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El Norte (film)
Encyclopedia
El Norte is an American
and British
film, directed by Gregory Nava
. The screenplay was written by Nava and Anna Thomas
. The movie was first presented at the Telluride Film Festival
in 1983
, and its wide release was in January 1984
.
The picture was partly funded by the Public Broadcasting Service
(PBS), a non-profit public broadcasting
television
service in the United States
.
El Norte received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay in 1985, the first American independent film
to be so honored. In 1995, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
by the Library of Congress
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
The drama features Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez
and David Villalpando
, in their first film roles, as two indigenous
youths who flee Guatemala
in the early 1980s due to ethnic and political persecution. They head north and travel through Mexico to the United States, arriving in Los Angeles, California
, after an arduous journey.
Arturo Xuncax: The first part takes place in a small rural Guatemalan village called San Pedro and introduces the Xuncax family, a group of indigenous
Maya
ns. Arturo is a coffee
picker and his wife a homemaker
. Arturo explains to his son, Enrique, his world view and how the indio fares in Guatemalan life, noting that "to the rich, the peasant is just a pair of strong arms." Arturo and his family then discuss the possibility of going to the United States where 'all the people, even the poor, own their own cars." Because of his attempts to form a labor union among the workers, Arturo and the other organizers are attacked and murdered by federal troops when a co-worker is bribed to betray them — Arturo's severed head is seen hanging from a tree. When Enrique attempts to climb the tree that displays his father's head, a soldier attacks him. Enrique fights and kills the attacker, only to learn that many of their fellow villagers have been rounded up by soldiers. The children's mother too "disappears": abducted by soldiers. So, Enrique and his sister Rosa decide to flee Guatemala, the land of their birth, and head north.
Coyote: During the second part of the film the two teenagers flee Guatemala, travel through Mexico, and meet a Mexican coyote who guides them across the border. This section includes various comic scenes relating to mutual stereotyping
among different ethnic groups; the two attempt to pass themselves off as indigenous Mexicans, failing to convince one Mexican truck driver after naming the wrong destination, but later succeeding in convincing a Border Patrol officer by copiously peppering their responses with the Mexican word for "fuck," which a neighbor had suggested was how all Mexicans speak. After their first failed attempt to cross the "frontera," where a man posing as a coyote deceives and attempts to rob them, they have a horrific experience when they finally cross the U.S.-Mexican border through a sewer pipe laden with rat
s; critic Roger Ebert
noted:
El Norte: In the final part of the film Rosa and Enrique discover the difficulties of living in the U.S. without official documentation. The brother and sister team find work and a place to live and initially feel good about their decision. However, Rosa nearly is caught up in an immigration raid and must find a new job. Working as a domestic, she is puzzled when her Anglo employer shows her a washing machine. Enrique uses a day laborer pool to obtain a job as a busboy
and, as his English classes begin to improve his command of the language, he is promoted to a position as a waiter and is approached by a businesswoman who has a better-paying job for him in Chicago, which he initially declines; he too encounters problems when a jealous Chicano
co-worker reports him to immigration, causing him to flee the restaurant and seek out the businesswoman.
Enrique decides to take the position, but when Rosa becomes ill with typhus
contracted from the rat bites she received during their border crossing, he delays leaving for Chicago to be by her side and thus loses the position. As Enrique visits the hospital, Rosa laments that she will not live to enjoy the fruits of their harrowing journey to the U.S. After Rosa dies peacefully, Enrique is shown once again waiting with the other day-labor hopefuls in a parking lot, offering his services to a man looking for "strong arms"; reviewer Renee Scolaro Rathke observes, "It is a bitter realization that Arturo's words about the poor being nothing but arms for the rich holds true even in El Norte."
Rosa sums up the film's major theme when she says to her brother Enrique near the end:
Although Enrique is temporarily employed once again, he is distracted by haunting daydreams about his sister's lost desires for a better life. The final shot in the film again shows a severed head hanging from a rope, which may be the same image used in Part I of the film; one critic has commented that a hanging, severed head is "a symbolic device used in some Latin films to signify that the character has committed suicide."
The origins of El Norte are the director's experiences in San Diego, California
, as he grew up. Nava came from a border family and has relatives on the other side in Tijuana, Baja California. As a youth, he crossed the border several times a week, often wondering who lived in all those cardboard shacks on the Mexican side.
