El Norte

Audience Reviews

View More

Iker E @RT42906051 Dec 24, 2024 Honestly this is a great movie very impactful message and realities. To the people saying oh editing is choppy, bad acting/dialoge, this is a movies from the 80's maybe 70's and not with a huge budget. Yes sometimes you can see it's bad but remember those things. The ending was really meh didn't really understand it. It brings reality very clear See more

Mike C @RT00473211 Oct 9, 2024 I'm astonished by the high rating. It must be sympathy votes for the subject (oppressed under class struggling for a better life). It is NOT a well made movie. 1) At 2:10 minutes it is easily an hour too long. 2) It is pretentiously arty: Three Acts. Please. 3) The acting is stilted, high school drama class. 4) The plot is contrived and unbelievable (why would you kill your own work force? you would just threaten them. why did the coyote have to go around and meet them on the other side? The first apartment was over the top awful. Yeah, we get it, bad apartment. The first coyote tried to rob them. Who saw that coming?) 4) The fight scene is laughably staged. 5) The story, though touching, is cliche. I wanted the characters to die so I didn't have to finish it. 6) The cinematography is repetitive, tedious, cliche (pensive sunsets thrown in for no apparent reason). 7) The music is awful AND fake. Clearly not playing that harp. See more

Dave S @RT68722908 Dec 2, 2023 Gregory Nava's El Norte has a story that is easy to get on board with – a young man, accompanied by his sister, flees his homeland of Guatemala in order to escape certain death at the hands of the government. Hoping for a better life elsewhere, they travel through Mexico on their way to California, where they are willing to gamble on an uncertain future. While the story is interesting and the message is as timely as ever, looking at it objectively, it's not a very good movie. The acting is mediocre at best, the dialogue in the third act is embarrassing at times, the editing is often choppy, and the incredibly soppy ending detracts from the film's message. El Norte makes a noble effort to tell an important story, but that doesn't make it a good movie. See more

Apr 6, 2022 Gregory Nava directed the drama thriller film known as El Norte in 1983. The plot revolves around a small Mayan town in the middle of protests, conflicts, and war. The audience is introduced to Rosa and Enrique, who fled after a masquerade of friends and family. Paving the way to the south, the two siblings encounter a perpetual road of obstacles and hurdles. The stark and harsh reality of life as an immigrant and the magazine portrayal makes the entire film enticing and heart-wrenching. The film evoked immensely emotional reactions from me. I believe my understanding made the film all the more effective because my entire family is immigrants. To me, the portrayal of the unjust and insidious behavior towards the siblings made the film gravely realistic. Although El Norte was filmed in the 1980s it did not fail to capture the animosity and cruelty immigrants face in this country. The viewer watches in disbelief throughout the film as the siblings go to extreme lengths to appease and conciliate their caucasian counterparts. The theme remains intact until the last segments of a promising and bustling country. Only when the veil falls do the audience and protagonists comprehend the true picture of America. The film's intended genre was drama. In my opinion, the portrayal and sequencing of this particular film were executed to fit drama flawlessly. The extension of the climax and the protagonist's attitudes and actions toward the struggles accumulate into a triumphant drama. The consistent highs and lows coupled with the hopeful propensity exhibited by the two siblings keep the audience immersed. Based on my interpretation, a mature audience would be best suited for the themes represented in the movie. Throughout the film, the viewer is continually exposed to the real-life struggles of immigrants. Being able to interpret and comprehend this concept makes the movie all the more stimulating. The film was an eye-opening experience, and I appreciate it. The only feature I found fault was the sound effects developed in the storyline. The sound production was highly inaccurate. However, the execution of the journey, plot, and character development were indisputably immaculate. I thoroughly value the proper representation of migrant issues and the exclusion of condescending language. The siblings' extreme lengths to achieve a modicum of normality evoke emotional distraught. The message is loud and clear, and the audience is aware of it. I rate this film an eight out of ten. References El Norte. Directed by Gregory Nava. Cas David Villalpando, Zadie Silvia Gutierrez, Stella Quan. The United States. 1983. American Playhouse/PBS. See more

dustin d @RT12543299 Dec 21, 2021 El Norte is a beautifully made movie that has the color palate and themes of a mural. The writing is blunt and melodramatic, but the performances are sincere enough to make it believable. Little has changed with regards to the immigration situation since the film was released. See more

William L @RT77267842 Dec 1, 2021 El Norte feels like a novel that is part of a high school curriculum - socially conscious, epic in scope, and tackling unfortunate realities, while also sharing a few of the weaknesses, coming across as a bit obvious or simple in its attempts to be profound. Both of our main characters, Gutiérrez's Rosa and Villalpando's Enrique, are essentially totally without vice in a world that is pitted against them; it's not the most realistic or morally gray of dramas, but it does succeed in hammering home empathetic characters in disadvantaged situations (even before the ending, parts of the film are not easy viewing). El Norte's greatest accomplishment is depicting its characters' journey as a bridge between worlds, so shocking are the distinctions between the experience that the Xuncax siblings undergo in their native Guatemala and in Mexico compared to the gilded birdcage of the United States, before discovering that both places have assigned a low value to human life, just in different ways. Both of the leads give very solid performances; what few opportunities they have for major character development nevertheless are well-delivered. It's among the greatest of the 'American Immigrant'-themed films, even if it's not exactly subtle. It's not like the environment or themes have really faded with time, El Norte remains very relevant. (3.5/5) See more

Read all reviews

El Norte

My Rating

Read More Read Less WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW POST RATING