may be the one I had the most fun doing. I was just going through some old papers today and stumbled across it. Excuse spelling and grammar errors, as clearly I didn't save an edited copy.
The Other L.A.: Violence and the 90’s “Hood Films”In the early 1990’s though, the other side of L.A. was being exposed to an unsuspecting public. The 1991 beating of Rodney King by four Los Angeles Police Department officers, and the riots that followed after the verdict in 1992 put L.A.’s African-American and Mexican-American population in the spotlight, and the city would never be the same. In speaking on the riots and their effect on the city author Rita Williams says, “pre-riot Los Angeles, [had a] passive malaise, rather than the active rage and fear that abounds now” (1992).
In 1992 and 1993 filmmakers Edward James Olmos and The Hughes Brothers (Albert and Allen Hughes) presented this unseen side of L.A. that was coming more into the public eye, with their films American Me and Menace II Society. While dealing with different ethnic groups, both of the films dealt with the same issues of class, borders, gang life and violent upbringing in East and South Central L.A. While both films were criticized for being extremely graphic and violent, there is meaning at the heart of it all. While the films are in fact graphic in nature and sometimes seem to be furthering negative racial stereotypes, their messages are similar ones that very much speak against it, and aim to educate rather than aggravate.
“I don’t want to talk about it [the possibility that their film might provoke violence.] What about the White kids coming out with baseball bats after Lethal Weapon?...You don’t hear about that. But anytime that violence happens, everybody goes and pushes it off on some rap song or some movie.
-Albert Hughes
“I want to show that there’s a cancer in this subculture of gangs…They’ll say, ‘You’ve taken away our manhood with this movie.’ I say to them, ‘Either you treat the cancer or it’ll eat you alive.”
-Edward James Olmos
It’s clear that inciting violence wasn’t the point of both Olmos’ and the Hughes Brother’s film. Both films aim to educate their viewers about the growing problems of gangs and violence that are prevalent in both the barrio and the “hood” in the early 1990’s (problems that were accentuated by the Rodney King riots), and to expose the roots of the problems in hopes of bringing more attention to them and making them better. Each film follows the same specific cycle of violence, birth, violence, death and birth again, to show this vicious cycle as it rips through generations and keeps on perpetuating. Massood says that these spaces are becoming a bigger and bigger problem,
“That these “other” spaces are becoming increasing hard to contain can be seen in the production of hood films, and, much to the L.A. boosters disdain, in the images of Rodney King’s beating and the footage from the rebellion following the verdicts” (Massood, 1996).
Considering th
at, I seems that the purpose of Edward James Olmos and The Hughes Brothers hood films is to stop this violence before it becomes an even bigger perpetuating force. I believe it is important to note that both Edward James Olmos and The Hughes Brothers were acting outside of the glamour’s of Hollywood in making their films (both films being their directorial debuts), almost making a stronger point in saying that these films and their messages are from the heart of these people who have experienced the same things.Menace II Society has a very similar story to American Me. Caine (Tyrin Turner) growing up in Watts has seen crime all of his life, and his family (his mother was a heroine addict, his father a dealer) is what led to his gang life. Much like American Me, Caine finds family elsewhere, in the form of gang life with his group of friends. The beginning scene in which Caine bares witness to his friend Kevin’s “O-Dog” brutal killing of two convenience store clerks immediately sets the tone of the film. As a series of increasingly violent events unfold in Caines life, he begins to question the gang life because of the allure of Ronnie (Jada Pinkett Smith), while at the same time becoming more and more involved.
First and foremost a big example of how both of these films violence does not promote further violence is because neither of them ever go out of their way to glorify it. In both American Me and Menace II Society we see the main characters begin to question the choices they have made in their lives, but realize it is too late, when they reach their own violent deaths at the hands of those they have acted out on.
Much like Olmos mentioned in the earlier quote and at the end of the film when he says the film is based on true events, the Hughes brothers set out to capture the “real” situation in the hood after being outraged by the Hollywoodized approach of John Singleton’s melodramatic Boyz N the Hood, which was complete with happy sentimental ending (Massood, 1996).
While ending with the deaths of main characters, (Caine being shot to death by a man he previous had an altercation with, and Santana by members of his own gang) both films seem to both drive homes the point of the problems of mimetic violence in youth and in these areas of L.A.
In mentioning the mimetic violence by youth in the films, the question of where the violence came from in the first place is arises as well. Both films offer similar answers to this in a few ways.
Both films deal with history as a reason for the way things are in the barrio and hood today. In Menace II Society the root of the violence is based on the 1965-Watts Riots, which are shown during the films credits through grainy archive footage. This footage serves a specific point.
“This footage works both to signify and map out the specific boundaries of the hood. This technique, in combination with the use of titles to designate two different times and places, also defines the spatio-temporal parameter of the films discourse and gives a historical background to the area” (Massood, 1996).
In showing these different times and places, The Hughes Brothers aimed to show where the violence came from in the first place. The grainy footage is black and white, which itself accentuates a conflict. Over the footage, which is of cops brutally beating African Americans, fires being set, and general chaos erupting, is the scratchy sound of radio chatter, and all that can be heard is the word “negro” being repeated with a variety of variations, including “rampaging negro.”
