WEBVTT - American Me: The Backstory 0:00:03.920 --> 0:00:08.280 The year, and actor Edward James almost is on his 0:00:08.320 --> 0:00:11.680 way to becoming a Hollywood icon. Coming off an OSCAR 0:00:11.720 --> 0:00:15.520 nomination for his iconic role in Standard Deliver, Edward James 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:19.000 almost earned the biggest opportunity yet for a Latino filmmaker 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:23.000 to direct and star in a major Hollywood release, and 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:27.159 he chose a controversial subject for his territorial debut, The 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:30.600 Mexican Mafia, a notorious prison in street gang that at 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:33.199 the time was at the height of its powers. It 0:00:33.320 --> 0:00:37.199 was a bold move and it didn't end well. That 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:44.520 film was called American Mean. The critics liked the movie, 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:49.199 but the Mexican Mafia did not. Just weeks after the premiere, 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:53.840 several people who worked on the movie were murdered. Almost 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:57.800 never addressed the killings. He still hasn't. Maybe it's because 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:01.920 allegedly he himself was threatened and extorted. In fact, while 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:04.640 I've been researching and interviewing people related to this film 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:08.160 that came out thirty years ago, over and over again, 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:11.720 I get eerily similar responses like I won't talk about that, 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:23.120 or flat out told leave this alone. More than a movie, 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:26.039 American Means a podcast that digs into the history and 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:29.800 Mystery of American Mean, a film directed by and starring 0:01:30.000 --> 0:01:33.320 Edward James almost that had a huge impact on Latino 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:37.080 culture and cinema. I'm your host, Alex Fumeto, and I'll 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:43.000 be diving into the controversy behind the movie. The early 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:47.120 was an explosion of pop culture in l A about 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:55.600 l a bloody blood out. So the nineties was just 0:01:56.120 --> 0:02:00.640 the like hangover from you know, the Cold War. I 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:03.720 don't know, there's a lot of nineties nineties nostalgia now, 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:07.960 but I remember being afraid every day, like hy two 0:02:08.000 --> 0:02:15.560 k hiv uh, the gangs, the police. Like it feels 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:18.600 very similar to like these past few years of COVID 0:02:18.639 --> 0:02:22.200 in terms of like just the angst and fear that 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:26.600 you can just feel from the community. That's Eric Allindo, 0:02:26.800 --> 0:02:29.200 a Mexican American writer and producer that grew up right 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:32.160 here in Los Angeles. Eric is right. L A in 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:35.240 the nineties was scary to a lot of Angelinos, but 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:38.000 the fear level went to new heights when the l A. 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:43.880 P d brutally beat a man named Rodney King. Another 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:46.080 movie came out from a script that had been kicking 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:49.280 around for years. It was a movie about Latino gangs 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:52.440 in l A. Al Pacino was allegedly slated to play 0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:56.040 the lead role. We all know ol loves to play Latinos, 0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:59.600 but in the blowback to Scarface, the studio got cold feet, 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:01.680 like a lot of movies in Hollywood have got put 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:04.400 on the shelf until the Latino actor emerged as a 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:09.079 potential movie star. Edward James, almost fresh off a nomination 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:12.160 for an Academy Award, was offered the role. In response, 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:14.639 almost all the studio he would take the part if 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:17.920 he could also direct. After some back and forth and 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:22.560 some assurances that are more experienced read white director would 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:26.400 be around to help Eddie, they agreed, but almost had 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:29.160 something different in mine for the script. He wanted it 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:32.080 to feel real, to be connected to his roots as 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:34.840 a Chicano in East l A. And to address what 0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:39.280 he felt was tearing his community apart gang violence. But 0:03:39.400 --> 0:03:41.840 to do that, he did something that many people thought 0:03:41.920 --> 0:03:46.840 was brave but others thought was reckless. The Arian Brotherhood 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:55.560 and the Blood Gorilla Family shared the yard, but fulsome 0:03:55.600 --> 0:04:02.400 belonged to us. The oldest clicker me the Mexican Mafia. 