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El Norte

[img]http://criterion_production.s3.amazonaws.com/release_images/1777/458_norteDVD_w100.jpg[/img]

Brother and sister Enrique and Rosa flee persecution at home in Guatemala and journey north, through Mexico and on to the United States, with the dream of starting a new life. It’s a story that happens every day, but until Gregory Nava’s groundbreaking El Norte (The North), the personal travails of immigrants crossing the border to America had never been shown in the movies with such urgent humanism. A work of social realism imbued with dreamlike imagery, El Norte is a lovingly rendered, heartbreaking story of hope and survival, which critic Roger Ebert called “a Grapes of Wrath for our time.”

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:

- New, restored high-definition digital transfer supervised and approved by director Gregory Nava
- New audio commentary featuring Nava
- In the Service of the Shadows: The Making of “El Norte”: a new video program featuring interviews with Nava, producer and cowriter Anna Thomas, actors Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez and David Villalpando, and set designer David Wasco
- Wall of Silence, a new short documentary by Nava and Barbara Martinez Jitner, concerning the building of the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border
- The Journal of Diego Rodriguez Silva, the 1972 award-winning student film by Nava
- Gallery of Chipas location-scouting photographs
- Theatrical trailer
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by novelist Héctor Tobar and Roger Ebert’s 1983 review of the film

ALSO AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY

DVD:
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One of my all-time favorites. The fact that it's coming from Criterion on Blu-Ray with a nice suite of extras is a dream come true.

I absolutely agree. One of my all time favorites as well. A magnificent, towering work of concise dramatic narrative (oddly enough I was thinking of it just recently while I was viewing Hugh Hudson's excellent 1989 film Lost Angels, which is not similar at all, except perhaps in tone).

How is El Norte in comparison to Nava's other films? I have only seen My Family and Selena, but I have wanted to see this film for years.

I saw this in a Latin American film class and up to El Norte, every single film basically blew. As a result, I was completely unprepared to be overwhelmed by this film, which indeed I was. It's one of the most moving stories I've ever seen, and so beautiful. Also- and I'm not a squeamish person at all- I still think of the rat rampage in the tunnel and shudder. I can't wait to revisit this film.

What's the running time on this release (film only)? CC says 122 minutes which must be wrong, I guess? My Scandinavian disc is 134½ minutes (PAL, probably from a true PAL-source).

I'm pretty sure it should be 141 minutes. If it doesn't chance in a few days I'll send them an email.

It's good to see this finally getting the proper treatment on DVD. I was in Guatemala when I saw this and the two Guatemalans I knew who had seen it thought highly of it. My context for seeing it again will be my current place of residence, San Diego, which is actually where Nava drew a lot of the inspiration for the film. It should be required viewing for everyone here in "America's Finest City."

It says 140 minutes now.

Earlier today I happened to pick up a U.C. San Diego cultural events calendar and there was a piece about an upcoming event featuring Gregory Nava. He'll be presenting El Norte (presuably with a discussion to follow) on Nov. 17. It's part of a Human Rights and Global Citizenship Symposium. More information.

Apparently, Nava's current projects are a film about the 1936 Olympics, an ABC miniseries on immigration, and an adaptation of Victor Villaseñor's novel The Rain of Gold for HBO.

Incidentally, in the same program I found out that the Emerson String Quartet was giving a performance at UCSD tonight, and I hadn't planned to be able to attend it. Drat.

The UCSD Nava event sounds excellent. And free, too, if I'm reading the website info correctly! I'll have to remember to keep that evening open.

Generally with campus events like this (probably with the exception of film schools) it seems like screenings like this are almost always just video projection. It's much simpler, less expensive, and few people in attendance probably care when all is said and done.
However, I just spoke with the organizer and they've gone all out and ordered a 35mm print for this event! Now I'm excited. I'm just hoping the print won't too worn and battered, but we'll see. Having Nava in attendance is the biggest draw, of course.

When I was in school in Irvine, Ca and San Diego, Ca I had two professors who couldn't locate copies of this film. This'll be a boon for all those poor profs out there who's libraries wouldn't help to track down a copy (nothing against the libraries, they had limited funding).

