I love this movie so much

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Absolutely Brilliant!

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Milagro is a small dusty community. Ladd Devine is the land baron planning to build a golf course resort. Mayor Sammy Cantu and Sheriff Bernabe Montoya enforce a water restriction against the farmers. In frustration, José Mondragon starts irrigating his field to grow beans. Local activist Ruby Archuleta recruits progressive cynical reporter Charlie Bloom to write about the conflict. Herbie Platt is from NYU doing sociology research. Joe offers his place in exchange for work. Fixer Kyril Montana comes in to stop Joe without having to arrest him which could cause political troubles.Director Robert Redford tries to deliver something serious with whimsy. The problem is that the whimsy isn't whimsy enough and the serious is undercut by the lighter tone. The two sides don't mix with ease. José is too angry to root for completely. It would be great to have a more appealing lead like an old quiet farmer. The old man who talks to the invisible spirit would be a great option. That's also another problem. There are too many main characters. Some of them need to be combined. It's still an interesting watch but it does have some problems.

The Milagro Beanfield War is a work of art. It has a premise upon which the story flows so engagingly for the viewer.Unlike all of the action adventure films of today, relying on superfluous violence and car crash scenes, the film develops the intricacies of characters, including poor migrant workers, old men, small town people, ex-hippies, et al.Everything works: theme, music, plot, characters, setting, photography, actors. Redford shows he is a highly competent director meshing all into an engaging and enjoyable experience.Without the old men in this film, it would have failed. They symbolize all that we have lost of our ancestors: simple values; simple lives; honor; social consciousness; enjoyment of life; appreciation of just being alive.Great cast,great film. I watch it every time it comes on the air, mesmerized by the world into which it lulls you with its other worldly music.Thank you, Robert Redford, for making this film. Please do some more like it.

This movie was very powerful in the sense that it showed how much as Americans we value real estate. The Devine plan for Milagro was to put up a resort, a lake, and a golf course; and by doing so it had no regards for the native population of Milagro. They had been there for hundreds of years, but the town had changed during that time. In the past years, poverty had become noticeable in their personalities. It had always been their style of life, but now it dictated how people acted. This is a classic example of rich people wanting to buy up all the land, so they offer money to all the land owners to buy them out. As far as who held the key to the plot of the story, it was Sheriff Montoya. Although he was dealing with Ladd Devine, he ended up staying true to his native people by defending them. Twice, he stepped in during life/death situations and prevented total chaos from breaking out. Also, as far as playing their role very well, Christopher Walken did a great job playing Kryil Montana, the loose cannon, stop at nothing, wild-west vigilante out to get Mondragon. It was interesting to see how much pride Montana took in finally arresting Mondragon, but how he still had a level of respect for him when he let him go. Ruby Archuleta was the activist who made this all happen. She took a stand to defend her native people, even when at times, they didn't understand what was happening to them. She got the injustice into the hands of the right man, Charlie Bloom, an ex-lawyer and civil rights activist. He stood up for the town that wasn't even his own and printed the news about everything that was going on. It was interesting to see that some people in the town were willing to let the development happen. The US Forest Service rangers, whose families had been in Milagro all their life, were willing to turn their backs on their people and got paid off by Devine. This created most of the conflict in the movie because the first scene in which people actually pointed their guns at each other involved the rangers. They had taken Joe's cow onto national land, so they could detain it, therefore costing him $100 to retrieve it. Well everyone knew that this was by design, and the old men in Milagro were there to defend Joe all the way. Luckily Sheriff Montoya stepped in, or we would be looking at a whole different plot line. The other incident which made the movie into what it was involved Montana buying up all of Bloom's local papers and trying to burn them. But while this was going on, a gust of wind picked up all the newspapers and spread them all over town for everyone to read. As far as social justice movies go, this would go somewhere at the top of the list. It was a little different than I would have expected, in that I expected Devine to just buy Mondragon out of his property. All Joe was looking for was a decent job to pay off his bills and feed his family, so if Devine was willing to just offer Mondragon a lucrative settlement, then this wouldn't have happened. The only thing that would have made this movie better would to have been to see Bloom go to court as a civil attorney and make the whole state of New Mexico aware of the injustices that were occurring.

Having lived in New Mexico, this movie depicts the local people like no other movie made about New Mexico. I love this movie. The music is great. Too bad there wasn't a soundtrack. I moved from R.I. to N.M. People told me before I moved that N.M. would grab you with its people, its culture, its food and not let go. I live in Ca. now and after watching this movie, I know why N.M. grabs you and doesen't let go. It is truly the land of Enchantment. This movie is sensational. The acting in this movie is great. From Freddy Fender to the Lt. Governor of N.M. all the actors are just wonderful. Christopher Walken play the perfect stooge until the very end where he makes up for being an idiot.