- United States
- 1977
- 96 minutes
- Color
- 1.66:1
- English, Spanish
- Spine #609
SYNOPSIS: In ¡Alambrista!, a Mexican farmworker sneaks across the border to California to make money to send to his family back home. It is a story that happens every day, told here in an uncompromising, groundbreaking work of realism from American independent filmmaker Robert M. Young. Vivid and spare where other films about illegal immigration might sentimentalize, Young’s take is equal parts intimate character study and gripping road movie, a political work that never loses sight of the complex man at its center. ¡Alambrista!, winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s inaugural Caméra d’Or in 1978, remains one of the best films ever made on this perennially relevant topic.
Cast & CreditsOpen
Cast
| Roberto | Domingo Ambriz |
| Joe | Trinidad Silva |
| Sharon | Linda Gillin |
| Anglo coyote | Ned Beatty |
| Man in café | Jerry Hardin |
| Second drunk | Julius Harris |
| Roberto’s wife | Ludevina Mendez Salazar |
| Roberto’s mother | Maria Guadalupe Chavez |
| Contractor | Edward Lopez |
| Strawberry field owners | Evelyn Chieko Saito |
| Strawberry field owners | Tom Tar |
| Berto | Paul Berrones |
| Cook in café | George Smith |
| Sharon’s brother | Dennis Harris |
| First drunk | Edward James Olmos |
| Revival preacher | Reverend J. D. Hurt |
| Mexican coyote | Salvador Martinez |
| Junkyard owners | R. L. Dick Rautenberg |
| Junkyard owners | Kent Rautenberg |
| Junkyard cook | Félix José Álvarez |
| Roberto’s father | John Sandoval |
| Watermelon field crew boss | Alfred Alvernaz |
| Highway Patrol officer | Officer Constantine Copulos |
| Border officials | Officer J. C. Lamont |
| Border officials | Officer Thomas Coffman |
| Pregnant woman | Lily Álvarez |
Credits
| Director | Robert M. Young |
| Producer | Michael Hausman and Irwin Young |
| Executive producer | Barbara Schultz, Albert Camarillo, Ph.D., Davíd Carrasco, Ph.D., Jose B. Cuellar and Ph.D. |
| Written by | Robert M. Young |
| Director of photography | Robert M. Young |
| Editing | Edward Beyer and Norman Buckley |
| Music composed and adapted by | Francisco Herrera and Tomas Montoya |
| Associate producers | Sandra Schulberg and David Streit |
| Assistant director | Michael Hausman |
| Additional photography | Tom Hurwitz |
| Sound mixer | Martin Quiroz |
| Art director | Lili Kilvert |
| Lighting director | Michael Barrow |
| Assistant editor | Jay Dranch |
| Sound editor | Mitch Worth |
| Location coordinator | Donald Wylie |
| Production assistants | Shawn Hausman, Madeline Todd and Sarah Young |
| Still photographer | Andrew Young |
Disc Features
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION:
- New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed stereo soundtrack
- New audio commentary featuring director Robert M. Young and coproducer Michael Hausman
- New interview with actor Edward James Olmos
- Children of the Fields (1973), a short documentary by Young, accompanied by a new interview with the director
- Trailer
- PLUS: An essay by film historian Charles Ramírez Berg






