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Post by the Scribe on Nov 21, 2012 19:39:19 GMT -5
Pastorela movie was released Nov 06, 2012 by the VCI Home Video (Video Communications, Inc.) studio. La Pastorela is a musical retelling of the Shepherd's journey to Bethlehem to see the Christ Child. Stars Linda Ronstadt (The First Lady of Rock), Paul Rodriguez, Cheech Marin; Directed & Written by Luis Valdez (La Bamba, Zoot Suit, The Cisco Kid) "Here's the best new Christmas special of the year; a boldly unconventional version of a Pastorela, or shepherd's tale. Pastorela movie it deserves to become an annual TV event. Pastorela video Rated A" -- Entertainment Weekly Original VHS tapes on Amazon. com have a Rating of 4.9! (out of 5) Debuted on PBS' Great Performances Series. Songs Performed by Linda Ronstadt and Los Lobos!
A contemporary adaptation of the traditional holiday play retelling the shepherds' journey to Bethlehem. See the story through the eyes of a young Chicana. In her surrealistic dream, she repeats the journey, but through her own contemporary reference.
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Post by the Scribe on Nov 21, 2012 19:47:09 GMT -5
The Nativity Story as recreated by Mel Brooks - if he was Mexican - gets a first class DVD release!, October 30, 2012
By Steven I. Ramm "Steve Ramm "Anything Phon... (Phila, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME) This review is from: La Pastorela: The Shepherd's Tale (DVD)
If you search for this title on Amazon you will find the VHS version from 1992 bringing high prices for used copies. You will also find 11 reviews - nearly all 5 stars - asking why there is no DVD release. Well, thanks to Bob Baird, head of VCI Entertainment it is now available in a beautiful print. And at a reasonable price.
Originally shown on PBS as part of "Great Performances" (the list of "funders" is included at beginning and end), the 78 minute film captures a performance by El Teatro Campesino filmed in San Juan Bautisto of this modern, "hip", parable of "The Shepherd's Tale" as written and directed by playwright Luis Valdez ("La Bamba", "Zoot Suit"). The "name cast" includes Linda Ronstadt (who has only a few lines and her "acting" is weak), (Don Novello (doing his Farther Guido Sarducci shtick and having even less screen time than Ronstadt) along with Cheech Marin and Freddy Fender in small roles. But the rest of the cast can act. I use the word "hip" her because there's a rock band, some very funny puns (the three Wise Me are called "Wise Guys" and one has a harem and a rock group!). There are some special effects (credit given to George Lucas' Industrial Sound and Light) that look low tech but work.
I won't go into the plot and other details here because reviews like that of fellow reviewer Erik North (for the VHS tape) go into a lot of helpful detail. I will say that that it looks like something Mel Brooks would have written and directed - if Brooks was Mexican and Christian..
There is a notice at the beginning that the film was "restored in 2012 by VCI". Having not seen the VHS tape I can't say how much difference there is but the DVD looks great. There is also a 6-minute "documentary" produced in 1990 at the same time as the film which celebrates the 25th anniversary of the theater company - founded in 1965 as an offshoot of the United Farm Workers movement.
Additionally there are sound options not available on the VHS version. You can choose either the English or Spanish version and there is an English subtitles option too - though the accents aren't really thick enough to need them. When a song is sung in Spanish in the English language version, the translations are given below. And the subtitles are bright enough to read. The film is full screen with a 1:33 aspect ratio.
As I said, I was not familiar with the production but had fun watching it and it's great timing to have VCI release it just in time for the 2012 Holiday season.
I hope you found this review both informative and helpful.
The Nativity Story Through Hispanic Eyes, December 29, 2011
By Erik North (San Gabriel, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER) This review is from: La Pastorela [VHS] (VHS Tape)
We all know the countless tellings of the Nativity and the birth of Jesus that have been done for film and TV throughout time immemorial, including such big screen and big budget opuses as John Huston's THE BIBLE, and George Stevens' THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD. In the main, however, not only have most of them been fairly solemn (obviously, given the subject matter), but most of them have also been done from a fairly Anglo-centric point of view. Then in 1991, writer/director Luis Valdez (of ZOOT SUIT and LA BAMBA fame), in league with the El Teatro Campesino of San Juan Bautista in central California, bought to the forefront, via PBS-TV, the Hispanic depiction in LA PASTORELA, known as THE SHEPHERD'S TALE.
The essence of the story is that a young Mexican-American girl named Gila (Karla Montana, who was in the 1988 film STAND AND DELIVER), somewhat dismayed by her family's excessive want of Christmas gifts and such, while watching a performance of the Shepherd's Tale, is knocked out in a freak accident; and in the dream she has, she and a group of Mexican peasants are led to the manger in Bethlehem by the archangel San Miguel (played by Mexican-American country-rock icon Linda Ronstadt). Along the way, of course, they are confronted by minions from the underworld, including a devil played by comedian Paul Rodriguez; and in the final sequence, Linda must take on the fallen angel Lucifer, portrayed with savage dash by Robert Beltran.
Given that Hispanic tellings of the Nativity are not easy to come by in a popular and still largely Anglo culture, it would be easy to call LA PASTORELA a masterpiece and be done with it. Due to certain limitations imposed on it, I can't go quite that far. Some of the humor is a bit forced, especially that Indian guru played by Cheech Marin (of Cheech and Chong fame); and some of the acting is a bit stiff as well. The latter holds true even for Linda, who is by her own admission not much of an actress (even after her turn as Mabel in THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE). The special effects, especially in Linda's aerial fight with Beltran, are also marginal, owing to the thin budget Valdez has to work with.
Still, though one should not expect a Spielberg-caliber result, LA PASTORELA is otherwise quite well made and ringing with authenticity, and both Linda and Karla are wisely the pivot points of it. And it does well for non-Hispanics to see how the Hispanic community tells this ageless story, because, in a time like ours when many non-Anglo cultures are being demonized in America, it can help us all to come together and see that ethnicity and skin color are only cosmetic differences, that we're really all the same.
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Post by ausfan2 on Nov 22, 2012 18:33:19 GMT -5
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Post by erik on Nov 22, 2012 21:38:20 GMT -5
Just as an aside: The Amazon review ronstadtfanaz cited is mine.
A little shameless self-promotion on my part (LOL).
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