For research the producers of El Norte learned about the plight of indigenous
Guatemalans from years of research, much of it conducted among exiles living in Southern California
. According to Nava, "There are hundreds of thousands of refugee
s from Central America
in Los Angeles
alone. Nobody knows the exact number, but a recent TV
inquiry estimated 300,000-400,000. In our own research, we came across a community of Mayans
from Guatemala — 5,000 from one village — now in Los Angeles. The original village, which is now dead, had 15,000."
Annette Insdorf, writing for The New York Times
, said Nava discussed the singular nature of the US-Mexico border. Nava said: "The border is unique—the only place in the world where an industrialized first-world nation shares the border with a third-world country. In California
, it's just a fence: on one side are the Tijuana slum
s, on the other side—San Diego. It's so graphic! This was the germ of the story."
The motion picture has become a staple of high school
Spanish language
classes throughout the United States
and multiculturalism
studies in college
.
s because, more than likely, studio executives would demand changes be made in either script, casting, or both. Gregory Nava and Thomas believe that much of what makes El Norte special would have been jeopardized if a major studio had been involved in the filmmaking process.
Financing for the film was provided by PBS's American Playhouse
(50%) and the rest in presales. One such presale was made to the United Kingdom
's Channel 4
(a public-service
television
station).
n magical realism, primarily found in novel
s, has been depicted in a theatrical film. The Washington Post
writer Ann Hornaday said, "El Norte was seminal, both for its graceful blend of classical narrative and magic realism and the power with which it brought an otherwise invisible world to life."
El Norte portrays an Amerindian point-of-view and this is exemplified by the religion
they follow. An example is when Rosa Xuncax sings the eulogy
at the funeral
of her father and its Native American
Maya religious
theme. A traditional Maya belief is that life has a cyclical nature. Rosa sings in her Maya tongue
:
Throughout El Norte young Rosa and Enrique and their family are subjected to many epithet
s, hatred, and bigotry
due to their indigenous
heritage
. When the father Arturo inadvertently kills a soldier
, for example, a mestizo
screams:
And, when Rosa and Enrique reach their destination in Mexico
, a passenger screams at the timid Maya youngsters:
, the actor who played Enrique Xuncax, gave an interview to Lear Media about what the film meant to him and why he believes the film is important. Villalpando said:
Gregory Nava had to re-create a Mexican village in California
when he and his production crew were, more or less, kicked out of Mexico
during the film shoot.
Nava said, "We were filming in Mexico during the end of the José López Portillo
presidency, one of the last of the old-fashioned caciques
to rule Mexico. One day, men with machine gun
s took over the set. I had guns pointed at my head. We were forced to shut down production, bribe our way out of the country, fight to get our costumes back, and start shooting again in California."
Nava tells the story that, at one point, Mexican police
kidnapped
their accountant
and held him for ransom
, while, at the same time, his parents had to pose as tourists in order to smuggle exposed film out of the country in their suitcases.
, Morelos
, México D.F., and Tijuana
. In California
: San Diego
and Los Angeles
.
on October 11, 1983. On December 11, 1983 the movie opened in New York City
and on January 27, 1984, it opened in wide release.
It was screened in the Un Certain Regard
section at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival
.
A director's cut was re-released in May 2000.
magazine described the film as the "first American
independent epic."
In his review, film critic Roger Ebert
was pleased with Nava and Thomas's work and likened it to a classic film of yesteryear, writing, "El Norte tells their story with astonishing visual beauty, with unashamed melodrama
, with anger leavened by hope. It is a Grapes of Wrath
for our time."
In a scene where the characters cross into California by means of a rat-infested sewer tunnel and emerge to a view of San Diego, Commonweal critic Tom O'Brien wrote, "the scene sums up its rare strength."
Film critics Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat of the website Spirituality and Practice were touched by Nava and Thomas' story and the attention they give to the character's native roots, and wrote, "Nava's attention to details, particularly the aesthetic and religious beauty of Indian culture, and his sympathy for the protagonists' inner lives lift this story above its melodramatic moments and make the tale a memorable one."
Yet, some film reviewers objected to what they considered the film's overly sad end.
