This movie needs a month long run on HBO or Showtime, to remind people of how good it is, and hopefully create a buzz that would lead to a bluray release. Anyone with a remote appreciation of a terrific screenplay, solid acting, and neo-realistic direction would have to love this movie.
Edward James Olmos directs, and stars as main character Santana Montoya. Santana's parents are victims of a brutal and disturbing attack during Los Angeles's "Zoot Suit Riots" in the 1940s which sets the tone for Santana's power driven and violent life.
A childhood of gang activity in East Los Angeles eventually lands Santana in Folsom State Prison, where in the 1960s he starts La Eme, otherwise known as the Mexican Mafia. The gang controls all illicit commerce inside of the prison walls, from drugs to prostitution.
While paroled in the early 1970s, Santana meets Julie (Evalina Fernandez). Julie, who's aware of Santana's high profile in the criminal world, and is resentful of it for the most part, falls for him when she learns that while in prison he'd studied and read books about the Chicano political movement. Santana's childhood friend and fellow gangster, JD (William Forsythe), also a member of La Eme despite being white, is skeptical of Santana's relationship with Julie, and believes Julie's pacifist politics are rubbing off on Santana, which would make La Eme look weak in the gang world.
When Julie's cousin, "Little Puppet" (Daniel Villareal) commits a major infraction within La Eme's rules, Santana is given an ultimatum by JD to either endorse a gang hit on Little Puppet, or risk that his leadership of the gang would come into question, likely resulting in his own death. A series of incidents, including a drug overdose and a bizarre end to a date between Santana and Julia, put the two at odds, which leaves Santana at a crossroads of maintaining his gang status (and his life), or trying to salvage what little remains of his relationship with the only woman he'd ever loved. What results is both riveting and sad, and, as intended by Edward James Olmos, leaves a message about Chicano gang life in Los Angeles.
Enough controversy surrounded the movie to make another movie about in and of itself. In fact, the DVD has a documentary included in the special features called "Lives in Hazard", which goes into further detail, while also giving terrific insight to the streets of East Los Angeles in the early 1990s, including interviews with real gang members who were used as consultants and actors.
This one has fallen through the cracks, and it shouldn't have. It has a story, dialogue, and even great cinematography (which effectively captures downtown and East Los Angeles during three different eras in history) that help the film hold up twenty plus years after its release.
Edward James Olmos directs, and stars as main character Santana Montoya. Santana's parents are victims of a brutal and disturbing attack during Los Angeles's "Zoot Suit Riots" in the 1940s which sets the tone for Santana's power driven and violent life.
A childhood of gang activity in East Los Angeles eventually lands Santana in Folsom State Prison, where in the 1960s he starts La Eme, otherwise known as the Mexican Mafia. The gang controls all illicit commerce inside of the prison walls, from drugs to prostitution.
While paroled in the early 1970s, Santana meets Julie (Evalina Fernandez). Julie, who's aware of Santana's high profile in the criminal world, and is resentful of it for the most part, falls for him when she learns that while in prison he'd studied and read books about the Chicano political movement. Santana's childhood friend and fellow gangster, JD (William Forsythe), also a member of La Eme despite being white, is skeptical of Santana's relationship with Julie, and believes Julie's pacifist politics are rubbing off on Santana, which would make La Eme look weak in the gang world.
When Julie's cousin, "Little Puppet" (Daniel Villareal) commits a major infraction within La Eme's rules, Santana is given an ultimatum by JD to either endorse a gang hit on Little Puppet, or risk that his leadership of the gang would come into question, likely resulting in his own death. A series of incidents, including a drug overdose and a bizarre end to a date between Santana and Julia, put the two at odds, which leaves Santana at a crossroads of maintaining his gang status (and his life), or trying to salvage what little remains of his relationship with the only woman he'd ever loved. What results is both riveting and sad, and, as intended by Edward James Olmos, leaves a message about Chicano gang life in Los Angeles.
Enough controversy surrounded the movie to make another movie about in and of itself. In fact, the DVD has a documentary included in the special features called "Lives in Hazard", which goes into further detail, while also giving terrific insight to the streets of East Los Angeles in the early 1990s, including interviews with real gang members who were used as consultants and actors.
This one has fallen through the cracks, and it shouldn't have. It has a story, dialogue, and even great cinematography (which effectively captures downtown and East Los Angeles during three different eras in history) that help the film hold up twenty plus years after its release.