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• Zoot Suit (1981)

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Other than his 1987 biography of singer Richie Valens La Bamba, very few movie goers know the work of director Luiz Valdez. Fewer know of Valdez’s 1981 hidden gem Zoot Suit, which starred a then unknown Edward James Olmos and details the true events of a 1942 Chicano gang war and the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial.

Based on Valdez’s own play,Zoot Suit is a fascinating blend of facts and fantasy set in the colorful world of WW II Los Angeles and told like a musical. Olmos is El Pachuco, the alter ego of the accused gang member Henry Reyna, who serves as narrator of the film. Dressed in a black hat, long coat and baggy pants, El Pachuco weaves the compelling tale of the Los Angeles Police crackdown on Chicano gang activities, and more specifically the railroading of four members into a murder rap lead by Reyna. For those who know Olmos from his Miami Vice days, or even more recently cable’s Battlestar Galactica, you will be wowed by his musical talents.

Henry Reyna, played by Valdez’s own actor brother, Daniel, is a sympathetic tough kid, who enlists in the Navy, even though he faces the possible gas chamber for a crime he didn’t commit. Sprinkled with contemporary Chicano/Spanish/English slang and Spanish dialogue, director Valdez’s emphasis on the corrupt legal system makes for a provocative and highly stylized examination of the unfair treatment of non-Anglo Americans in our nation’s history.