Vincent Canby
, writing for The New York Times
wrote, the film "[Nava is] about to make one of the most boldly original and satirical
... statements ever to be found in a film about the United States
as a land of power as well as 'opportunity' until its arbitrarily tragic
ending." However, Canby did find the acting top-rate and noted the realism they bring to their tasks. He added, "Mr. Nava does not patronize his 'little people.' This has something to do with the straight, unactorly quality of the performances, especially by Zaide Silvia Gutierrez as Rosa and David Villalpando as Enrique, two splendid Mexican actors."
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes
reported that 89% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on nine reviews.
by Island/Phono-Gram. The album was produced by Gregory Nava and Danny Holloway. The CD features original music for the film by Los Folkloristas, Emil Richards
, and Linda O'Brian.
It also features "Rosa's Song" sung by the actress Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez. Adagio for Strings
, by the American composer Samuel Barber
, was featured at two different points in the film.
In DVD
format it has been released in: Region 2
on June 15, 2002; Region 4
; and Region 1
.
The Criterion Collection
released El Norte in DVD
and Blu-ray format in January 2009.
Nominations
Other distinguishments
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
film, directed by Gregory Nava
Gregory Nava
Gregory Nava is a film director, producer and screenplay writer, of Mexican and Basque heritage.-Education:...
. The screenplay was written by Nava and Anna Thomas
Anna Thomas
Anna Thomas is a film screenwriter, film producer and writer. She was born in Stuttgart, Germany, to a Polish family and came to the United States as an infant. She grew up in Michigan and California....
. The movie was first presented at the Telluride Film Festival
Telluride Film Festival
The Telluride Film Festival was started in 1974 by Bill and Stella Pence, Tom Luddy and Jim Card in the town of Telluride, Colorado, United States. It is operated by the National Film Preserve....
in 1983
1983 in film
-Events:*February 11 - The Rolling Stones concert film Let's Spend the Night Together opens in New York*May 25 - Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, the final film in the original Star Wars trilogy, is released. Like the previous films, it goes on to become the top grossing picture of...
, and its wide release was in January 1984
1984 in film
-Events:* The Walt Disney Company founds Touchstone Pictures to release movies with subject matter deemed inappropriate for the Disney name.* Tri-Star Pictures, a joint venture of Columbia Pictures, HBO, and CBS, releases its first film....
.
The picture was partly funded by the Public Broadcasting Service
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
(PBS), a non-profit public broadcasting
Public broadcasting
Public broadcasting includes radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing and commercial financing.Public broadcasting may be...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
service in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
El Norte received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay in 1985, the first American independent film
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
to be so honored. In 1995, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
by the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
The drama features Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez
Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez
Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez is a Mexican-born actress whose breakout role was the 1983 film El Norte.Gutiérrez attended the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, with highest honors, in Dramatic Literature and Theater, was a scholar in four languages including...
and David Villalpando
David Villalpando
David Villalpando is a Mexican actor. His break out role was in the film El Norte ....
, in their first film roles, as two indigenous
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
youths who flee Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
in the early 1980s due to ethnic and political persecution. They head north and travel through Mexico to the United States, arriving in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, after an arduous journey.
Plot
The writing team of Nava and Thomas split the story into three parts:Arturo Xuncax: The first part takes place in a small rural Guatemalan village called San Pedro and introduces the Xuncax family, a group of indigenous
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
Maya
Maya peoples
The Maya people constitute a diverse range of the Native American people of southern Mexico and northern Central America. The overarching term "Maya" is a collective designation to include the peoples of the region who share some degree of cultural and linguistic heritage; however, the term...
ns. Arturo is a coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
picker and his wife a homemaker
Homemaker
Homemaking is a mainly American term for the management of a home, otherwise known as housework, housekeeping or household management...
. Arturo explains to his son, Enrique, his world view and how the indio fares in Guatemalan life, noting that "to the rich, the peasant is just a pair of strong arms." Arturo and his family then discuss the possibility of going to the United States where 'all the people, even the poor, own their own cars." Because of his attempts to form a labor union among the workers, Arturo and the other organizers are attacked and murdered by federal troops when a co-worker is bribed to betray them — Arturo's severed head is seen hanging from a tree. When Enrique attempts to climb the tree that displays his father's head, a soldier attacks him. Enrique fights and kills the attacker, only to learn that many of their fellow villagers have been rounded up by soldiers. The children's mother too "disappears": abducted by soldiers. So, Enrique and his sister Rosa decide to flee Guatemala, the land of their birth, and head north.
