Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 14, 1992 TAG: 9203140037
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long
Two serious films are opened this week. Both "Article 99" and "American Me" are entertaining enough, but at the same time, both address important, timely social issues. "Article 99" concerns the problems faced by Veterans' Administration hospitals. "American Me" is about the complex roles of gangs both in and out of prisons, and the terrible effects of violence on kids.
Orion Pictures recently brought the producers, director, writer and several cast members of "Article 99" to Washington to promote the film. Universal Studios did the same for "American Me," but it was easier for them. Edward James Olmos filled all those roles.
"Article 99" is the "lighter" of the two because it mixes the truly appalling state of affairs in some VA hospitals with a strong dose of black humor.
The project began when writer Ron Cutler heard horror stories from a friend who was a senior VA doctor, stories about veterans being denied legitimate treatment because of budget cutbacks and cost-cutting measures, and a bureaucracy awash in confusion.
Cutler talked to other doctors and veterans and found that the stories were true. When he did more research in the library, he learned how widespread the problems were.
"The trouble is, they're so shotgunned over the last 12 years that they never really penetrated," Cutler explained. "You read one story in U.S. News and World Report and, if you're not a veteran, you pass by it. You don't see it next week. It doesn't have a big picture or image for you. It hasn't come forward that strongly."
In handling a large cast of characters involved in interrelated stories, director Howard Deutch tried to "balance the humor and the drama. That line became the most complicated one to walk.
"But the hospital is the main character. For that reason, we had three weeks of rehearsal inside that hospital, because in this hospital, we had basically our own reality sound stage."
No sets or sound stages were used; all of the filming was done in an abandoned hospital in Kansas City.
It was obvious that everyone involved with the film believed in it. Star Eli Wallach said, "I hope this movie irritates, entertains and arouses people to awaken to a situation that shouldn't have occurred."
His co-star, Kiefer Sutherland, wasn't ready to stand on a soapbox. "You can get into trouble if you start patting yourself on the back and thinking you're some film person with a cause. That can be a very dangerous thing."
As he sees the situation in the VA, the unsympathetic bureaucrats "are symptomatic of a bigger problem in this country. We have a bureaucratic structure in this country that is no longer efficient for 250-300 million people. That has to change. This country is more patriotic and more emotionally indebted to the men and women who served it than any country I've been in. We're trying to provide a platform for the issue."
Edward James Olmos has similar hopes for "American Me." His film took a more torturous path to the screen. It took 18 years to get the film made. Writer Floyd Mutrux's original was one of the legendary "great scripts that hasn't been filmed."
Not surprisingly, the story of a Mexican-American gangster who ruled Folsom Prison evolved over the years.
Olmos said, "The script changed 180 degrees. It went from being a romantic hero lead to what it is today, the truth. It's not glorified; it's not romanticized; it's not gratuitous. This movie is a hard ride."
Olmos' story, partly autobiographical, is about a dysfunctional family: "how behavior is passed on from father to son to brother.
"That was not in the original script at all," Olmos explained. "It came through years of walking through penal institutions and juvenile halls and finding out a lot about human behavior and what happens to the children."
His depiction of prison life, filmed inside Folsom and Chino, is probably the most accurate ever put on screen. He wanted to "inform the public about the breeding of organized crime inside of every single major penal institution in America. Whoever controls the inside controls the surrounding streets of that town or city."
And that power spreads when young men are released and carry their newly formed gang ties into their communities.
Beyond financial success or failure of the film, Olmos is hoping for a larger and more serious dialogue on these problems, particularly the spreading climate of violence that infects almost every community today and now is attacking children.
The main source of hope that he sees - and shows in the film - is with women. "I truly believe that the only hope that's left for the subculture I'm describing is for the woman to get an equal voice inside that community."
The same holds true for the larger society. "Not a higher voice but an equal voice, a balance between masculine and feminine experience in making decisions. Then you might have a society that will be able to take care of itself."
by CNB