La Bamba (1987) is an American biographical film written and directed by Luis Valdez. The picture features Lou Diamond Phillips, Esai Morales, Rosanna DeSoto, among others. The drama is based on the real life events that affected the lives of rock star Ritchie Valens, his half-brother Bob Morales, his girlfriend Donna Ludwig and the rest of their families.
Background
This production had the full support of the Valenzuela family. Bob Morales and Connie Valenzuela even came to the set to help the actors portray their characters correctly, and Connie even makes an appearance as an older lady sitting next to Ritchie at the family’s first party.
Phillips even bonded with the Valenzuelas and at one point actually became Ritchie to them which led to an incident involving Ritchie’s sister at the airfield scene. When the actors began boarding the plane for the final fatal flight, the scene was interrupted by Connie Lemos, Ritchie’s real life sister, who was only six years old at the time of her brother’s death. She hysterically tried to keep Phillips from boarding the plane. She was heard to shout, “Don’t go Ritchie! Please don’t get on the plane! Why did you have to die?” Connie admitted to Behind the Music that she realized at that moment that she never fully accepted her brother’s death.
The original title of this film was, “Let’s Go,” named for Valens’ hit song: “Come on Let’s Go!”
All of Ritchie Valens’ songs were performed by Los Lobos. The band has a cameo in the movie where they sang in the brothel ballroom in Tijuana. Brian Setzer has a cameo as Eddie Cochran. Other musicians who portrayed other musicians of the same era depicted in the film, like The Big Bopper, also provided recordings for the film.
Ritchie Valens was only seventeen years old when he died, eight months after he signed to Del-Fi Records and produced three songs that hit the Billboard 100. Don McLean immortalized Ritchie and his friends deaths as “The Day The Music Died” when he chronicled his reaction to hearing about the plane crash in his song “American Pie.”
Cast
- Lou Diamond Phillips as Ritchie Valens
- Esai Morales as Bob Morales
- Rosanna DeSoto as Connie Valenzuela
- Elizabeth Peña as Rosie Morales
- Danielle von Zerneck as Donna Ludwig
- Joe Pantoliano as Bob Keane
- Rick Dees as Ted Quillen
- Marshall Crenshaw as Buddy Holly
- Howard Huntsberry as Jackie Wilson
- Brian Setzer as Eddie Cochran
- Stephen Lee as The Big Bopper
- Sam Anderson as Mr. Ludwig
- John Quade as Bartender
- Noble Willingham as Howard