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:06.640 He made the movie about a real gang, one of 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:09.720 the most intimidating and dangerous prison and street gangs of 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:15.160 all time. The Mexican Mafia a k a. A gang 0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:18.280 that survives today and was no less powerful thirty years 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:21.279 ago when Edward James almost decided to base the movie 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:24.680 on what he claimed was a true story about them, 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:29.120 then people started dying. The movie was called American Me. 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:31.800 Here's one of the actors, Danny de la Pass, when 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:33.880 he found out someone who had worked on the movie 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:38.520 had just been killed. We were in France, um along 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:41.960 the Riviera at the con Film Festival with American Me 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:49.200 when we heard the news of Anna's assassination basically, and uh, 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:52.160 I remember feeling a little bit scared. I was in 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:56.000 a foreign country, I was far from home, and I 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:57.360 was like, Wow, what am I going to be going 0:04:57.400 --> 0:05:00.919 back home to The Anna he's referring to is Anna Lissaraga, 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:03.760 who was a gang interventionist hired by the movie as 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:08.320 a gang liaison, and on May thirteenth, she was gunned 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:12.040 down in her East l A driveway while unloading groceries. 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:15.400 So yeah, it made sense that Danny de la Pace 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:19.960 was scared back then. Today thirty years later, it's hard 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:22.800 to get people to talk about it. Here's another American Me, 0:05:22.880 --> 0:05:26.080 actor Sal Lopez. My job was to do my part, 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:33.919 and I didn't feel uh, you know, intimidated or or 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:36.440 anything like that. I mean, I was focused on doing 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:39.360 the work and making a good film. I um, you know, 0:05:41.279 --> 0:05:43.480 I don't want to speak about. This is a movie 0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:46.320 people still don't want to talk about. Some of them 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:49.080 are scared of the consequences to themselves. Some of them 0:05:49.200 --> 0:05:52.800 want to protect the movies director Edward James. Almost some 0:05:52.920 --> 0:05:54.640 of them don't see why we want to dredge up 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:57.800 the past. I wanted to make this podcast because as 0:05:57.800 --> 0:06:02.120 a filmmaker, American Me was an precedented opportunity for Latinos 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:06.279 in Hollywood, a Latino director, cast, and crew. But I 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:10.480 also think it's worth asking two questions. One why were 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:13.680 people killed for making a movie? And two why did 0:06:13.760 --> 0:06:16.839 Edward James almost make this movie when people warned him 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:20.919 again and again it was dangerous. We'll dig into the 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:24.159 history and mysteries around one film that had a huge 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:27.880 impact on the culture. We're talking about American Me. Think 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:31.800 of this podcast like an audio documentary. The first half 0:06:31.839 --> 0:06:34.279 of this twelve episode series is going to be about 0:06:34.360 --> 0:06:36.719 the Hollywood rumors and word on the street that have 0:06:36.760 --> 0:06:40.400 surrounded this movie for thirty years. In the second half 0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:42.520 of the episodes, though we're going to do our best 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:46.719 to get down to the truth, let's start with the rumors. 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:50.320 Even today, people are still afraid to talk about this movie. 