75
Metascore
10 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100TV Guide MagazineFrank LoveceTV Guide MagazineFrank LoveceAn effective and moving drama about the strength of the human spirit and the will to survive.
- 100Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertThis is the first film to approach the subject of "undocumented workers" solely through their eyes. This is not one of those docudramas where we half-expect a test at the end, but a film like "The Grapes of Wrath" that gets inside the hearts of its characters and lives with them.
- 90The New York TimesJanet MaslinThe New York TimesJanet MaslinA small, personal, independently made film with the sweep of El Norte, with solid, sympathetic performances by unknown actors and a visual style of astonishing vibrancy, must be regarded as a remarkable accomplishment. [11 Jan 1984, p.15]
- 83Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittChristian Science MonitorDavid SterrittAlthough the film's Guatemalan and Mexican portions include much effective storytelling, the long American episode is the most stirring.
- 80Time OutTime OutTraditional immigrant films from Hollywood (The Godfather?) end in fame, money and beautiful women for the inheritors of the new found land's promise; but El Norte gives us a vision of the downside of the American dream. The film's concentration on the plight of its young hopefuls, however, is done with much humour and compassion, so that the tragedy of its message is very bracing.
- 75Miami HeraldBill CosfordMiami HeraldBill CosfordWhen it comes time to paint a view of Southern California from the perspective of outsiders looking in and expecting miracles, Nava's touch is marvelously sure, the satirical edge all covered in chrome. Nava's is the kind of talent that a low budget cannot hide. [30 Mar 1984, p.D6]
- 70VarietyVarietyComes across as a kind of giant Renaissance canvas.
- 70The New York TimesVincent CanbyThe New York TimesVincent CanbyNot exactly a great film, but it's a very good one that, through the devices of fiction, manages to provoke a number of healthily contradictory feelings about the world we all inhabit at the moment.
- 63Slant MagazineSlant MagazineEl Norte deserves credit for being one of the first films to engage American cinema in a discourse on the immigrant experience, but its approach to the material—shallow, condescending, and hectoring—undermines its stabs at brutal realism.
- 30Chicago ReaderChicago ReaderThough his subject is a serious one and his intentions are apparently noble, Nava has made a film that is essentially indistinguishable from Love Story.