Coyote: During the second part of the film the two teenagers flee Guatemala, travel through Mexico, and meet a Mexican coyote who guides them across the border. This section includes various comic scenes relating to mutual stereotyping
Stereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
among different ethnic groups; the two attempt to pass themselves off as indigenous Mexicans, failing to convince one Mexican truck driver after naming the wrong destination, but later succeeding in convincing a Border Patrol officer by copiously peppering their responses with the Mexican word for "fuck," which a neighbor had suggested was how all Mexicans speak. After their first failed attempt to cross the "frontera," where a man posing as a coyote deceives and attempts to rob them, they have a horrific experience when they finally cross the U.S.-Mexican border through a sewer pipe laden with rat
Rat
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...
s; critic Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
noted:
Busboy
Busser, busboy and busgirl are terms used in the United States for someone who works in the restaurant and catering industry clearing tables, taking dirty dishes to the dishwasher, setting tables and otherwise assisting the waiting staff....
and, as his English classes begin to improve his command of the language, he is promoted to a position as a waiter and is approached by a businesswoman who has a better-paying job for him in Chicago, which he initially declines; he too encounters problems when a jealous Chicano
Chicano
The terms "Chicano" and "Chicana" are used in reference to U.S. citizens of Mexican descent. However, those terms have a wide range of meanings in various parts of the world. The term began to be widely used during the Chicano Movement, mainly among Mexican Americans, especially in the movement's...
co-worker reports him to immigration, causing him to flee the restaurant and seek out the businesswoman.
Enrique decides to take the position, but when Rosa becomes ill with typhus
Typhus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
contracted from the rat bites she received during their border crossing, he delays leaving for Chicago to be by her side and thus loses the position. As Enrique visits the hospital, Rosa laments that she will not live to enjoy the fruits of their harrowing journey to the U.S. After Rosa dies peacefully, Enrique is shown once again waiting with the other day-labor hopefuls in a parking lot, offering his services to a man looking for "strong arms"; reviewer Renee Scolaro Rathke observes, "It is a bitter realization that Arturo's words about the poor being nothing but arms for the rich holds true even in El Norte."
Rosa sums up the film's major theme when she says to her brother Enrique near the end:
Although Enrique is temporarily employed once again, he is distracted by haunting daydreams about his sister's lost desires for a better life. The final shot in the film again shows a severed head hanging from a rope, which may be the same image used in Part I of the film; one critic has commented that a hanging, severed head is "a symbolic device used in some Latin films to signify that the character has committed suicide."
Cast
- Zaide Silvia GutiérrezZaide Silvia GutiérrezZaide Silvia Gutiérrez is a Mexican-born actress whose breakout role was the 1983 film El Norte.Gutiérrez attended the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, with highest honors, in Dramatic Literature and Theater, was a scholar in four languages including...
as Rosa Xuncax - David VillalpandoDavid VillalpandoDavid Villalpando is a Mexican actor. His break out role was in the film El Norte ....
as Enrique Xuncax - Ernesto Gómez CruzErnesto Gómez CruzErnesto Gómez Cruz is a prolific Mexican actor with more than 154 films.He has been nominated several times for the Ariel Award...
as Arturo Xuncax - Lupe OntiverosLupe OntiverosLupe Ontiveros is an American film and television actress. Ontiveros has acted in numerous films and television shows, most often playing a maid or, more recently, an all-knowing grandmother; she estimates she has played a maid between 150 and 300 times on screen.-Early life:Ontiveros was born...
as Nacha - Trinidad SilvaTrinidad SilvaTrinidad Silva, Jr. was an American actor who played small supporting roles in a number of films of the 1980s. His television work includes the role of Jesus Martinez on the television series Hill Street Blues....
as Monte Bravo - Enrique CastilloEnrique CastilloEnrique Castillo is an American actor, writer, director, and producer.- Life and career :Castillo was a founding member of The Latino Theater Company. He co-wrote the company’s plays Stone Wedding and August 29...
as Jorge - Tony PlanaTony PlanaTony Plana is a Cuban-American actor and director. He is well known for playing Betty Suarez's father, Ignacio Suarez, on the ABC show Ugly Betty.-Personal life:...
as Carlos - Diane CaryDiane CaryDiane Cary is an American actress who has been featured in several TV shows. This includes a recurring role on the short-lived Misfits of Science, where she was credited as Diane Civita....
