The Bronze Screen: 100 Years of the Latino Image in American Cinema

This was well done but it could've been much longer. My big complaint? How do you make a documentary about Latinos in Hollywood and not mention Tito Guízar? He was under contract to Paramount Pictures in the 1930s and at Paramount he was featured in English language films and he also starred in films made in Spanish at Paramount for the export market. He was often on American screens from 1935 to 1950. Guízar was well known to American audiences as he had his own radio shows beginning in the early 1930s on CBS and NBC which led to his screen appearances. He was one of the original singing cowboys on screen and he was one of the performers responsible for the surge in popularity of Latin music in the U.S. in the late 30s/early 40s. They should've included a clip of him in the film somewhere. His omission is puzzling since Guízar WAS interviewed for the project. The interviews for the film are at the UCLA archive. The producers should consider revisiting this material. It could easily be a mini-series with episodes dedicated to The Silent Era, The Latin Lover, The Sidekick, The Music Makers, The Good Neighbor Policy, The Latin Ladies, The Character Actors, etc. Basically an expanded version of the 2002 film.

The Latino presence in Hollywood movies is a good subject and this is an ambitious attempt to square up to it.

BRONZE SCREEN has two faults. It races through material we'd like to see explored at greater length - the Spanish Dracula for one and it is conformed to the model of all these, determined to show Hollywood as a perpetrator of evil stereotypes. Yes, Chris Pin Martin did spend his screen life trying to shoot John Wayne in the back but I'd like to see a more studied argument.

Getting so much material, usually in good copies, must have been a major undertaking and some of the factual material is new but the downside is that things register as superficial.

The best segment gets away from the usual model and shows the work of Latino cameramen effectively, including non Hollywood material. A complete film on this trying to define a Hispanic look would have been a more worthwhile undertaking.

Nice to find Pablo Ferro still at work on the graphics.