Catholicism is quite different than European Catholicism as is well reflected in this shepherds tale.

[70smusicfan]

Thanks for the comments. I feel better now. I thought the movie was really really good given the limited amount of money obviously (not) spent. Given that two comedians were cast in major roles, it really had a campy feel (not unlike The Christmas Story). I was just worried that some of the extremely funny parts weren't supposed to be. Linda was cast well, since her role as an archangel was a formal one to start. She worked well in the role for me (is St. Michael, or any angel, male, female, or neutered?). Now that I have "permission" to laugh (and not be haughty/arrogant about it), I'll have to watch again.

[Guest]

I think angel gender depends on your religion and archangels are even a more special breed. I have seen Michael referred to as a he but others non-gendered. They have had no need to reproduce since they unionized.

[erik]

What LA PASTORELA does that I think is really good is that it seems to allow those of us who are non-Hispanic (yours truly included) to see how the Hispanic community in America depicts this ageless story. It may be my naivete at work here, but I think that, in our present era, when so many non-Anglo peoples are being demonized for a lot of petty reasons, this is one of those examples of showing that ethnicity and skin color are minor cosmetic differences and should be seen as such.

[ausfan2]

Clip from the film