Stand and Deliver (1988)
Runtime: 103 minutes
Directed by: Ramon Menendez
Starring: Edward James Olmos, Lou Diamond Phillips, Andy Garcia, Rosanna DeSoto
From: Warner Brothers
Here’s a movie that I got to see on the big screen due to the Florida Film Festival. They were showing this film on the big screen, AND the star of the film, Mr. Olmos, would be there in person and afterwards he would do a Q&A. It sounded so interesting that I figured I would go and see it, and after that I’ll see another movie (the review of which I’ll post the next night)* in order to show some love to the FFF. Before that, though, this movie, which I hadn’t seen before but I knew was based on the true story of Bolivian-born teacher Jaime Escalante, who used innovative techniques to help students in an inner-city school in learn such things as algebra and calculus. Mr. Escalante ended up passing away about a year ago.
• At least that was the initial plan. It turns out, I only saw this movie on Friday night, as the Q&A afterwards went way longer than expected. Mr. Olmos is quite loquacious, to say the least. So, it turns out I’ll be back on Wednesday night with a new review.
As for this film, it’s quality stuff. It’s quite inspiring to see this true story be told. It does sound incredible that Mr. Escalante was able to do so well in teaching something complex to high school kids with troubled backgrounds, but it’s all true… technically, I’ve heard that the movie is “90% true”, but in Hollywood that might as well be 100%. It was done through a lot of extra hours being put in and it caused stress for the students and for the teacher, but through that it was done. I’ll admit that at times the teacher came across as kind of an ass, but I guess that many professors/teachers can seem that way, and the students could be asses too.
The definite highlight of the movie was the performance of Edward James Olmos in the lead. As he said in the Q&A afterwards, he did perfect mimicry of Escalante… even putting his hands down his pants often as if he was Al Bundy. There’s definitely humor to go along with all of the drama too. I do have to personally laugh that Phillips’ character always had the phrase “F*CK YOU” written on his knuckles and you saw it often enough, and yet the movie was still rated PG. Go figure.
Well, I don’t want to give too much away if you don’t know the story, so it’s a movie worth seeing, I say.
As for the Q&A afterwards, which went over an hour and a half (!):
He talked about a variety of things, from more info about Stand and Deliver to his background and life in L.A. to his social activism and he stated that, among other things:
* Selena was the most difficult film he worked on. Not just because it was done soon after she died, but because her father was on set for most of the filming (and that was the role Olmos played) and after every scene he saw he would break down crying due to the memories of the past.
* He really enjoyed Zoot Suit, a movie I remember being pimped hard on some sort of messageboard
* His Blade Runner talk mainly was about his character and the language he spoke. According to him, one of the phrases he stated in the movie was Hungarian for "big horse dick!"
* He ended it by talking about Battlestar Galactica. That's a show I've never watched, but I know it has many hardcore fans. He was proud of the show and how it was intelligent instead of being all about creatures.
* One of the questions asked from the crowd was rather interesting. The lady sitting next to me (no, it wasn't anyone I knew) got on her iPhone during the Q&A and asked Lou Diamond Phillips on Twitter a question to ask. No kidding. It turns out that the two recently did another film together, a low-budget movie still in post-production called Filly Brown.
Oh yeah, and the best for last... his experience with Miami Vice. He mentioned how it took a lot of effort from Michael Mann to even get him on the show, as he wanted creative control over his character and he wanted to take off time whenever to work on various projects. Finally, Mann agreed to those terms. He mentioned that recently he met up Philip Michael Thomas for the first time since the show ended. No kidding. Then, he finished by talking about how in his first day on set, he and Don Johnson had a big blowup over their first scene together over a minor thing. Also, I'm sure it's been noted before somewhere but in the first ten episodes he appeared on, he never looked Crockett or Tubbs in the eye. That's a thing to look out for.
So yep, Friday night was a blast. Like I said, I'll be back Wednesday night.
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