as Alice Harper - Mike GomezMike GomezMike Gomez is an American actor. Best known for his performances in such cult classics as The Big Lebowski and Star Trek: The Next Generation, Mike Gomez has costarred in numerous films including Clint Eastwood's Heartbreak Ridge and Robert Redford's Milagro Beanfield War, Zoot Suit , 'The Border'...
as Jaime
Background
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
, as he grew up. Nava came from a border family and has relatives on the other side in Tijuana, Baja California. As a youth, he crossed the border several times a week, often wondering who lived in all those cardboard shacks on the Mexican side.
For research the producers of El Norte learned about the plight of indigenous
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
Guatemalans from years of research, much of it conducted among exiles living in Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
. According to Nava, "There are hundreds of thousands of refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
s from Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
alone. Nobody knows the exact number, but a recent TV
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
inquiry estimated 300,000-400,000. In our own research, we came across a community of Mayans
Maya peoples
The Maya people constitute a diverse range of the Native American people of southern Mexico and northern Central America. The overarching term "Maya" is a collective designation to include the peoples of the region who share some degree of cultural and linguistic heritage; however, the term...
from Guatemala — 5,000 from one village — now in Los Angeles. The original village, which is now dead, had 15,000."
Annette Insdorf, writing for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, said Nava discussed the singular nature of the US-Mexico border. Nava said: "The border is unique—the only place in the world where an industrialized first-world nation shares the border with a third-world country. In California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, it's just a fence: on one side are the Tijuana slum
Slum
A slum, as defined by United Nations agency UN-HABITAT, is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. According to the United Nations, the percentage of urban dwellers living in slums decreased from 47 percent to 37 percent in the...
s, on the other side—San Diego. It's so graphic! This was the germ of the story."
The motion picture has become a staple of high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
Spanish language
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
classes throughout the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and multiculturalism
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
studies in college
College
A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...
.
Financing
Nava and Anna Thomas spent two years raising money for El Norte but they consciously did not pursue film studios or television networkTelevision network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
s because, more than likely, studio executives would demand changes be made in either script, casting, or both. Gregory Nava and Thomas believe that much of what makes El Norte special would have been jeopardized if a major studio had been involved in the filmmaking process.
Financing for the film was provided by PBS's American Playhouse
American Playhouse
American Playhouse is an anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service in the United States.It premiered on January 12, 1982 with The Shady Hill Kidnapping, written and narrated by John Cheever and directed by Paul Bogart...
(50%) and the rest in presales. One such presale was made to the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
(a public-service
Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom the term "public service broadcasting" refers to broadcasting intended for the public benefit rather than for purely commercial concerns. The communications regulator Ofcom, requires that certain television and radio broadcasters fulfil certain requirements as part of their...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
station).
Magical realism
Parts of El Norte provide an example of how Latin AmericaLatin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
n magical realism, primarily found in novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s, has been depicted in a theatrical film. The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
writer Ann Hornaday said, "El Norte was seminal, both for its graceful blend of classical narrative and magic realism and the power with which it brought an otherwise invisible world to life."
Indigenous view and bigotry
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
they follow. An example is when Rosa Xuncax sings the eulogy
Eulogy
A eulogy is a speech or writing in praise of a person or thing, especially one recently deceased or retired. Eulogies may be given as part of funeral services. However, some denominations either discourage or do not permit eulogies at services to maintain respect for traditions...
at the funeral
Funeral
A funeral is a ceremony for celebrating, sanctifying, or remembering the life of a person who has died. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from interment itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honor...
of her father and its Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
Maya religious
Maya religion
The traditional Maya religion of western Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, and Mexico is a southeastern variant of Mesoamerican religion. As is the case with many other contemporary Mesoamerican religions, it results from centuries of symbiosis with Roman Catholicism...
theme. A traditional Maya belief is that life has a cyclical nature. Rosa sings in her Maya tongue
Mayan languages
The Mayan languages form a language family spoken in Mesoamerica and northern Central America. Mayan languages are spoken by at least 6 million indigenous Maya, primarily in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize and Honduras...
