Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 14, 1992                   TAG: 9203140339
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CHRIS GLADDEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

`AMERICAN ME' UNFLINCHING IN ITS VIEW OF GANGS, PRISON

Edward James Olmos, making an assured directing debut, turns an angry eye on the world of Latino gangs in East Los Angeles.

Olmos, known for his acting efforts in "Stand and Deliver" and "Miami Vice," plays Santana, the movie's central character.

The story begins with a backward look at the Los Angeles Zoot Suit era of Santana's parents and then moves to Santana's early gang career in the 1950s.

Gangs represent an initiation into manhood for Santana and his two friends, played by William Forsythe and Pepe Serna.

Because of a misplaced bravado, the three friends wind up in a juvenile detention center, where they learn the skills that will take them on into Folsom Prison.

They graduate with honors, according to the prison code. Under the leadership of Santana, they forge what is known as the Mexican Mafia, controlling a variety of illegal businesses within the prison walls.

They're unrelentingly ruthless and unforgiving. To show weakness invites destruction by the other prison gangs. Santana becomes a textbook case of a product of institutionalization without rehabilitation. He devotes his prison energies to power; on the inside, he's the meanest guy in the yard. But on the outside he doesn't know how to relate to a woman, how to work a job or even drive a car.

Olmos begins the movie with a strangely effective narrative in the form of bad jailhouse poetry. Santana's reflections on his life follow the traditional gangster-movie arc of the street tough who rises to power and then meets his downfall through the treacherous methods that have taken him to the top.

But this movie, written with a keen ear for detail by Floyd Mutrux and Desmond Nakano, looks at the gangster genre through the Mexican-American culture, territory that has been little explored up until now. It doesn't treat prison life or gangsterism romantically.

Olmos is unflinching in his depiction of the horrors of prison violence and some of the scenes are gut-wrenching. In fact, so disturbing are some of these scenes that the script's occasional tendency to preach is completely unnecessary.

The performances are first-rate: Olmos exudes cool confidence, Forsythe looms as a menacing presence and the other actors handle their chores equally well.

\ ***: A Universal release at Valley View Mall 6 (362-8271); rated R for extreme violence, language and sexual content; 118 minutes.