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:53.359 We had people canceled interviews or refuse to talk on 0:06:53.400 --> 0:06:56.840 the record. I spent hours in person, over coffee or 0:06:56.920 --> 0:06:59.280 on the phone talking to high level people who had 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:01.720 worked on this film, who, at the end of our 0:07:01.800 --> 0:07:05.080 really candid conversation would say to me they would never 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:07.920 talk on the record. We had people call us from 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:11.160 block numbers so we wouldn't know who was calling. One 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:14.000 lawyer agreed to talk to us, then her husband told 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:16.840 her not to. He was still afraid for their safety. 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:20.720 Three decades later, I've pieced together the parts of the 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:23.360 story I can. It all started with a chapter in 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:26.600 a memoir by Danny Trejo, better known as or a 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:29.640 million other roles as the scariest looking motherfucker You've ever seen. 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:33.000 Here's Treho talking about it to lad TV. The person 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:35.640 in charge of that movie made a lot of mistakes. 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:43.200 American Edwards James almost admitted, do you know him? Yeah, yeah, 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:48.360 I saved his life, really, and he won't admit that either. 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:52.680 See Treho, who's not in the movie, is a pivotal 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:55.760 figure in this story. According to him, this is how 0:07:55.800 --> 0:07:59.760 it went. Edward James almost never got permission from the 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:02.840 met Pxican Mafia to tell this story. Before it even 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:05.760 went into production, key members of the gang had read 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:08.360 the script and warned Trey Hoo not to work on 0:08:08.400 --> 0:08:11.520 the movie. During production, Trejo says he was asked to 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:13.960 be a consultant, but refused to do it out of 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:17.520 respect for the gang. When the movie finally premiered, the 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:22.000 Mexican Mafia was enraged almost had fabricated important details about 0:08:22.040 --> 0:08:25.160 their lives. Here's Treho again. You just gotta be real 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:28.320 careful about telling the truth. Okay. The leader of Mexican 0:08:28.360 --> 0:08:32.240 Mafia was never raped, all right, So that's number one. 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:35.280 You can hear in his voice. This still makes Danny 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:38.520 Traho matt portraying the rape of the gang's leader, which 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:41.719 never happened and could never happen to someone elevated to 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:44.960 the leader of the Mexican Mafia got people killed. Now, 0:08:45.040 --> 0:08:48.240 let's say this right away. Getting raped doesn't make you weak. 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:53.280 Getting assaulted isn't anyone's fault, but according to federal indictments 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:56.240 and according to Trejo, for the Mexican mafia, it's one 0:08:56.280 --> 0:08:58.760 of four reasons to turn people away from the gang. 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:03.200 See the movie tends to make its point using rape. 0:09:03.640 --> 0:09:06.200 I don't know how else to say it. When Santana 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:08.640 is a kid, he's raped in juvie. When his mom 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:11.760 gets pregnant, she's raped by a sailor. When Santana gets 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:14.640 out of prison, he starts to rape his girlfriend. The 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:17.520 gang uses rape as a punishment in prison, So of 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:20.640 course it enraged the Mexican mafia. And that's what Trejo 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:24.120 said numerous times during the promotional campaign for his book. 0:09:24.520 --> 0:09:28.440 He talked to g Q, flat TV, Stevo, pretty much 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:32.920 everybody except us. Of course, Danny didn't want to talk 0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:36.160 about American men anymore. I can't say why for certain. 0:09:36.559 --> 0:09:38.760 Maybe it's because the book has been out already for 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:41.520 more than a year and he's done promoting it. Or 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:44.679 maybe it's because, according to one source, he and almost 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:47.960 had a difficult phone conversation after the book's release. But 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:51.559 even without Danny Trejo's account, rumors have flown about for years. 