Cesar Chavez

Message films. Why do we have them? There are multi-faceted reasons including learning something about the past or maybe about someone of our past, but mostly I believe they exist so we can learn valuable social lessons about what we say and do so as to be able to correct ourselves to become a better people. The list of these type of films is longer than my arm: "Judgment at Nuremberg", "Inherit the Wind", "To Kill a Mockingbird", "Dr. Strangelove", "The Color Purple", "Amistad", "Schindler's List", "Silkwood", "The China Syndrome", "Milk", "Outbreak", "Invictus", "The Ghosts of Mississippi", "A Time to Kill", and most recently "Dallas Buyers Club" and "12 Years a Slave". The list is truly endless, but another to add to that ever-important list is "Cesar Chavez".

Chronicling the birth of a modern American movement, Cesar Chavez (Michael Pena) tells the story of the famed civil rights leader and labor organizer during the years of 1962-1970, torn between his duties as a husband to wife, Helen (America Ferrara), and father mostly to son Fernando (Eli Vargas), and his commitment to securing a living wage for farm workers predominantly with colleague Dolores Huerta (Rosario Dawson). Passionate but soft-spoken, Chavez embraced non-violence as he battled greed and prejudice from many but specifically from Sheriff Smith (Michael Cudlitz), Bogdanovich, farm owner (John Malkovich), and grower, Jack (Ron Perkins), and he suffered the price in his struggle to bring dignity to many people. Chavez inspired millions of Americans from all walks of life who never worked on a farm to fight for social justice. His triumphant journey is a remarkable testament to the power of one individual's ability to change the world.

Others to round out the cast are Jacob Vargas as Richard Chavez, Cesar's brother, Yancey Arias as Gilbert Padilla, Wes Bentley as Jerry Cohen, Mark Moses as Fred Ross, John Ortiz as Eli Ordonez, Gabriel Mann as Bogdanovich Junior, Jack Holmes as Sen. Kennedy, Noe Hernandez as Juan de la Cruz, and Darion Basco as Larry Itliong, Filipino labor organizer.

This was directed with such passion and pathos by Diego Luna ("J.C. Chavez" (Documen.) '07, "Abel" '10, "Revolucion (segment "Pacifico") '10). With such a passion director Luna is, it would be easy to showcase these actors as almost cartoon characters, but with Luna's talent and actor's Pena, Dawson, Malkovich and Ferrara's professionalism, we have an effectively realistic view of what happened during that time. It was equally well written by Keir Pearson and Timothy J. Sexton based on a story by Pearson. The succession of this eight year span was delineated with precision timing and finesse.

If you don't see any other film this week, see this!. It says so much, especially with the immigration laws being such a hot-button item right now. It's ironic that there is a ton of correlation between Chavez's journey and the immigration problems we face today considering we're talking about a 40+ year difference. Haven't we grown up yet?

Out of 4 Stars: 4                            Rated: PG-13                             102mins.