Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 4, No. 11, Ed. 1 Friday, July 24, 1987 Page: 7 of 36
thirty six pages : ill. 15 x 12View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
‘La Bamba’ writer/director hails Hispanic awareness
Film depicts ’50s rock-and-roller Ritchie Valens
By Steve Warren
Luis Valdez quotes a gay playwright
to explain the macho Latino position
on sex between men: “I think it was a
Tennessee Williams play where he
said, Whoever’s — he used another
word, but — whoever’s'gay depends on
who’s riding the bicycle. That’s really
the Chicano viewpoint — if you’re the
one riding the bike, you’re okay. If
you’re being ridden, that’s something
else.”
We’re discussing the scene in
Valdez’ film La Bamba where
drunken Bob Morales gets into bed
Violence,
satire mark
‘RoboCop’
By Steve Warren
Max Headroom meets The
Terminator in Detroit in RoboCop, a
fast-paced, high-tech, comic book
thriller by Paul Verhoeven. His films
in the Netherlands, including The
Fourth Man, never prepared us for
MOVIE REVIEW
this; but they must have prepared him
because he beats a lot of American
filmmakers at their own game.
It’s the near future, Blade Runner
time, and the Detroit police
department is privately run by
OmniConsumer Products. They’re
planning to tear down Old Detroit in
six months and replace it with a
superdevelopment called Delta City,
but first they have to wipe out the
crime that makes potential investors
nervous.
When police officer Peter Weller is
killed in action, OCP replaces most of
his body parts with metal and
microchips, creating RoboCop, an
almost indestructible cyborg. There
are two glitches. Weller has a bit more
human memory than they intended,
and OCP executive Ronny Cox is
affiliated with the crime they’re trying
to eliminate.
The action crowd will love RoboCop,
which is violent and doesn’t quit, but
there’s also some intelligent satire in
the script by Edward Neumeier and
Michael Miner. Periodic newscasts, a
hilarious extension of today’s, bring us
up to date on South Africa’s nuclear
capability, the war in Acapulco and
the deaths of some recent presidents.
The police department has a coed
locker room.
If Detroit doesn’t look familiar, it’s
because most of RoboCop was filmed in
Dallas. Movie magic.
with his half-brother, Richard
Valenzuela (soon to become rock and
roll star Ritchie Valens) and warns,
“You better keep your ass to the wall
because I’m so messed up I might take
you for Rosie,” Bob’s mistress.
Given that Bob, played by Esai
Morales, is shown to act impulsively
and regret later, while Ritchie (Lou
Diamond Phillips) is saintly and all-
forgiving, it seems likely that there
have been incidents of fraternal incest
before, with Bob raping his younger
brother.
Valdez disagrees. “Given Ritchie’s
size, I don’t think Bob could have
pulled it off. Ritchie was a big dude,
you know? Rape in that sense would
have been out of the question.” The
actors are more evenly matched than
the real-life brothers; and with Ritchie
driven by love while Bob is fueled by
chemicals, it’s easy to imagine the one
overpowered by the other — one of
many fantasies this scene conjures for
gay male viewers.
Ritchie falls in love with WASP-ish
blonde Donna Ludwig (Danielle von
Zerneck) in high school, but her
bourgeois father won’t let her date a
poor Chicano. The racial aspect of his
prejudice conflicts with my memory of
the ’50s as the decade of Desi loving
Lucy while Fernando Lamas and
Ricardo Montalban romanced Lana
Turner, Esther Williams and others,
and every Broadway musical had a
“Latin number.”
Valdez traces the “Latin lover”
phenomenon to the early ’40s, when
U.S. and European movie attendance
had dwindled because of the war and
the cultivation of the Latin American
See 1 4-YEAR PROJECT, Page 8
OAK LAWN APARTMENTS
JM■
1 BEDROOM UTILITIES PAID FROM
$29500
SO MUCH QUALITY, SO MUCH VALUE, FOR LESS!
• INDIVIDUAL SECURITY SYSTEMS!
• UTILITIES PAID BY LANDLORD ...............„„,„!
• CONVENIENT TO DOWNTOWN!
FOR DETAILS CONTACT OCR OAK LAWN
INFORMATION CENTER:
521-6795
MONDAY - FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
9:00 - 6:00
10:00 - 5:00
1:00 - 6:00
3604 CEDAR PLAZA • DALLAS, TEXAS
Friday, July 24, 1987
Page 7
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Vercher, Dennis. Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 4, No. 11, Ed. 1 Friday, July 24, 1987, newspaper, July 24, 1987; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth615763/m1/7/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.