When I was 12 years old news came over the morning radio about the deaths of three young rock and roll performers in a plane crash in a desolate stretch of Iowa. One of them was only 17 years old, five years older than me.

La Bamba, the title of his biggest hit in his all too brief career tells the life story of Ritchie Valens, shortened from Valenzuela so he could appeal to a wider audience. Today that would never happen, he'd tell them to get it on the theater marquee somehow. It sticks pretty close to the facts.

I saw a picture of Ritchie Valens when I actually bought a vinyl record when La Bamba came out. It contained all the known recordings for Ritchie Valens, including a few instrumental tracks he hadn't time to do the vocals for. A lot of those songs are heard in this film.

The real Ritchie Valens looked more like a high school football player than a musician. He was a big bull of a kid and Lou Diamond Phillips doesn't look a bit like him. Yet Lou captures the spirit of a kid who lived for his music and his family in reverse order.

The key to this film is the triangular relationship between Phillips, his mother Roseanne DeSoto, and his older half brother Esai Morales. There were two younger sisters, but no doubt Roseanne favored the younger son.

Morales is an outlaw biker rebel who later does find salvation and a good career as an illustrator and we do see the beginning of that. But he's supporting the family with a few illegal activities so Ritchie the good kid can work on his music.

In my family, not my immediate family, we had a situation where the mother favored the younger over the older son. It was a sad situation because I knew both and the older man was a nice man and a good citizen. I could really understand where Morales was coming from.

La Bamba is a good look at Chicano culture in America during the Eisenhower years before Cesar Chavez organized the farm workers. That's where Ritchie Valens came from, but it was some drug money that got Roseanne DeSoto out of the migrant worker camps and into a house. Money that Morales got.

Ritchie's three hits in his all too brief career Come On Let's Go, Donna, and the title song are all included and performed by Los Lobos. La Bamba is a Mexican folk song that Ritchie adapted and made a rock and roll hit, a reconnection to his roots for the world to see.

Everyone in this wonderful film is perfectly cast and makes you feel like you are inside the heart and soul of the Ricardo Valenzuela, 1942-1959.

A heartfelt biopic of Ritchie Valens, the '50s rock and roll singer whose career was cut tragically short when he was killed in a plane crash just after reaching the heights of fame.

The film itself follows a traditional format, showing Valens's humble working background and the gradual successes before he hits the big time. Along the way, many scenes are given over to Ritchie's relationship with his brother Bob, a tempestuous character who adds plenty of drama to the proceedings, and there's also time for romance.

Although Lou Diamond Phillips didn't do the actual singing, I think he makes a good fist of portraying Valens. He certainly brings a youthful energy to the part. Inevitably, the music scenes are the highlight of the film and a good job is done of making them as accurate as possible. The inevitable outcome adds a tragic twist to the film as a whole, which is really a celebratory outing of one man's outstanding talent.

It's a biopic of the young rock & roll singer Ritchie Valens (Lou Diamond Phillips) and his legendary life. It starts in 1957 with Ritchie and his mother Connie Valenzuela (Rosanna DeSoto) working as farm laborers. His brother Bob Morales (Esai Morales) comes with his ill gotten gains to move the family to Southern California. Bob's girlfriend Rosie (Elizabeth Peña) comes along eventually getting married. However Bob gets more abusive and turns into a drunk. Ritchie plays in a garage band, falling for Donna Ludwig (Danielle von Zerneck),and catching the eye of record producer Bob Keane (Joe Pantoliano).

Written and directed by Luis Valdez, this is a fairly straight forward biography. The style is simple. The music is rocking good. It's one of the best performance of the early Lou Diamond Phillips. Rosanna DeSoto and Esai Morales also put in good performances. The character Donna needed a better actress, but overall the performances were good. It's a rock solid movie.