MovieChat Forums > La Bamba (1987) Discussion > A total insult to the Valens family

A total insult to the Valens family

posted 11 years ago by TheRealMartian
11 replies | jump to latest

This from the TRIVIA section:

"Ritchie Valens' family were so attached to Lou Diamond Phillips that when he was shooting the scene where Valens gets on the airplane that led him to his death, the family begged Phillips not to get on, fearing that he would die."

Well, I'm sorry but I simply refuse to believe that after roughly 30 years the family would be a bunch of feeble minded simpletons unable to distinguish fact from movie production.

I mean, C'mon already ...who wrote this drivel?

[–] bpmct 11 years ago

The sister really did this ( the trivia section states that as well, not sure why it was repeated). I've seen the guy who played Buddy Holly live a number of times ( Marshall Crenshaw) and he told me it happened.

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[–] TheRealMartian 11 years ago

I guess it's true then. The Valens' family is a bunch of feeble minded simpletons.

[–] bpmct 11 years ago

I wouldn't say that, I'm sure when you're on a set for three months watching someone recreate your brothers life you can get pretty swept up in all of it. Obviously there was still a lot of pain there. I know when Maria Elena (Buddy Holly's widow) saw The Buddy Holly Story she cried. Anything can bring up painful memories.

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[–] ForeverVR46 10 years ago

I'm far from a feeble minded simpleton but I can tell you that when I went to re-cert for my CPR card, I had a breakdown when it came to the dummy because I just flashed back to my mom being worked on by her own Fire and Rescue crew and not making it. I wasn't there the night it happened but I know the details way too much to not be affected by it. I am really good at putting it away but occasionally it jumps to the surface.

[–] lindsaytomcat 11 years ago

Why is it so far fetched that the family had a fear of places and suddenly got wrapped in emotion and feared he would die for real? After all, their family was affected by TWO different plane crashes!

[–] tmramgrl2000 11 years ago

I won't pretend to know how they would re-act(BTW-now sure if that's grammacitally correnct and yes that's important to me), but that could be a form of PTSD. What I'm saying it could be them re-living how they felt when it really happened. If you were in their shoes, you would probably have felt that if only you could have convinced him not to get on that plane he would still be alive.

Again, I may not have been gramitically correct in this post(and yes to me it matters).

"When I'm sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead."

[–] sargesmash 11 years ago

The issue was tackled on "Behind The Music" on VH1, where Ritchie's sister confirmed she had a breakdown during the filming. She was very little when this happened, and no doubt had to grow up with some painful memories, plus they had grown very close to Lou Diamond Phillips, who, in their minds, had brought Ritchie back to life, so to speak. Anyway, not sure if you're trolling or just a cold-hearted butthole.

[–] Calvin_Ligula 11 years ago

THere is no Valens family.

[–] BeaverHole 10 years ago

Some trivia for all. Connie was the sister who had the breakdown with LDP during the shoot. When Ritchie passed away, Connie was in grade school. She found out Ritchie had died when she was walking home from school and some of her classmates approached and said "your brother's dead." Connie refused to believe it and ran home upset, but when she got home the house was full of cars and she knew that it must've been true. Connie ran into the house to her mother screaming "RITCHIE NO!" which probably inspired the ending of the movie.

[–] freebird1987 10 years ago

That's right. They're the Valenzuela family.

[–] supermalta 9 years ago

It's not about the movie it's what the movie represents