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:55.040 One of them is undoubtedly true. At least three people 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:58.080 were killed after this movie came out, and court records 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:01.440 say it was partly because of their volvement. But there's 0:10:01.480 --> 0:10:05.080 other mercier allegations. The big one is that Edward James 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:07.480 almost had a price on his head. The rumor is 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:10.200 almost had to pay the Mexican mafia some amount of 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:13.160 money to stay alive. Some people told us it was 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:15.760 a hundred thousand dollars. One person told us it was 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:19.360 a million. But no one with firsthand knowledge has confirmed this, 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:24.400 and rumors are just that rumors. There's another allegation, this 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:27.800 one from Danny Trejo. At least four people in prison 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:31.520 were killed because of their participation in this movie. Trejo 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:34.280 says in total, eight or as many as ten people 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:37.439 were killed in connection with the film, without their names, 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:39.920 though we can't say whether it's true or not, and 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:42.800 when it comes to people's lives, there's a big difference 0:10:42.840 --> 0:10:46.560 between eight and ten. Some of the stuff Trejo said 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:49.200 we were able to verify, some of it is directly 0:10:49.240 --> 0:10:52.400 contradicted in our interviews, and some of it we can't 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:55.400 say either way. What I'm saying is take his account 0:10:55.440 --> 0:10:58.480 with a big grain assault and Danny. If you ever 0:10:58.480 --> 0:11:02.360 want to talk, our lines are open. We'll get into 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:16.360 it after the break. Welcome back to More Than a Movie. 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:18.839 I'm Alex Fumetro, and I'm here to take you through 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:23.560 the myths and legends surrounding American Me. The story of 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:27.840 American Me is the story of Montoya Santana, almost based 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:31.760 a character on the real life founder of the Mexican Mafia. 0:11:32.120 --> 0:11:34.640 But let's try to separate fact from fiction a little 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:38.319 bit here. The movie puts a young Santana in juvie 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:40.680 where he starts a gang that also happened to the 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:43.800 real life guy. Santana grows up as the best friend 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:45.800 of a white guy with a prosthetic leg in a 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:50.040 Latino gang that's also based on real life, and Santana 0:11:50.080 --> 0:11:52.680 gets stabbed to death and thrown off a railing in prison. 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:57.400 That's what happened to Gala. From reporting Trejo's book, court records, 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:00.280 and the stuff we learned in interviews and on back round, 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:03.199 it seems like the Mexican Mafia took exception with their 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:06.439 portrayal in this movie. Remember that white guy with the 0:12:06.480 --> 0:12:09.440 fake leg, his name is Joe Morgan and he filed 0:12:09.480 --> 0:12:14.599 a lawsuit in against Edward James Almost and the Studio Universal. 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:19.319 He said the movie quote invaded his right to privacy 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:23.640 by appropriating his likeness and life story end quote. What 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:27.079 that means is the movie stole his life story, lied 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:31.160 about him in that life story, then profited. Here's his lawyer, 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:35.800 Milton Grimes. There was some dispute as to some of 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:40.679 the things they portrayed Mr Morrigan in and there was 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:50.320 some disagreement with people that were knowledgeable are involved in 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:56.520 the Mexican Association. And uh, they disagreed with some of 0:12:56.559 --> 0:13:02.040 the portrayals in their of Mr Morgan, and um, some 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:08.720 disputes and disagreements came out of that, and um that's 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:12.480 what happened. Joe's nickname was peg Leg for obvious reasons. 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:15.720 He claimed in the lawsuit that his character committed several 0:13:15.840 --> 0:13:18.760 murders that the real life Joe Morgan was never charged with. 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:21.560 He said his kids and his grandkids would see the 0:13:21.559 --> 0:13:24.200 movie and think it was all true. Rather than me 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:30.280 in a terror, a monster that would attack and I 0:13:30.360 --> 0:13:33.480 was supposed to shiver in front of I remember him 0:13:33.520 --> 0:13:37.320 being a mild mannered, grandfatherly type. To be honest with you, 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:40.680 the monster was not there, and I have to admit 0:13:40.760 --> 0:13:44.960 that I had some concerns with meeting the infamous Joe Morrigan. 