It’s a tough, grim truth that “American Me” tells, about the Latino gang culture of East Los Angeles and in the California prison system. The movie covers about 30 years, starting with the infamous Zoot Suit riots in 1943 Los Angeles, when servicemen on leave attacked Mexican-Americans. Olmos plays the central character, Santana, who grows up in the barrio, joins a gang, graduates from juvenile jail to Folsom State Prison where he and his friends J.D. (William Forsythe) and Mundo (Pepe Serna) form a Mexican mafia, which eventually reaches beyond the walls to control drugs, gambling, extortion and prostitution on the outside.
The prison sequences are savage and sobering, starting with the rape of Santana by an inmate, whom he promptly kills. Such scenes go beyond Hollywood sensationalism, detailing the confrontation of prison subcultures, the Mexicans, blacks, the white Aryan Brotherhood. “American Me” shows the fearsome logic that makes ethnic gangs the inevitable social structures that arise with the breakdown of values and opportunity. The movie takes you inside this alternate society, making you feel its perverted pride in the macho codes of bravado, tribal loyalty and vengeance. When Santana is released after 18 years he brings these codes with him into the Latino community, creating havoc within his family and destroying his incipient (and first ever) relationship with a woman, Julie (Evelina Fernandez). In a climactic sequence the film intercuts between Santana’s disastrous attempt at sex jailhouse style with Julie, and the gang rape and murder of an inmate at Folsom.
Francis Ford Coppola used such violent intercuts in his “Godfather” trilogy. Directing his first film, Olmos lacks Coppola’s artistry, and he doesn’t escape some traps of crudity and cliche. Nevertheless “American Me” is a fiercely impressive film; it butts its way inside you and stays there long after you’ve seen it. The mostly Latino cast pops through the screen with passion, gravity and humor. Olmos himself is a splendidly smoldering presence; he’s like a Latin Bogart with his oblong head, sidelong gaze, cigarette squint and panther slouch.
The man is charismatic; he had to be to persuade the Folsom authorities to let him film scenes of mayhem and riot within the prison. Born in the L.A. barrio, Olmos’s first impact came in the role of El Pachuco in Luis Valdez’s 1978 play “Zoot Suit.” Even before then he had met Floyd Mutrux, who was writing the screenplay for “American Me.” The script became famous as it knocked around Hollywood for years, at one time being sold as a vehicle for Al Pacino. Meanwhile Olmos was making an impression in “Wolfen,” “Blade Runner,” “The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez,” “Stand and Deliver” (for which he got an Oscar nomination as the real-life teacher Jaime Escalante), and most visibly as the brooding Lieutenant Castillo on “Miami Vice.” All this time Olmos wanted to make “American Me” and now he’s the director, star, coproducer and co-writer (although the screenwriting credit goes to Mutrux and Desmond Nakano).
“This film is not for one race, one subculture, one age range,” says Olmos. “Gangs teach a distorted discipline, a distorted familial bonding, a distorted sense of pride and power. I made this movie to allow all society to take a journey into an uncharted land that they would never have the opportunity to go into.” Olmos disclaims wanting to be a role model, but he is. “I’m a kid’s worst nightmare,” he says, “and also a kid’s best hope. I come from a dysfunctional family, I’m a minority, I have no natural talent, but I did it. If I can do it, anybody can do it. I take away all the excuses.”
title: “Eddie Olmos S East L.A. Story” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-30” author: “Deborah Gray”
It’s a tough, grim truth that “American Me” tells, about the Latino gang culture of East Los Angeles and in the California prison system. The movie covers about 30 years, starting with the infamous Zoot Suit riots in 1943 Los Angeles, when servicemen on leave attacked Mexican-Americans. Olmos plays the central character, Santana, who grows up in the barrio, joins a gang, graduates from juvenile jail to Folsom State Prison where he and his friends J.D. (William Forsythe) and Mundo (Pepe Serna) form a Mexican mafia, which eventually reaches beyond the walls to control drugs, gambling, extortion and prostitution on the outside.
The prison sequences are savage and sobering, starting with the rape of Santana by an inmate, whom he promptly kills. Such scenes go beyond Hollywood sensationalism, detailing the confrontation of prison subcultures, the Mexicans, blacks, the white Aryan Brotherhood. “American Me” shows the fearsome logic that makes ethnic gangs the inevitable social structures that arise with the breakdown of values and opportunity. The movie takes you inside this alternate society, making you feel its perverted pride in the macho codes of bravado, tribal loyalty and vengeance. When Santana is released after 18 years he brings these codes with him into the Latino community, creating havoc within his family and destroying his incipient (and first ever) relationship with a woman, Julie (Evelina Fernandez). In a climactic sequence the film intercuts between Santana’s disastrous attempt at sex jailhouse style with Julie, and the gang rape and murder of an inmate at Folsom.
Francis Ford Coppola used such violent intercuts in his “Godfather” trilogy. Directing his first film, Olmos lacks Coppola’s artistry, and he doesn’t escape some traps of crudity and cliche. Nevertheless “American Me” is a fiercely impressive film; it butts its way inside you and stays there long after you’ve seen it. The mostly Latino cast pops through the screen with passion, gravity and humor. Olmos himself is a splendidly smoldering presence; he’s like a Latin Bogart with his oblong head, sidelong gaze, cigarette squint and panther slouch.
The man is charismatic; he had to be to persuade the Folsom authorities to let him film scenes of mayhem and riot within the prison. Born in the L.A. barrio, Olmos’s first impact came in the role of El Pachuco in Luis Valdez’s 1978 play “Zoot Suit.” Even before then he had met Floyd Mutrux, who was writing the screenplay for “American Me.” The script became famous as it knocked around Hollywood for years, at one time being sold as a vehicle for Al Pacino. Meanwhile Olmos was making an impression in “Wolfen,” “Blade Runner,” “The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez,” “Stand and Deliver” (for which he got an Oscar nomination as the real-life teacher Jaime Escalante), and most visibly as the brooding Lieutenant Castillo on “Miami Vice.” All this time Olmos wanted to make “American Me” and now he’s the director, star, coproducer and co-writer (although the screenwriting credit goes to Mutrux and Desmond Nakano).
“This film is not for one race, one subculture, one age range,” says Olmos. “Gangs teach a distorted discipline, a distorted familial bonding, a distorted sense of pride and power. I made this movie to allow all society to take a journey into an uncharted land that they would never have the opportunity to go into.” Olmos disclaims wanting to be a role model, but he is. “I’m a kid’s worst nightmare,” he says, “and also a kid’s best hope. I come from a dysfunctional family, I’m a minority, I have no natural talent, but I did it. If I can do it, anybody can do it. I take away all the excuses.”
