''The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez'' is a 1982 American

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

film directed by Robert M. Young and starring

Edward James Olmos Edward James Olmos (born February 24, 1947) is an American actor, director, producer, and activist. He is best known for his roles as Lieutenant Martin "Marty" Castillo in ''Miami Vice'' (1984–1989), ''American Me'' (1992) (which he also dir ...

as Gregorio Cortez. It is based on the book ''With His Pistol in His Hand'' by

Americo Paredes Americo (or Américo) is a Portuguese- and Spanish-language given name, occasionally used as a surname and in other cultures. It is a variant of the name Henry. English diminutives or hypocorisms include Rico & Eric. People with the name inclu ...

. In 2022, the film was selected for preservation in the United States

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception ...

by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant."

Plot

Set in Belmont- Gonzales, Texas in 1901. After a misunderstanding, a Mexican-American farmer kills a sheriff. He eludes capture and becomes a folk hero. When eventually he is caught, he is tried seven times before finally being released, after twelve years in prison.

Cast

Reception and legacy

The review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

reported a 100% approval rating with an average rating of 7.67/10 based on 6 reviews.

Janet Maslin Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for ''The New York Times''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' said, "

he film He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

tells what sounds like a stirring story, and its plainness would seem to be an asset. But something more was needed here, if not in the way of fireworks then maybe just in verisimilitude. The events may be real, and even the settings are authentic; the courthouse in which Mr. Young filmed the trial scene is the one in which Mr. Cortez's trial actually took place. That's not the sort of authenticity that the film lacks. What it's missing is the spark, surprise and immediacy that might have made its principals feel like people, rather than key figures in a well-meaning historical pageant."

Accolades

Rosanna DeSoto won the Golden Eagle Award for Best Actress for her performance in the film.

Preservation

''The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez'' was preserved by the

Academy Film Archive The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of m ...

in 2016.

References

External links

* *
''The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez: A Cinematic Corrido''
an essay by Charles Ramírez Berg at the

Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cine ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, The 1982 films 1980s English-language films 1980s Spanish-language films American biographical films American Western (genre) films Films based on non-fiction books Films directed by Robert M. Young 1982 Western (genre) films American Playhouse 1982 multilingual films American multilingual films 1980s American films United States National Film Registry films