First online review of the Blu-ray is here. Sounds pretty good.

milk114 wrote:When I was in school in Irvine, Ca and San Diego, Ca I had two professors who couldn't locate copies of this film. This'll be a boon for all those poor profs out there who's libraries wouldn't help to track down a copy (nothing against the libraries, they had limited funding).

I only wish this had come out before I was forced to buy for our library two shitty full-frame copies at $45 each from this joint. Now I can't justify buying the new version.

cdnchris wrote:El Norte DVD review

More excited for this release now that reviews are coming out. The last great immigration film I saw was Sugar at Sundance last year. Who knows? Maybe my judgment of that film is skewed by my passion for the baseball!

Chris -- will you be reviewing the Blu-ray? I'm assuming it's a stunner!

Matt wrote:I only wish this had come out before I was forced to buy for our library two shitty full-frame copies at $45 each from this joint. Now I can't justify buying the new version.

Well, at least they're McAfee Secure.

About the missing Wall of Silence extra

Hi there,
Unfortunately the project was dropped due to technical reasons that could not be resolved in time for the release.
Thanks for your e-mail!
Sincerely,
Jon Mulvaney

I just watched this for the first time last night. Maybe it's just me, but the the acting by the english speaking Americans was horrible. I kind of felt like I was watching a "Sunday Night at The Movies" on network TV back in the 70's. Dreadful stuff. Parts I & II in Guatemala and Mexico were pretty good. The acting by Ernesto Gómez Cruz & Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez seemed believable, real and touching. But then they arrive in the U.S. in part III and all the U.S. actors act like they are trying to destroy the movie. The acting by the American actors from L.A. just felt... cartoonish.

Anthony wrote:Maybe it's just me, but the the acting by the english speaking Americans was horrible ...

I completely agree... the American actors are by far the weakest aspect of the film. Fortunately, you only have to tolerate it for a minute here and there.

I agree about the weak American actors, but the dialogue they were given didn't help. I thought the first two acts were quite good, esp. the first part in Guatemala, which was stunningly shot.

In the first part, the dialogue had to dabble in exposition, but it was well done. In the third part, however, several characters took turns reciting the "message" of the movie; the Americans became caricatures and the plot became hackneyed, IMO. In the film's defense, I guess it's not terribly heavy-handed by 1983 standards, and it is ahead of its time in addressing immigration issues. Overall I liked the film a great deal, but the scenes that will stick in my memory are those from part 1 (and the final shots of the film).

really enjoyed the film.

I believe the acting by the Americans almost needed to be that way. For me they seemed over the top, terrible but somehow, right. The characterizations were as serious as they took their jobs. And when I say that, I mean, clearly not very serious. The one wanted to get to the bottom of the two, almost as a larf. Very much "oh well, whatever who cares?".

Thought the photography was wonderful, acting pretty solid with most scenes.

I couldnt help but feel simply terrible when Rosa ask Nacha why the streets look like Mexico City where they were.

Nacha says "they dont want to live with us", almost as if she even understands why they dont want to. Then she speaks of working for a gringo family and seems so happy to do so.

I felt so terrible and angry at them, for them.

Overall quite a nice film.

I don't think i'd put this in the category of "powerful" - but it was certainly moving, especially - as everyone else noted - in Acts 1 and 2. I didn't have as big an issue with the American actors in Act 3, maybe because I grew up in the 80s and it was almost nostalgic seeing the crappy acting and big hair! I was tempted to roll my eyes a bit when Rosita gave her speech at the end, but then remembered that this was 1982...and we just didn't talk about this then. No wonder Ebert insisted that every American should see it...some of the juxtapositions between LA and their homes were pretty tough to watch...it's really hard to imagine what that's like...and an uneasy reminder of how damned well we have it in America. imagine being amazed by a flushing toilet and electricity in the late 20th century! eesh.

Can anyone comment on the commentary? No one has yet, and I wonder if it's worth the sit down.....my kevyip is so damned large I rarely take the time to listen to them when i could be watching something new.

oh yeah....and how about Cesar from Weeds showing up as Jorge in the restaurant! I love those kind of discoveries...he's obviously had a long career outside the U.S. What a funny connection between the two though...