Cesar Chavez (2014)

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

When then-candidate Barack Obama proclaimed "Yes, we can," there were people who had no idea that he had co-opted the battle cry of CESAR CHAVEZ; such is the state of "education' in this country. We can't forget what we never know. If you're not familiar with websites like truthdig.org or DemocracyNOW!.org or movetoamend.org or people like Howard Zinn or Thom Hartmann or Mike Papantonio (of ringoffire) or Noam Chomsky or Chris Hedges or Amy Goodman or Juan Gonzalez or Gene Sharp or any of the other REAL Historians of Our Times, you're in The Dark. And names like Cesar Chavez have no meaning for you. You're part of what Elizabeth Kolbert in her book THE SIXTH EXTINCTION says are called the ESPECES PERDUES ("lost species"). "At this point," she writes, "it appears to be, for all intents and purposes, unstoppable." WHY, one wonders? Could it be the constant bombardment of lies and misinformation by the Corporate Media? ("None of the usual constraints of habitat or geography seem to check them," Kolbert writes in a not altogether different context.) Like Gene Sharp (and Ghandi), Chavez chose the path of non-violence- but it was, indeed, "a long walk." It worked- but only for a time. "How can a man starve himself?" someone asks John Malkovitch in CESAR CHAVEZ. "It depends on the man," he replies. "I've lost my way," Pena as Chavez says. "We've ALL lost our way," his brother responds. Indeed. These days, it seems, we're fighting again and again battles that were won long ago. Vigilance is the price of freedom, I guess- but, as Chavez says in the movie: "You can't uneducate someone who's learned how to read."

"If we show the world their abuse, greed and brutality then our voice will be heard and responded to." After being raised and working in the fields since he was 8 Cesar Chavez (Peña) has seen enough of the abuse of the workers. After realizing nothing was going to change on its own he decides to step up and become a leader. His goal is to form a union and get every worker an honest wage. What seems like an easy thing to do is met with resistance from almost everyone. His non-violent protests slowly begin to become embraced by not only his fellow workers but American citizens as well. Going in to this movie I knew next to nothing about the real man. My favorite genre of movie is the biopic, it's almost better (for me) to not know as much about the person that way not only am I not expecting anything but I am also not disappointed when they leave things out. I say all that because I can't speak to how accurate the movie is but what I can say is that I really enjoyed this. Not only is the movie very well made and acted it is also inspiring and you really become angry watching what the company he is protesting against does to discredit and discount his stance. Again I can't speak to how accurate the movie is but what the movie does do is inspire and make you wonder why the corporate heads waited so long to even talk to him. That said it also makes you wonder if this happened today if the reactions would be the same. Without getting too political my guess would be yes. Corporate greed never goes away, it only grows. Overall, a great and inspiring movie that is one of the better biopics of the last few years. I give this a high B+.

As of this writing, FIVE of the "Reviewers" here NEVER rated a movie before the Cesar Chavez (2014) movie release. They apparently had an interest in the outcome. Suspect is their desire to see that "civil rights of undocumented workers" are misplaced in the heroism of César Chávez. This will goad many Americans to respond. In addition, the movie came off a bit dry possibly because the actors who knew enough about Chávez (e.g., Pena) realized the writers were off point. In real life, César had enough documented migrants, and the supply of workers were much greater than the demand.César and his brother Richard often caught Illegals on their properties, loaded them into a pickup truck, dropped them back into Mexico, and told them never to return until they had documentation. Cesar considered the Illegals "scabs" and a host of other expletives. He had this disdain because it threatened his Civil Rights movement for documented labor of Mexican descent, threatened his relationship with the Union, and to quell the over supply of underpaid workers. César knew the Illegal threatened the success of his activism and Civil Rights movement, and he urged documented Mexican-Americans to register and vote. (Sources: The Crusades of Cesar Chavez: A Biography, March 25, 2014; and, "Hall of Honor Inductee César Chávez." U.S. Department of Labor, June 18, 2014).In other words César Chávez was to the Mexican-American, as Martin Luther King was to the African-American, —except that César incorporated fair wages into his Civil Rights activism and Union relationships. Unfortunately, the movie doesn't fully develop this message because it had some innuendos that Mr. Chávez was okay with border jumpers for hire. He'd roll over in his grave to find out that less than "8% of Illegal aliens work in the fields," and the rest are in U.S. communities either working a job, or collecting benefits. (Source: U.S. Dept. of Justice, 2005).For whatever reason, Hollywood having made previous movies of Chávez is still bent on blurring the lines between "undocumented workers" and "Illegal aliens." César was not okay with the Illegal alien worker, and until Hollywood gets it right it remains an unfair depiction of this man's pride of Mexican-American heritage. However, the movie did have some good aspects of advocating fair wages, better working conditions, power of hunger strikes and boycotts, and the non-violent nature of César Chávez to bring about fantastic changes. We've seen this sporadically in the past brought about in no less than three other movies, and this film brings nothing new to the table, —especially NOT addressing the immigration issues at a time in history when the release of this film is suspect. Accordingly, a lower score is just until Hollywood stops trying to rewrite history through its admissions and omissions.

This movie was as accurate and as realistic as it could be when packing many years of struggle into 100 minutes. There are many lessons to be learned from La Causa. I just hope that young people see it, learn from it and connect it to today's struggles.Some uninformed people may feel that Michael Pena's acting is weak..that couldn't be further from the truth. Pena portrayed Cesar the way he was...soft-spoken and undramatic. That was the amazing thing.. Cesar Chavez was driven by his passion for justice. He was not a politician. He was not an eloquent public speaker. Yet he inspired millions to boycott, march, strike, struggle because his cause was so moral, so real, so grass roots.