An impressive docudrama with one of the most realistic depictions of the migrant worker phenomenon ever captured on film, Robert M. Young’s ¡Alambrista! is an undoubtedly affecting experience made even more special by its director’s guerilla filmmaking moxie and an impressive central performance. The movie deserves to be far more well known than it is even if it did win the first ever-awarded Caméra d’Or prize at Cannes.
¡Alambrista! (Blu-ray)
Directed by Robert M. Young
Studio: Criterion
Year: 1977
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 1080p AVC codec
Running Time: 96 minutes
Rating: NR
Audio: PCM 2.0 stereo Spanish/English
Subtitles: English
Region: A
MSRP: $ 39.95
Release Date: April 17, 2012
Review Date: April 16, 2012
The Film
4/5
With a newborn daughter and a household of mouths to feed, Mexican farmer Roberto Ramirez (Domingo Ambriz) decides to make his way illegally over the border into the United States where he can spend a year earning as much money as possible for his family. Though getting across the border proves to be easier than he thought it would be, the constant sweep for illegal aliens by government officials makes every job a risk-taking proposition. Roberto moves from job to job picking tomatoes, strawberries, grapes, cucumbers, and even finds a lucrative position with a crop dusting operation for a time while also finding a loving, helpful companion in waitress Sharon (Linda Gillin). But a series of upsetting occurrences sours Roberto on his enterprise, and all of a sudden, the United States doesn’t seem as much like the land of milk and honey as it did.
Robert M. Young not only directed the movie, but he also wrote the film’s script and served as his own director of photography; his handheld camerawork gives such a feeling of reality to the entire enterprise that one would almost swear these aren’t actors at all but that the movie is rather a cinema vérité look at the migrant/immigrant experience. (The director had already done that in his short film Children of the Fields which is included in this package.) We’re down on our knees in the fields doing the intense, backbreaking labor right along with these people always with one eye elevated to keep a lookout for the law. Young films Roberto’s first narrow escape from capture breathlessly and only occasionally leaves the ground to show us a shot from on-high. One especially enjoyable sequence involves Roberto’s newfound friend Joe (Trinidad Silva) who not only shows him how to travel free by train but for a few blissful moments, how to do it in style; the fact that the entire sequence with Joe ends in brutal tragedy keeps the film grounded in the first of many disheartening moments. Even the sequences with his lady love have a bittersweet edge knowing as we do that he has a wife and baby back home. There’s an evangelical revival meeting that goes on a bit long, and the film’s climactic birth scene is a bit obvious and seems somewhat tacked on, but it doesn’t really spoil the real emotions we experience with Roberto as his fantasy turns to reality leaving him (and us) with a very sour taste in his mouth.
Domingo Ambriz is a most appealing Roberto appearing childlike and at sea at the mercy of various charlatans he meets after crossing the border. Trinidad Silva is full of swaggering bravado as the experienced Joe whose hubris leads to trouble for the both of them. Linda Gillin’s unwed mother who takes up with this serious-minded field hand is pert and wholly believable as Sharon. Ned Beatty has a few effective moments as a nefarious ranch foreman looking to find cheap labor to combat striking workers in his Colorado fields. Down the cast list is Edward James Olmos in a small part as a drunk lecturing the immigrants on their morals and ethics.
Video Quality
4/5
The transfer has been framed at 1.66:1 and is presented in 1080p using the AVC codec. The movie was shot in 16mm, and the film transfer here offers decent sharpness and color saturation levels which are acceptable with greens which never look electric. Flesh tones appear very realistic. There are only a few random dust speaks here and there to betray the age of the film and no artifacts such as aliasing or moiré to draw attention to themselves. The white subtitles are always easy to read. The film has been divided into 21 chapters.
Audio Quality
4/5
The PCM (2.3 Mbps) 2.0 stereo sound mix is much stronger than one might think for such a low budget film ($200,000) shot with a tiny crew. Dialogue is always discernible, and a rich soundtrack of Mexican and American music often played on the guitar gets a wonderful spread through the soundstage. There is no distracting hiss or any other audio artifacts to distract from the sound experience.
Special Features
3.5/5
The audio commentary is provided by director Robert M. Young and producer Michael Hausman. The two old friends chatter away throughout the film remembering anecdotes about their experience of making the movie and providing a lively discussion on the film’s themes.
All of the video offerings here are presented in 1080p.
A video interview with Edward James Olmos discusses his work on the movie and his experiences of doing many projects with director Young. This lasts 11 ¾ minutes.
Children of the Fields is Young’s 1973 short film focusing on the Galindo family: mother, father, and five very young children who spend their days toiling in fields across the southwest picking onions and peaches for a few dollars a day. The short, which was the inspiration for Young’s ¡Alambrista!, runs 26 ½ minutes.
Director Robert M. Young interview in which he discusses both this short and the feature film runs 10 minutes.
The film’s theatrical trailer runs 2 ½ minutes.
The enclosed pamphlet offers a cast and crew list and an essay on the film and its director by film professor Charles Ramirez Berg.
The Criterion Blu-rays include a maneuvering tool called “Timeline” which can be pulled up from the menu or by pushing the red button on the remote. It shows you your progress on the disc, the title of the chapter you’re now in, and index markers for the commentary that goes along with the film, all of which can be switched on the fly. Additionally, two other buttons on the remote can place or remove bookmarks if you decide to stop viewing before reaching the end of the film or want to mark specific places for later reference.
In Conclusion
4/5 (not an average)
¡Alambrista! is an especially thoughtful and somewhat harrowing look at the immigrant experience. Without undue proselytizing and by simply letting images speak for themselves through the haunted and enslaved eyes and bodies of these victimized immigrants, ¡Alambrista! makes its case simply and directly. Recommended!
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
