Alambrista!

An unconventional road movie about an unconventional existence. Its docudramatic roots are in the vein of cinema verite, and an occupation with migrant labor in the modes of social realism and justice might make for a fiercely ideological film, but generally it just comes off as a simple work of humanism and sympathy, for which some people unfortunately have no capacity.

ALAMBRISTA!'s reputation may rest as much upon its being one of the earlier immigrant dramas as much as it does any intrinsic qualities of its own. It's certainly well directed, the cinematography is often striking, the score is good, and it has some truly vivid sequences. But it begins patly and never builds up sufficient dramatic steam; a rather forced revelation late in the game seems to have little impact on the denoument, and the most compelling narrative threads aren't fully developed.

How this movie could be forgotten for so long is astounding. Fantastic film, beautiful cinematography, and the Criterion blu ray is fantastic.

Fantastic. Social realism with a poetic heart.

Really enjoyed this. Fairly lighthearted considering its subject matter. The structure is vignette-like, in that each scene was fairly discrete and self-contained, which I thought was interesting. The song at the end (I guess it might qualify as a corrido?), which basically summarized the entire movie, was great and also reinforced the structure of the movie. Maybe the movie was actually structured intentionally to resemble a corrido? I'd have to know about the song form to really say.