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:49.040 Only exhibit that Morgan's legal team entered into evidence was 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:53.000 a VHS copy of American Me. But most of the 0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:56.199 people offended by this movie didn't take their problems to court. 0:13:56.679 --> 0:13:59.320 The three murders we could directly connect to the movie 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:02.800 were of gang members and a gang interventionist hired by 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:07.120 the movie as a gang liaison. Her name was Anna Saraga. 0:14:07.320 --> 0:14:10.720 Lisaraga was already marked for death before this movie, according 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:14.600 to federal court filings. At meeting recorded by the police, 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:17.679 a Mexican mafia member said that Li Saraga was interfering 0:14:17.679 --> 0:14:20.600 with drug trafficking on their turf, but it wasn't until 0:14:20.640 --> 0:14:23.800 she participated in American Me that she was shot thirteen 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:27.080 times in her driveway. One of the shooters was initiated 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:30.520 into the Mexican Mafia because of the murder. In line 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:32.960 with almost his commitment to making this movie true to life, 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:36.240 the production used people from the neighborhood as extras. Some 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:39.280 of those extras were in rival gangs and that caused 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:42.000 some problems. We'll talk to the casting director and the 0:14:42.040 --> 0:14:44.960 location manager who had to deal with all that. One 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:47.200 person we won't talk to, and I want to be 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:50.360 up front about this is Edward James. Almost through a 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:54.040 mutual friend, he told us he quote, can't talk about 0:14:54.040 --> 0:15:08.000 American Me. Can't let that settle in. When American Me 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:10.640 went into production, Edward James almost was on a roll 0:15:10.920 --> 0:15:14.080 Blade Runner, Miami Vice and of course Stand and Deliver, 0:15:14.240 --> 0:15:16.720 which got him an Oscar nam and probably more importantly 0:15:16.720 --> 0:15:19.680 to him, positioned him as a role model for the community. 0:15:20.240 --> 0:15:22.640 I wouldn't do that if I was you. When he 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:24.360 was a finger, I won't be able to come to tan. 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:27.920 Like many actors at the height of his fame, almost 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:31.200 wanted to direct, and he picked this script, a script 0:15:31.200 --> 0:15:34.640 about a gang that's not totally unexpected after the success 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:38.920 Italian American filmmakers had seen with The Godfather and Goodfellas. 0:15:39.320 --> 0:15:41.720 Who didn't watch those two movies and wish they were 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:44.840 part of the mob? I certainly did. When Andy Garcia 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:47.200 became The Godfather, I felt like I had been made. 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:49.600 But American Me was supposed to be about how the 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:53.560 gangster life is a total fantasy, a nightmare really in 0:15:53.600 --> 0:15:56.040 that way. The story of American Me is a success, 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:58.760 but the story of American Me is also a failure 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:01.920 because the movie it was intended to prevent gang violence, 0:16:02.240 --> 0:16:06.200 instead caused more of it. Here's actor Jacob Vargas. Do 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:09.600 you see any irony in a film that was intended 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:13.280 to stop gang violence that may maybe it actually recruited 0:16:13.280 --> 0:16:16.200 more people to I mean, I guess there is some 0:16:16.280 --> 0:16:20.080 irony in that, but but I feel like I'm sure 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:24.440 it probably stopped a few kids, you know, Like I'm 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:26.960 sure a lot of people will see that and say, 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:28.640 hey that I don't want any part of that as well. 