ZootSuit (1981) (New DVDrip with balanced audio) by Luis Valdez starring Edward James Olmos

Zoot Suit (1981)
by Luis Valdez

Starring Edward James Olmos
Tyne Daley
Charles Aidman

Summary from IMDB:

A kind of musical accompanying the story of the early 1940's and the effect that the "zoot suit" (a man's suit of long jacket and pegged pants, always worn with a long keychain that looped almost to the ankle.... the rebellious fashion of young men) had on the morals and attitudes of the people of that era. Written by BOB STEBBINS

Part fact and part fiction, Zoot Suit is the film version of Luis Valdez's critically acclaimed play, based on the actual Sleepy Lagoon murder case and the zoot suit riots of 1940s Los Angeles. Henry Reyna is the leader of a group of Mexican-Americans being sent to San Quentin without substantial evidence for the death of a man at Sleepy Lagoon. As part of the defense committee, Alice Bloomfield and George Shearer fight the blatant miscarriage of justice for the freedom of Henry and his friends. Written by Fiona Kelleghan

Thanks Fiona

--

My notes:

Zoot Suit was originally a play performed by Teatro Campesino and written by Luis Valdez. The film is important for having gotten made at all but more than that I hope that you see what it could have been in another time and in another medium. I'm speaking of the American musical. Zoot Suit has all the elements which could be a Broadway show and it was breiefly. The notes on the playscript available as a book of the collected plays of Luiz Valdez give many more details than I can here. You'll hear the music ( a bit of it done by Shorty Rogers and his Giants) called "The Zoot Suit Boogie," but it sounds a lot like a Louis Prima tune I've heard.

Here is the story of The Sleepy Lagoon Murders which remained a mystery for many years. A documentary on the Sleepy Lagoon story and the Zoot Suit riots which followed revealed (only a couple years ago) during a deathbed confession that the young men being defended by Aidman and Daley in the film were innocent.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/zoot/

The link is to the documentary made as part of The American Expereince
for PBS. A teaching guide is available.
--

There's costume, music, and especially dance as you can see in the opening shots of Zoot Suit. There are two great dance openings for jitterbug choreography: "Zoot Suit" and "Swing Kids." [In "Swing Kids" you can see a young Christain Bale (pre Batman days) cutting a rug in fine style.]

Zoot Suit is a tale told with the appearance of El Pachuco played by Olmos (Stand and Deliver, Bladerunner, Battlestar Glactica and many more) as one of the original zoot suiters.

My telling all this gives nothing away. And you will see the theatricality throughout the performance.

Oscar Huelos' "American Me" also starred Olmos in its film version from the novel which picks up where "Zoot Suit" leaves off. See the two films together if you can in a double bill. They were not made at the same time but Olmos is the actor who brings the two together.

Like other torrents "Zoot Suit" has come and gone. I present it here in a reasonable size for easy download. This new torrent has the audio adjusted from the original DVD which was used for the rip. It was a complicated process that I did with the help of the gang at videohelp.com.


Consider maintaining Zoot Suit with me in your permanent fileshares.


Notes written July 7, 2012/December 4th 2012