LIVONIA GAZETTE • HONEOYE LAKE COURIER. LWA RECORDER' HONEOYE FALLS TIMES • AVON COMEr· GENESEO STAR
Page 6
The Spectator
by Dick Mayberry
I
PIT BULL
MANIA
One fact may be agreed
upon by all: there are some
dangerous dogs out there
somewhere. Some dogs have
killed and others have maimed.
Many of them were trained to
kill, albeit the training may not
have been aimed at humans.
Some of the necessary
facts are not yet universally
accepted. Try these:
1. What are "pit bull
dogs?"
2. Are they violent by
nature or as the result of
training?
3. Are most or all of
La Bamba (PG-13)
Movies about rock and
roll stars tend to be predictable.
More often than not, a young,
good-looking,
motivated
individual rises from humble
origins to hit the Big Time. The
inevitable struggle to deal with
the newly-found success follows.
Finally, our rocking hero winds
up indulging in questionable
vices to "cope."
Not so La Bamba.
This mostly-true story about
teen star Ritchie Valens avoids
almost all 'rock' cliches. No
drunken orgies. No topless
groupies. No drug-induced
hallucinations. I liked it anyway.
The fact that Valens was not
even of legal drinking age when,
at the height of his success in
1959, he was killed in a plane
cmsh, leaves no room for
. gratuitous flash.
La Bamba tells a
classic mgs-to-rock-riches story.
Valens, never without a smile or
. aguigu-, is so optimistic you
may just -throw up. With lines
like, "I always carry my guitar;
it's my future," he hops from
one (\) garage-band danee to one
(\) performance at a country bar
to one (\) performance at a rented
hall, where is discovered by a
record producer. Even if this is
the actual chain of events which
the recorded attacks unprovoked
or have they followed an act or
acts which incited the animal to
violence?
Before society acts
hysterically to destroy a whole
alleged breed of dogs, the
problem ought to be studied just
a bit. An immediate reaction to
that suggestion is to question
what I might say about other
people hurt or killed while we
study. One answer is a control
regulation, mandating that all
identified pit bulls be kept in an
enclosed building or tethered
within the confines of the
owner's yard. Many urbanized
municipalities require that now,
so its just a matter of
lead to Val ens' discovery, the
producers should have changed it
in the interest of believability (I
hope that's a word).
Lou Diamond Phillips
as Valens puts in a good
performance, but he tends to get
a little too milk and cookies.
Like whocver it was that played
Tony in the film version of
West Side Story, however,
he is overshadowed -- make that
eclipsed -- by some great costarring performances.
Esai Morales steals the
show as Valens' older, troubled
half-brother, Bob; If fate smiles
on Ritchie, it absolutely frowns
on Bob. A drinking problem,
constant fights with his pregnant
girlfriend, and the inability to
live upto, or with, the constant
successes of his brother arc just
some of Bob's problems.
Fortunately, he has a Devil-maycare attitude and takes almost
everything in stride. He gives the
movie its only light moments.
Rosana DeSoto, as the
mother, is outstanding. Her
performance is powerful and very
realistic. There isn't a moment
she's on sereen when you think
she's acting.
There are also some
great
cameos.
The
approximations of Allen Freed,
Jackie Wilson, 'The Big Bopper',
Eddie Cochran and Buddy Holly
July 30, 1987
use. It is difficult not to recall
that before the pit bull we fcared
the Doberman Pinscher. Either
that breed was not so menacing
as we thought or our attention
has been diverted by the pit bUll.
If pit bulls arc not
naturally vicious, we have, as is
suggested by many, a people
problem.
At least some of the
att.1cks have been provoked. The
one in Rochester may have been'
we cannot know until all facL~
arc developed.
Before we go too far too
fast, I suggest as good ~
background reading the article
"The Pit Bull, Friend and Killer"
by E. M. Swift appearing in the
July 27, 1987 issue of Smm
Illustrated. Notwithstanding the
horrifying cover picture, the
article seems to be an evenhanded treatment of an issue very
capable of over simplification
and provocative rhetoric.
enforcement.