:
Throughout El Norte young Rosa and Enrique and their family are subjected to many epithet
Epithet
An epithet or byname is a descriptive term accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, divinities, objects, and binomial nomenclature. It is also a descriptive title...
s, hatred, and bigotry
Bigotry
A bigot is a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices, especially one exhibiting intolerance, and animosity toward those of differing beliefs...
due to their indigenous
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
heritage
Cultural heritage
Cultural heritage is the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations...
. When the father Arturo inadvertently kills a soldier
Soldier
A soldier is a member of the land component of national armed forces; whereas a soldier hired for service in a foreign army would be termed a mercenary...
, for example, a mestizo
Mestizo
Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...
screams:
And, when Rosa and Enrique reach their destination in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, a passenger screams at the timid Maya youngsters:
An actor speaks
David VillalpandoDavid Villalpando
David Villalpando is a Mexican actor. His break out role was in the film El Norte ....
, the actor who played Enrique Xuncax, gave an interview to Lear Media about what the film meant to him and why he believes the film is important. Villalpando said:
Production
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
when he and his production crew were, more or less, kicked out of Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
during the film shoot.
Nava said, "We were filming in Mexico during the end of the José López Portillo
José López Portillo
José López Portillo y Pacheco was the President of Mexico from 1976 to 1982.Born in Mexico City, López Portillo studied Law at the National Autonomous University of Mexico before beginning his political career with the Institutional Revolutionary Party in 1959.He held several positions in the...
presidency, one of the last of the old-fashioned caciques
Caudillo
Caudillo is a Spanish word for "leader" and usually describes a political-military leader at the head of an authoritarian power. The term translates into English as leader or chief, or more pejoratively as warlord, dictator or strongman. Caudillo was the term used to refer to the charismatic...
to rule Mexico. One day, men with machine gun
Machine gun
A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....
s took over the set. I had guns pointed at my head. We were forced to shut down production, bribe our way out of the country, fight to get our costumes back, and start shooting again in California."
Nava tells the story that, at one point, Mexican police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
kidnapped
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
their accountant
Accountant
An accountant is a practitioner of accountancy or accounting , which is the measurement, disclosure or provision of assurance about financial information that helps managers, investors, tax authorities and others make decisions about allocating resources.The Big Four auditors are the largest...
and held him for ransom
Ransom
Ransom is the practice of holding a prisoner or item to extort money or property to secure their release, or it can refer to the sum of money involved.In an early German law, a similar concept was called bad influence...
, while, at the same time, his parents had to pose as tourists in order to smuggle exposed film out of the country in their suitcases.
Filming locations
The film was shot in Mexico and California. In Mexico: ChiapasChiapas
Chiapas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas is one of the 31 states that, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 118 municipalities and its capital city is Tuxtla Gutierrez. Other important cites in Chiapas include San Cristóbal de las...
, Morelos
Morelos
Morelos officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Morelos is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 33 municipalities and its capital city is Cuernavaca....
, México D.F., and Tijuana
Tijuana
Tijuana is the largest city on the Baja California Peninsula and center of the Tijuana metropolitan area, part of the international San Diego–Tijuana metropolitan area. An industrial and financial center of Mexico, Tijuana exerts a strong influence on economics, education, culture, art, and politics...
. In California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
: San Diego
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
and Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
.
Distribution
The film was released in ScotlandScotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
on October 11, 1983. On December 11, 1983 the movie opened in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and on January 27, 1984, it opened in wide release.
It was screened in the Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's Official Selection. It is run at the Salle Debussy, parallel to the competition for the Palme d'Or.This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob...
section at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival
1984 Cannes Film Festival
- Jury :*Dirk Bogarde *Franco Cristaldi *Michel Deville *Stanley Donen *Istvan Dosai *Arne Hestenes *Isabelle Huppert *Ennio Morricone...
.
A director's cut was re-released in May 2000.
Critical reception
When released, VarietyVariety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
magazine described the film as the "first American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
independent epic."
In his review, film critic Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
was pleased with Nava and Thomas's work and likened it to a classic film of yesteryear, writing, "El Norte tells their story with astonishing visual beauty, with unashamed melodrama
Melodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
, with anger leavened by hope. It is a Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath (film)
The Grapes of Wrath is a 1940 drama film directed by John Ford. It was based on John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. The screenplay was written by Nunnally Johnson and the executive producer was Darryl F...
for our time."
