endersgame1972 This was a very informative Documentary about the way migrant farm workers were treated in the 1960,s and who they were treated and the man who fought for their civil rights it was an amazing film But I will say it is NOT for children in any way shape or form the subject matter is way to advanced for most kids the language is too harsh for anyone under 13 to be listening to. for Junior high students it is a great History lesson about civil rights and racial equality.it is a real eye opener I love History but even I did not know about this in the grape fields in Southern California, a real shocker to be sure, I would recommend this film to any one with a passion for History.

Roland E. Zwick Not surprising, given its subject matter, the movie "Cesar Chavez" is both inspiring and depressing in roughly equal measure - depressing because it portrays a society sadly built on the exploitation of the disenfranchised and powerless, and inspiring because it reminds us of the power of both the individual and the collective to change the course of history for the better.In terms of structure and execution, this is a fairly standard biopic of the man whose name has become virtually synonymous with collective bargaining and civil rights. The movie begins when Chavez is already a family man, working as an organizer for a Latino civil rights group, the Community Service Organization. We're briefly informed of the fact that Chavez was born in Yuma, Arizona, but that, as a child, he was forced to migrate to California when his family lost their farm in the depths of the Depression. The trauma of being ripped away from the land he loved and compelled to work as a laborer in the field for virtually no money never left Chavez and, indeed, it became the defining force of his life. Thus, he returned to those fields years later for the purpose of organizing his fellow workers into a union (eventually to be known as United Farm Workers), taking on the massive power structure that, through a combination of greed and racism, kept them virtually enslaved to their masters. What strikes one most while watching "Cesar Chavez" is the tremendous courage displayed not only by Chavez and his family but all the workers in standing up to the verbal abuse, physical violence, racism, jail time and threatened loss of employment that was regularly thrown at them in an effort to get them to back down and accept their inhumane working conditions without question or complaint. When striking didn't get them what they wanted, they turned toward mass marches and boycotts, the latter of which was particularly effective in winning the general public to their side and eventually bringing the growers to the bargaining table and ultimately acceding to their demands - no easy task given that many of the local politicians, law enforcement officials and judges were already in the pocket of the wealthy growers. Luckily, the movement also boasted some powerful allies from around the country, i.e., politicians like Senator Robert Kennedy and the United Auto Workers Union. The movie also captures the fact that Chavez frequently had to contend with members of his own group who often felt that passive resistance was inefficient in achieving their goals and wanted to employ more direct and violent methods in taking on their oppressors. Like many movies that attempt to capture the totality of a famous person's life, "Cesar Chavez" often falls short of the mark. Because the movie's running time is so limited, certain aspects of Chavez' life inevitably get short shrift. The relationships with his wife and long time partner, Helen (well played by America Ferrera), and with his oldest son are sketchy at best. Famed union activist Dolores Huerta (Rosario Dawson), who worked beside Chavez in many of his endeavors, tends to get shuffled into the background a bit more than is warranted given the prominent role she played, an obvious casualty to the limits of time. Michael Pena bears an impressive physical resemblance to Chavez, but he lacks the fire-in-the-belly necessary to convey the true essence of a man who inspired millions and changed the world. John Malkovich, on the other hand, effectively portrays an unsympathetic grape-grower without resorting to overstatement and caricature.Writer Keir Pearson and director Diego Luna faced a daunting task in bringing Chavez' story to the screen. That they only half succeeded is perhaps more inevitable than it is regrettable given the self-imposed constraints of the medium they were working in (a TV miniseries might have given the subject more justice). But anyone with an interest in Chavez in particular and the fight for human rights in general should definitely watch this film.

LeonLouisRicci A Bare Bones Movie about the Famous Labor Leader that isn't Interested in Details or Minutia, just the Fact that Big Business (you know the Free Market) that Left to its Own Greedy Devices will Repress, Underpay, Exploit, De-Humanize, Employ Children, Withhold Benefits, and Simply do Anything They Can to Make More Money on the Backs of People Without Power.So it is Really Unnecessary to get into the Weeds. This is Basic Human Rights. The Bill of Rights and All that Jazz. It Seems that there Still Remains a Clear and Present Danger in this Land of Opportunity to this Day as the Unions are Vilified and the Trickle Down Theory of Ronald Reagan (his insensitivity and inhumanity are touched on in the Film), is Still Around and Sold as the "Rising Tide that Lifts All Boats".This is a No-Brainer and Counter-Mined and Pontificated Against Every Day by Pundits, Politicians, and Big Corp that have a Lot of Power but Very Few Brains and come Equipped with a Total Lack of Empathy. They have Undergone, Somewhere at Sometime, a "Cremation of Care". Every so often there is a Need, Once Again, for this Type of Bumper Sticker ("Yes We Can") Sloganism just to Remind and Tweak Folks of the Perpetual Inconvenient Truth that Regular People just Want Decent Pay for a Decent Days Work and are Not Receiving it. No More Intellectualizing is Needed and No More Attention to Detail is Necessary. Just a Wake Up Call. Anybody Home?

bigcodyjack The movie in its way distorts the Cesar's Chavez and his impacts. No doubt Chavez was a charismatic figure and because of that Big Labor used him to create the UFW. Chavez was Labor's puppet. He did what they wanted him to do. He was non-violent because Labor did not want violence. To Big Labor violence was something that belonged to the commies and Labor didn't want violence to characterize their efforts to create another cash cow in a farm workers union. So Labor manipulated Chavez and because he saw the benefits of being Labor's stooge, he went along with it. Not that he didn't also believe that it would benefit his beloved farm workers too. Without the backing of big labor, Chavez would have gone nowhere. He was poorly educated, almost an illiterate itinerant. But to his credit he listened to Big Labor and he succeeded. It was Big Labor that had the power in Sacramento and with the government, not Chavez. However, Chavez's claims of success are somewhat dimmed by the fact that while it successfully with the help of Big Labor did get some reforms enacted into law, members of the UFW get socked for dues that support well paid union executives that have in the end delivered little for the workers. And many farm workers still don't belong to the UFW which they do not see any reason to belong to.Unfortunately, the movie is very selective in what it portrays of Chavez so as not to diminish his image. Hopefully someday someone will write the true story of Chavez and bring it to the screen so the public can form its own judgment concerning his importance to Latinos.