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A different way of telling a story

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Montoya Santana (Edward James Olmos) is in prison as he recalls his life. His parents were zoot-suiters beaten by regular society. Her mother is raped by soldiers and Montoya is 16 years old 16 years later. He starts a gang with his friends J.D. and Mundo. During a break-in, J.D. is shot and the guys are thrown into juvenile hall. Santana kills his rapists on the first night. It earns him lots of respect and also a stay in Folsom State Prison once he turns 18. In Folsom, Santana (now played by Olmos), J.D. (William Forsythe) and Mundo (Pepe Serna) have a powerful gang called La Eme. They are ruthless. They use their power inside the prisons to leverage expansion once they are on the outside. Santana eventually has a change of heart.There is a nice sense of realism. It helps that the movie is inspired by some real people. It's not glossy. It doesn't glamorize the thug life but it's also not that gritty. Olmos has a quiet demeanor which does take away some of the energy. This is not some fun gangster movie or necessarily a scary prison movie. Edward James Olmos as a director is relying more on a simplistic style. He doesn't have the skills to make this cinematic. It feels sincere. It feels familiar.

"American Me" is a story of the growth of strength in the Mexican mafia during the 1970s and 1980s. It tracks the development of some of the key figures from their earliest days running the streets and coming into conflict with the authorities to the period in which the Mexican mafia developed great influence in the California penal system and on the streets of California influencing the drug trade. The film is based on a true story and tracks some of the same ground covered by "Blood In, Blood Out" which was released a year later. It works in flashback, from the later thoughts of director and star Edward James Olmos as Santana. The film is told as a flashback as advice given to his nephew to avoid the gang life which he has embarked on.This is gut-check cinema. It's not for the faint of heart. The acting is excellent from Olmos as gang leader Santana and his right-hand man JD (William Forsythe). Olmos plays Santana as extremely world-weary. One can see in Santana's face the toll that his time in prison and role in La Primera (the Mexican mafia) has taken. William Forsythe is fantastic, playing JD very low-key and as committed to the Mexican mafia as Santana, so much so that perhaps he forgets he is not Mexican at times! The intra-gang and interracial conflicts are powerfully and graphically portrayed. Nothing is held back in depicting what happens in jail but it has the ring of truth and ultimately, if one wrongs one's gang, one will be held accountable by that gang.This movie really deserves mention along with great gang movies like Goodfellas, The Godfather, and Boyz in the Hood, for its no-hold-barred depiction of the brutality and cheapness of life, but also the brotherhood and sense of identity gained within a gang.

I've seen this movie a few times and while it does have it's moments, it also has some really fundamental flaws. Overall I consider it mediocre at best.WARNING, POSSIBLE SPOILER AHEAD...First of all I thought some of the prison scenes were a little on the far fetched side and really strained my credulity - specifically one where Pedro and company confront a rival black gang leader and his crew in the cell block for several minutes with hoots and jeers and toilet paper flying all around. I really can't believe that the prison guards wouldn't have intervened long before they did. And the idea that the Latino gang would dare to kill the Mafia crime bosses son was ridiculous.Secondly, as some other reviewers have commented, the overuse of the words "ese" and "homes". I'm not even a Latino and I found this stereotypical and contrived.The films was rather long and slow moving and could definitely benefited from editing.There were no really sympathetic characters and some of them were down-right repugnant. I didn't even particularly like Pedro's girlfriend, Yolanda. I can't empathize with someone who falls for a man who spent 18 years in the joint running a prison gang and is then surprised when he turns out to be a user and fake and not a social reformer. About the only person who seemed to have any honor at all was "El Japo" A movie needs to have someone you connect with and root for me to enjoy it.Lastly, there was no optimism at all to the ending. It seemed to say to me, "It's all hopeless and will never end". Rather depressing.Overall, a nice try, but fall short of the mark.

"American Me" is arguably the most significant film not discussed in the same breath with crime epics such as "The Godfather." It was clearly made, both consciously and perhaps subconsciously to be the Mexican Godfather film and that is hardly a bad thing. Its honesty regarding the emotional costs of violence and murder are on par with that film. I don't know what to say to anyone who critiques Edward James Olmos. First, this actor's capacity to convey a complicated range of emotions without words is absolutely staggering and has been seen to great effect in many great films including "Blade Runner." Additionally, he is inarguably the premiere Latino / Chicano filmmaker and actor of all time. If you look at the films he has been involved with, think about how they have dominated the way Hispanic people, Mexicans in particular, have been seen by others who would, largely, not even know of the experiences of their neighbors. "American Me" is so unflinching that, after seeing it, I had to see it again to believe it was actually made by or released by a major studio. Once upon a time studio films featured honest portraits of life but rarely any more. "American Me" tho hardly the knee-slapping comedy some reviewer wanted or expected, conveys an honest sense of the life lived by many without the hope of education or prosperity but with the same need for respect and something bigger than themselves to believe in that you or anyone else has and lives their life by. If you want to see a life perhaps very different than yours depicted with uncommon honesty, watch this film.