In a scene where the characters cross into California by means of a rat-infested sewer tunnel and emerge to a view of San Diego, Commonweal critic Tom O'Brien wrote, "the scene sums up its rare strength."
Film critics Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat of the website Spirituality and Practice were touched by Nava and Thomas' story and the attention they give to the character's native roots, and wrote, "Nava's attention to details, particularly the aesthetic and religious beauty of Indian culture, and his sympathy for the protagonists' inner lives lift this story above its melodramatic moments and make the tale a memorable one."
Yet, some film reviewers objected to what they considered the film's overly sad end.
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby was an American film critic who became the chief film critic for The New York Times in 1969 and reviewed more than 1000 films during his tenure there.-Life and career:...
, writing for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
wrote, the film "[Nava is] about to make one of the most boldly original and satirical
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
... statements ever to be found in a film about the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
as a land of power as well as 'opportunity' until its arbitrarily tragic
Tragedy
Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...
ending." However, Canby did find the acting top-rate and noted the realism they bring to their tasks. He added, "Mr. Nava does not patronize his 'little people.' This has something to do with the straight, unactorly quality of the performances, especially by Zaide Silvia Gutierrez as Rosa and David Villalpando as Enrique, two splendid Mexican actors."
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reported that 89% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on nine reviews.
Soundtrack
A soundtrack for the film was produced in FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
by Island/Phono-Gram. The album was produced by Gregory Nava and Danny Holloway. The CD features original music for the film by Los Folkloristas, Emil Richards
Emil Richards
Emil Richards, born Emilio Joseph Radocchia on September 2, 1932 in Hartford, Connecticut, is a percussionist who plays a variety of different percussion instruments.-Biography:...
, and Linda O'Brian.
It also features "Rosa's Song" sung by the actress Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez. Adagio for Strings
Adagio for Strings
Adagio for Strings is a work by Samuel Barber, arranged for string orchestra from the second movement of his String Quartet, Op. 11. Barber finished the arrangement in 1936, the same year as he wrote the quartet...
, by the American composer Samuel Barber
Samuel Barber
Samuel Osborne Barber II was an American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music. His Adagio for Strings is his most popular composition and widely considered a masterpiece of modern classical music...
, was featured at two different points in the film.
Video and DVD
The film has been released in video on two separate occasions, with different video covers.In DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
format it has been released in: Region 2
DVD region code
DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...
on June 15, 2002; Region 4
DVD region code
DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...
; and Region 1
DVD region code
DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...
.
The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection
The Criterion Collection is a video-distribution company selling "important classic and contemporary films" to film aficionados. The Criterion series is noted for helping to standardize the letterbox format for home video, bonus features, and special editions...
released El Norte in DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
and Blu-ray format in January 2009.
Awards
Wins- Montréal World Film Festival: Grand Prix des Amériques, Gregory NavaGregory NavaGregory Nava is a film director, producer and screenplay writer, of Mexican and Basque heritage.-Education:...
; 1984.
Nominations
- Academy AwardsAcademy AwardsAn Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
: Oscar; Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, Gregory Nava and Anna Thomas; 1985. - Writers Guild of America, EastWriters Guild of America, EastWriters Guild of America, East is a labor union representing writers of television and film and employees of television and radio news. The 2006 membership of the guild was 3,770....
: WGA Award; Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen; Gregory Nava and Anna Thomas; 1985.
Other distinguishments
- In 1995 the film was selected for preservation by the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
National Film RegistryNational Film RegistryThe National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
.
External links
- El Norte official web site at The Criterion CollectionThe Criterion CollectionThe Criterion Collection is a video-distribution company selling "important classic and contemporary films" to film aficionados. The Criterion series is noted for helping to standardize the letterbox format for home video, bonus features, and special editions...
- El Norte film review: Native-AmericansIndigenous peoples of the AmericasThe indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
are central to film's POVPerspective (cognitive)Perspective in theory of cognition is the choice of a context or a reference from which to sense, categorize, measure or codify experience, cohesively forming a coherent belief, typically for comparing with another... - El Norte film review: Christian POV
- El Norte scholarly analysis by Hugo N. Santander at American UniversityAmerican UniversityAmerican University is a private, Methodist, liberal arts, and research university in Washington, D.C. The university was chartered by an Act of Congress on December 5, 1892 as "The American University", which was approved by President Benjamin Harrison on February 24, 1893...
- El Norte film trailer at YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....