The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez (Criterion Collection) (DVD)

Forced to run from the Texas Rangers after a heated misunderstanding leads to the death of a lawman, Mexican American farmer Gregorio Cortez sets off in desperate flight, evading a massive manhunt on horseback for days. Producer-star Edward James Olmos, seeking to shed new light on a historical incident that had been enshrined in a corrido (folk song), enlisted director Robert M. Young, a longtime practitioner of socially engaged realism, to helm this trailblazing independent film, a landmark of Chicano cinema. Shifting it's perspective between the pursuers and the pursued, The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez is a thrilling chase film and a nuanced procedural that peels away the layers of prejudice and myth surrounding Cortez, uncovering the true story of an ordinary man persecuted by the law and transfigured by legend.

Starring: Edward James Olmos, James Gammon, Tom Bower, Bruce McGill, Brion James, Alan Vint, Timothy Scott, Pepe Serna, Michael McGuire, William Sanderson, Barry Corbin, Jack Kehoe, Rosanna DeSoto, Ned Beatty