The rust question posed
above is a real one. A couple of
breeds are commonly referred to
as "pit bulls", the American Pit
Bull Terrier and the American
Staffordshire Terrier. A major
national magazine calls the pit
bull "a kind of dog, a general
catchall like hound or retriever."
Who cares? If it is inherently or
genetically vicious, wipe it out.
One problem is that the latter
breed is accepted as not vicious.
Staffordshires are about as
menacing as domestic cats.
Pit bulls come in
virtually all colors with red or
black noses and weights mnging
from 20 to 100 pounds. They
have not always been carefully
bred for bloodline, since many
owners were much more
concerned with behavior patterns.
Many innocent mutts may look
like this feared kind, and the pit
bull may look quite like the
mutt. Many owners who have
intentionally misidentified their
dogs as pit bulls may now be
sorry that they did.
Do we ban pedigreed
animals only, or is 50% or 25%
enough? Which breed or breeds?
There arc some tough to fix
arbitrary boundaries which must
be set.
If pit bulls arc violent
by nature, that fact has not been
accepted by a large number of
experts. For the moment, we
ought to give those experts the
benefit of time to explore the
problem. They don't appear to be
simple animal lovers who would
protect any species even if it had
no redeeming value. Sure, I
know there arc those who would
protect black widow spiders and
coral snakes. Here we have a
type of dog which isn't
universally violent and has many
friends.
The researchers may
discover something applicable to
the pit bull or of more geneml
(played by Marshal Crenshaw)
are realistic, and fun additions.
The music, most of it played by
Los Lobos, will keep your
sneakers tapping on the sticky
theater floor.
The only really bad
thing about La Bamba is that
writer/director Luis
Valdez
insists on foreshadowing the
climactic plane cra~h about, oh, I
don't know, a thousand times.
Since most viewers know that
Valens died in a plane crash these
intrusions arc even more
conspicuous. What kind of
intrusions? TIle movie opens
with two plancs coliding in air
(One flies into another from
behind? Whcn has tiM ever
happened?).
Val ens
has
nightmares about wreckage from
this crash falling from the sky
and crushing him -- an atrocity
that apparently felled a childhood
friend. A snake-man/witch doctor
gives Ritchie a beaded necklace
which is supposed to protect
him. It's destroyed in a fight
with Bob (you guessed it -- right
before Valens' last tour). And
Ritchie's dialogue: ''I'm goning
to be a star; and stars don't fall
out of the sky, do they,!" or "I've
always dreamed I'd die in a plane
cra~h." Simply not necessary.
If you can overlook
these obvious stabs at irony. La
Bamba is an enjoynble film.
There arc believnble characters,
strong perfonnnnces and vcry
sharp musical sequences. And,
with the exception of the sorethumb references to an ending we
all know is coming anyhow, the
script flies. Overall, so does the
film.
cause more controversy both here
and abroad before the need for
such protection is felt.
Our ships now ride a
thin line or peace and justice
tllfough the Gulf and sit like
targets ready to be knocked into
the drink by the next able
marksman.
Now, perhaps we're
needed to protect the valuable oil
cargoes that run the gulf each day
to insure that tlle economics of
the world arc not threatened by
the blood-crazed Iranians who
still shout "Death to the United
States." But where were our
forces when hundreds of
thousands died in Etlliopia at the
hands
of an
oppresive
Communistic regieme which
still reins in that land. Were they
not as important 10 protect as the
precious fuel that we now have
given obligation to kecp safe
from all dangers in the water?
It is ironic and 5:ld to
think that maybe in the eyes of
our government money is more
important th:in life itself, but it
seems that our presence in the
Gulf is proving that to be true.
Everywhere we tllrn,
while there is danger, ollr biggest
fear may be from ourselves - that
we have become a~ callous as tlle
enemy, thaL we will risk our
lives for the price of a barrel of
high grade crude but sit idly by
as thousands of innocent lives
arc wasted. In Beirut we lost
hundreds of soldiers for the sake
of "presence". In ·the Persian
Gulf we arc risking not only the
lives of those seamen aboard the
flagships, but our credibility as a
nation of compa'>Sion as well.
--FR
Peace At Any Cost
The introduction of
American flagships in the
Persian Gulf has raised eyebrows
around the world and is certain to
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