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:31.400 It's like with certain movies, you know, it can it 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:33.680 can be singled out that American mu is the only one, 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:35.640 like you look at like, you know, the Good Fellows 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:37.960 and these other films that are that are cautionary tales 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:41.080 about the mafia, you know, in a way tend to 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:44.240 glorify it, you know. And then just because you know, 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:46.240 these actors did a really good job, and all these 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:50.600 characters work were cool and and uh, you know, Santana 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:52.560 was like a cool dude, and you know, he was 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:56.480 in charge and and uh, you know, it held a 0:16:56.480 --> 0:16:59.960 lot of power. So I just think there's an intertract 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:02.880 and to to that, and some people will look at 0:17:02.920 --> 0:17:07.119 that above above what the real meaning of of you 0:17:07.160 --> 0:17:09.840 know the film is that it's a vicious cycle. American 0:17:09.920 --> 0:17:12.320 Mew was successful in most of the ways the movie 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:15.040 is supposed to succeed. Roger Ebert gave it three and 0:17:15.080 --> 0:17:18.080 a half stars. It premiered, it can It didn't make 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:20.560 a lot of money, but it wasn't a massive financial 0:17:20.600 --> 0:17:23.360 failure either, and it went on to become a fan favorite. 0:17:23.680 --> 0:17:28.200 But still the controversy surrounding it has always overshadowed the success. 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:32.000 This was a majority Chicano production film, Denis l A. 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:33.879 If it had gone right, it could have been the 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:36.960 next Good Fellas or Boys in the Hood, a movie 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:40.080 that launched careers. There could have been tons of mid 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:44.000 nineties imitation movies like How Standing Deliver gave Us Dangerous 0:17:44.040 --> 0:17:54.840 Minds and my favorite Seven Stupid Any End. But most 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:57.399 of all, Edward James almost could have become our Robert 0:17:57.400 --> 0:18:01.399 de Niro and our Martin Scorsese. Don't get me wrong, 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:04.680 he's a huge success. He has a career anyone would 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:08.720 be proud of. But that what if bothers me, especially 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:11.800 when latinos make up one in five Americans, but only 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:15.080 one in twenty actors on screen. I wonder if it 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:33.720 bothers him too. Welcome back to more than a movie, 0:18:33.760 --> 0:18:40.560 American Me. I'm Alex flomto. About a month after American 0:18:40.600 --> 0:18:44.680 Me premiered, an uprising broke out across l A. Stores burned, 0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:48.400 people were scared. It was the result of racial tensions 0:18:48.480 --> 0:18:51.200 and police brutality in the powder keg that was Los 0:18:51.280 --> 0:18:55.359 Angeles in the early People complain today about how crime 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:57.600 is on the rise, but that's only true if you 0:18:57.640 --> 0:19:00.480 look at the last two years. Today, a one in 0:19:00.560 --> 0:19:02.920 twenty thousand people is killed each year in l A. 0:19:03.680 --> 0:19:07.080 In the early nineties it was one in five thousand people, 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:11.520 four times higher. Joe Biden, who was a senator back then, 0:19:11.720 --> 0:19:16.399 called the most violent period in American history, where in 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:20.359 the worst period of violent crime in the entire history 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:26.200 of this great country. Ninety thousand Americans will have been 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:30.600 murdered in the first term of this administration. Ninety thousand 0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:37.040 Americans murdered by the end of this year. Murderer is 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:39.640 the number one cause of death in American Mr. President 0:19:39.680 --> 0:19:44.000 among the entire American population of fifteen to twenty four 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:49.720 year olds. It's the second leading cause of death. Writer 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:52.280 Eric Galindo was in elementary school when he saw smoke 0:19:52.359 --> 0:19:55.240 from the fires caused by the so called La riots. 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:59.600 And remember one day, like the teachers were just like, um, 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:01.800 they they took us all out to like the field, 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:07.320 you know, and we could see they were burning, uh Summerset, 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:12.320 which was Compton Boulevard at the time, and our school 0:20:12.560 --> 0:20:17.200 was like, I don't know, it was definitely walking distance 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:20.480 from like the little liquor stores that were getting burnt 0:20:20.520 --> 0:20:23.600 down the street, and you can see the fire. We're 0:20:23.600 --> 0:20:26.480 waiting for our parents what was happening. But as soon 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:28.880 as we started seeing the smoke get really close to us, 0:20:28.960 --> 0:20:31.439 they just had us run. And I remember running and 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:34.280 being so afraid because you know, by this time, the 0:20:34.640 --> 0:20:36.280 