Zoot Suit (film) - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia

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Zoot Suit is a 1981 film adaptation of the Broadway play Zoot Suit. Both the play and film were written and directed by Luis Valdez. The film stars Daniel Valdez, Edward James Olmos — both reprising their roles from the stage production — and Tyne Daly. Many members of the cast of the Broadway production also appeared in the film. Like the play, the film features music from Daniel Valdez and Lalo Guerrero, the "father of Chicano music."

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Plot

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In Zoot Suit, Luis Valdez weaves a story involving the real-life events of the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial — when a group of young Mexican-Americans were charged with murder — resulting in the racially fueled Zoot Suit Riots throughout Los Angeles. In the play, Henry Reyna (inspired by real-life defendant Hank Leyvas) is a pachuco gangster and his gang, who were unfairly prosecuted, are thrown in jail for a murder they did not commit. The play is set in the barrios of Los Angeles in the early 1940s against the backdrop of the Zoot Suit Riots and World War II. As in the play, Edward James Olmos portrays El Pachuco, an idealized Zoot Suiter, who functions as narrator throughout the story and serves as Henry's conscience.

Cast

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Daniel Valdez as Henry Reyna

Edward James Olmos as El Pachuco

Charles Aidman as George Shearer

Tyne Daly as Alice Bloomfield

John Anderson as Judge F.W. Charles

Abel Franco as Enrique

Bernadette Colognne as Legs

Mike Gomez as Joey/Jose Castro

Alma Martínez as Lupe

Francis X. McCarthy as Press

Lupe Ontiveros as Dolores

Marco Rodríguez as Smiley/Ismael Torres

Kelly Ward as Tommy/Thomas Roberts

Kurtwood Smith as Sergeant Smith

Dennis Stewart as Swabbie

Robert Beltran as Lowrider

Awards

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The film was nominated for the 1982 Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy (won by Arthur). Luis Valdez won the 1983 Critics Award at the Festival du Film Policier de Cognac for Zoot Suit in Cognac, France.