Jose Alcala Movies
- 1994
- Add ... And the Earth Did Not Swallow Him to QueueAdd ... And the Earth Did Not Swallow Him to top of Queue
This landmark of Chicano cinema is an adaptation of Tomas Rivera's 1971 novel of the same title. Told from the perspective of Marcos, the 12-year-old son of migrant Mexican-American farm workers, the film follows their travels over the course of a year, each of its 12 sections linked to a month of the calendar. The family starts off in Texas at the beginning of harvest season. Their hardscrabble journey takes them across the length and breadth of the Midwest. Along the way, Marcos and his family encounter a rich, difficult, and, at times, pathetic cast of characters including other migrant workers, a shoe salesman, and, in the most startling part of the film, white Americans. Through these encounters, Marcos comes to understand his place in the order of things, namely, near the bottom, discovers the power of familial bonds to comfort and overcome hardship, and uncovers in himself a desire to learn and educate. ~ Brian Whitener, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jose Alcala, Daniel Valdez, (more)
In this comedy, a charming con man teams up with a boxer fallen on hard times in hopes of making some quick money. After doing time for selling art that turned out to be forged, Gabriel Caine (James Woods) and his partner Fitz (Oliver Platt) set their sights on a village called Diggstown; Fitz arrives first and takes several well-heeled locals in a high-stakes poker game, and then Gabriel follows to make a sporting proposition to John Gillon (Bruce Dern), the city's wealthiest citizen. Gabriel tells Gillon he has a boxer that can beat any ten opponents Gillon can line up, in the same day. Gillon takes the challenge and places a big enough wager to make matters even more interesting, but now Gabriel has to convince Honey Ray Palmer (Louis Gossett Jr.), a middle-aged former boxer who has been taken for a ride by Gabriel in the past, to go along with this scheme. In the meantime, Gabriel works out a deal with gangster Victor Corsini (Orestes Matacena) to back his bets while romancing Emily (Heather Graham), the sister of a large and ill-tempered fighter Gabriel met while behind bars. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- James Woods, Louis Gossett, Jr., (more)
- 1991
Made for television, Finding the Way Home was based on Mittelman's Hardware, a novel by George Raphael Small. George C. Scott stars as irascible 60-year-old businessman Max Mittelman, whose life and career are in tatters. Involved in a traffic accident, Mittelman suffers a concussion, loses his memory, and wanders into a community of migrant Latino farm workers. Enthusiastically and selflessly laboring shoulder to shoulder with his new friends, Mittelman gains a whole new perspective on life. Things begin to change, and not for the better, when his memory slowly returns. Hector Elizondo co-stars as the workers' spiritual leader. Filmed on location in Texas, Finding the Way Home was first telecast August 26, 1991. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