riots have been going on for a minute, and I 0:20:36.320 --> 0:20:38.359 had to hurd stories of the police shooting people who 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:40.720 were just running, you know. And I remember running and 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:42.600 being afraid that I was going to get shot by 0:20:42.600 --> 0:20:45.720 a cop, thinking I had stolen some ship, you know. 0:20:46.480 --> 0:20:48.240 And like I had my little brother who was only 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:50.359 two years younger than me, and I was just like 0:20:50.480 --> 0:20:55.439 running home and then like getting home and locking the 0:20:55.440 --> 0:20:59.600 doors and just not not knowing, like well, it's it's 0:20:59.640 --> 0:21:04.080 it's weird because it was like you're afraid, there's chaos, 0:21:04.200 --> 0:21:07.200 you know, and here's Milton Grimes again, who was also 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:12.639 Rodney King's attorney. But that verdict in Semi Valley, man Um, 0:21:12.640 --> 0:21:15.040 it felt like a mew had kicked me in my stomach, 0:21:15.600 --> 0:21:19.320 you know, like back in the country we always were warned, 0:21:19.359 --> 0:21:21.720 don't go behind that horseboard, don't go behind that me 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:24.560 kick kill you. And it felt like I had been 0:21:24.680 --> 0:21:27.480 kicked in the stomach. You know. It was painful. So 0:21:27.520 --> 0:21:31.760 I understand the young people involved. I've represented Henry Watson 0:21:31.800 --> 0:21:35.920 and I represented uh Damian Williams football after that on 0:21:36.080 --> 0:21:40.880 other matters, okay, and talked to them about what happened 0:21:40.880 --> 0:21:43.040 with Reginald Dinny and they said, no, he ain't do nothing, 0:21:43.040 --> 0:21:45.280 that white man and do nothing wrong to us. It 0:21:45.400 --> 0:21:48.840 was just our anger, that's all. It was anger and white. 0:21:49.119 --> 0:21:51.760 We did get lucky in one respect. All the time 0:21:51.760 --> 0:21:54.080 they were filming the movie, there was a documentary crew 0:21:54.080 --> 0:21:56.840 following the production. What they made was a dot called 0:21:56.920 --> 0:21:59.440 Lives and Hazard and it's great because you get to 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:01.480 hear from the real life gang members at the time 0:22:01.520 --> 0:22:04.600 this movie was made. You struggle here and and and 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:07.000 you gotta find a way of making money. And you know, 0:22:07.480 --> 0:22:10.960 my you know, robbing got old, and stealing got old, 0:22:11.040 --> 0:22:15.600 and drugs seem to be easier to make money. And 0:22:15.680 --> 0:22:18.520 my easiest way was at the time was pushing PCP. 0:22:19.720 --> 0:22:22.080 I was liking it, and I was living the fast 0:22:22.160 --> 0:22:25.480 lane toil like hit the wrong car and sold of 0:22:25.520 --> 0:22:29.320 the wrong person, and that's what started my career in institutions. 0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:31.960 I heard like the shot, so when I heard the 0:22:32.040 --> 0:22:34.359 car behind me, I knew it was a drive by. 0:22:34.600 --> 0:22:37.160 I turned as when I turned as when he shot 0:22:37.160 --> 0:22:39.560 me in the back. We talked to the filmmakers of 0:22:39.600 --> 0:22:43.000 that documentary too. This is one of the directors, Andrew Young. 0:22:43.359 --> 0:22:45.480 These are people who are neglected, you know, they're not 0:22:45.600 --> 0:22:50.560 paid attention to and in fact, that's that can be 0:22:50.720 --> 0:22:53.919 cited as part of the problem. Um they look for 0:22:53.960 --> 0:22:59.440 their own system of self generating self respect because they're 0:22:59.440 --> 0:23:02.480 not getting it from society. American Me was a major 0:23:02.520 --> 0:23:05.760 studio film released in theaters across the country, but it 0:23:05.840 --> 0:23:09.040 lost money. It only played in about eight hundred theaters 0:23:09.080 --> 0:23:12.560 and made thirty million dollars. My cousin Vinny, which was 0:23:12.600 --> 0:23:16.080 released the exact same day, made fifty two million, but 0:23:16.119 --> 0:23:19.480 in almost twice as many theaters. At first, I thought 0:23:19.760 --> 0:23:23.080 that's some racist Hollywood bullshit. They didn't promote it or 0:23:23.200 --> 0:23:25.680 didn't put it in enough theaters. But then we heard 0:23:25.720 --> 0:23:27.960 in our interviews that this movie didn't play well with 0:23:28.040 --> 0:23:31.960 older Chicano audiences at the time. Today, American Me is 0:23:31.960 --> 0:23:35.000 a cult classic to young Latinos, but back then it 0:23:35.040 --> 0:23:38.280 seemed to confuse or piss off their parents. They saw 0:23:38.320 --> 0:23:41.120 it as a film that made their culture look violent, 0:23:41.760 --> 0:23:44.040 But to me, it reflected some of the real problems 0:23:44.040 --> 0:23:47.320 our culture still has to this day. We're gonna talk 0:23:47.320 --> 0:23:51.600 in this podcast about issues like machismo and homophobia and violence, 0:23:51.640 --> 0:23:54.920 how this movie both pushed back against it but also 0:23:55.000 --> 0:23:58.399 reinforced it. We'll break down the decisions made by the 0:23:58.440 --> 0:24:01.440 cast and the crew, both on set and in pre production. 0:24:01.880 --> 0:24:03.840 We'll meet some of the people behind the scenes and 0:24:03.880 --> 0:24:05.760 in front of the camera and try to tell the 0:24:05.800 --> 0:24:07.879 stories of the people who were caught in the crossfire. 0:24:08.760 --> 0:24:11.520 I'm a documentary filmmaker and a Latino who has been 0:24:11.520 --> 0:24:14.960 working in the entertainment industry for twenty years. If there's 0:24:15.000 --> 0:24:17.680