El Norte on DVD

Did you know that Gregory Nava's 1983 masterpiece of a film, "El Norte", is finally out on DVD!? It actually came out two weeks ago, part of the Criterion Collection, on January 20th, but forgot to bring it up here. If you, like me, were a Latino student growing up in Southern California schools in the 80's or 90's, chances are you probably saw this film at some point in one of your classes. I actually saw it several times in school. I'm not sure how widespread it was in terms of teachers showing it in other areas. Nonetheless, I think it's a very good film.

"El Norte" is the story of two Guatemalan siblings, Enrique and Rosa, who flee persecution at home in Guatemala and take the long, hard journey to the United States. This is the type of story that even now happens on a daily basis. But I think this film was one of the first to tell it well, with so much power, love and emotion. It's a funny film at times, has it's tender moments as well, but it's also quite sad, realistic and tragic.

I don't like to give too much away, I feel that if you haven't seen it yet it'd have a greater impact if you just sit down and watch it. And if you already saw it, now is the perfect time to try to add it to your collection, as it's finally on DVD after years of not being available in that format here. I actually did have a DVD of it, but it's not a great copy. The Criterion Collection, which released this DVD, is known for trying to give the best treatment to film releases. As they say on their site, "the Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films, has been dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements. To date, more than 150 filmmakers have made our library of Director Approved DVDs, Blu-ray discs, and laserdiscs the most significant archive of contemporary filmmaking available to the home viewer."

This film is up there with one of my favorites of all time. Not only because it reflects my family's histories, as well as that of many people I grew up with, it's also a really great film in general.