From AMG:
Taylor Hackford directed this urgent melodrama about the realities of street crime, gangs, and prison life among the Chicanos of East Los Angeles. Miklo (Damian Chapa) [ Fouzone's Note: A white guy who drops Chicano street slang ], Paco (Benjamin Bratt) and Cruz (Jesse Borrego) are three friends who are living in the East Los Angeles of 1972 as it is torn apart by violence. When the gang violence hits the three friends, they are affected by their participation in the bitter violence in different ways. Cruz, an artist, becomes crippled, and he sinks deeply into drug addiction. Paco, an accessory to murder, joins the military to avoid jail time, leading to a spot on the LAPD. Miklo, the kid with the gun, is sent to jail, where he slowly rises up in the ranks of La Onda, the San Quentin Latino gang.
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It's so bad it's good. It's in this weird movie limbo. Three hours that's not good enough to be a great movie like Goodfellas, but unintentionally funny enough to keep you watching for more Billy Bob Thornton as Aryan Brotherhood Inmate, Al the Sodmoite as head of the AB and the white guy who is more Barrio than the Chicanos. Too goofy to be taken all that seriously, but too entertaining to turn off.
_________________ A poet and philosopher, Mr. Marcus is married and is a proud parent.
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