This scene is followed by Caine saying “when the riots stopped, the drugs started,” clearly stating the relation of the riots to the drug problems that arose afterwards. We next see his parents deeply involved in the drug culture of the time, and Caine admits that the reason he is violent is because of his parents, which are a product of the original violence against them. Also in this scene is a scene with Caine running into his later mentor and father figure, Pernell, who shows a toddler Caine, his first gun and give him his first pull of liquor. Once again as if he parents were enough of a reason for his later gang life, so were his substitute parents he sought after his biological ones pretty much abandoned him. When the movie switches to 1993 Watts, the city is shown from the same high looking down angle as the grainy archive footage of the 1965 riots seen in the credits. The city looks eerily similar, and I believe this was the Hughes Brothers point, to show that nothing has changed.
In American Me Santana’s violence is a product of the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943. “While, Santana is the product of individual violence, he is also the product of cultural violence and a mimetic clash of sorts” (Canfield, 1994). The violence of the riots is framed around scenes of Santana in prison, purposely to show the reason for Santana being there in the first place.
Both of these instances are designed to show the viewers that this part of L.A. has always been there, and to show the problems roots, and that they never went away after their initial conflicts.
Next dealing specifically with the perpetuation of violence in youth, and family in general, both films have very similar instances in which small children are introduced to violence, and its perpetuation is almost inevitable.
In Menace II Society, the scene was already mentioned in where Caine was shown a gun and given alcohol at a very young age. This set forth the series of events, which would lead him to gang life. Immediately following this scene Caine runs into Anthony, the small child of Pernell (who first showed Caine the gun) and Ronni, who turns out to be Caine’s love interest. This beginning scene with Anthony foreshadows Caine’s violent death at the end of the film.
Caine’s death is prefaced by his grandparents kicking him out of the house; this
is weeks before he is supposed to be moving to Atlanta, leaving the gang life behind and starting over with Ronni and Anthony. Once again blaming parents, adults and guardians for violence that usually results from their neglect. Caine goes to Ronni’s, and begins to pack up a mini-van (a symbol of family and children), the whole scene is shot from a low angle, even as Caine moves closer to the camera his ankles are only shown, keeping the camera at child size level, a level which soon enough Anthony enters into on his tricycle.As Anthony rides away after briefly talking with Caine, he makes “v-room” sound similar to that of a peeling out car, all the while the vehicle about to commit a drive by on Caine and his friend wheels around the corner. As the men open fire on Caine and his friend, Caine while being shot runs to shield Anthony from the bullets. As the car speeds away, the tricycle is seen flying, Anthony-less, off the screen and the big wheel is left spinning. The scene plays out almost as if Anthony is driving his big wheel along the same path as the drive by shooters, therefore emulating them.
The perpetuation of this violence is shown further in the final moments in which a montage unfolds of everything that has lead to this point. In this montage the scene of Caine being handed his gun by Pernell (who is in prison for life), is shown next to a scene of Caine (who is now dead) showing Anthony how to hold a gun. Next to each other the scenes show that violence is continuing through the youth, and it needs to be stopped. The movie is concluded with this rather poignant, tragic quote by Caine:
“I guess in the end it all catches up with you. My grandpa asked me one time if I care whether I live or die. Yeah, I do. Now it's too late.” The message is pretty clear, your past catches up with you, and if you value life, don’t influence future generations of this type of violence.
In American Me the final shot scene are very similar, all involving family, children and death. As children, JD and Santana say, “when we were kids, belonging felt good, but having respect is even better.” Santana is also around children a lot in this beginning scene sort of acting like a big brother to them, because presumably, if all we have learned so far is right, they don’t have a parental role model to look after them. This later of course like Caine said, catches up with them all, and there in lies the ultimate lesson.
The whole last section of the film is scene next to scene of Santana looking at pictures of his parents, Julie looking at pictures of her parents, Santana’s father looking at his other son Paulito, and Paulito talking with kids younger them himself. Also in this scene Little Puppet is shown taking his brother home from prison.
Little Puppet is killed by his brother, who right before, tells him his wife is pregnant, presumably instantly screwing up that child’s life because he won’t have a father. Also in this scene Paulito is shown initiating a much younger kid into la primera, proclaiming “La primera lives essay, lives through us, gives to us, its all we’ve ever had.” Santana’s father looks on at all of this, while a close up shot of his hand shows his identical la primera tattoo which he is trying to cover up, we also see Julie doing this as well, covering hers up with make up after she talks with her child. After Paulito finishes giving the child a tattoo, he takes him on a drive by random shooting initiation, shooting at a crowd of what other then mostly children.
The fact that both scenes include children juxtaposed with the images of death furthers the filmmaker’s points of advocacy and emphasizes the loss of youth and family that results from involvement in violent gang life.
As Canfield states “These pistolas in these manos are essentially the same as those in 1943” (1994). This statement can work for the views of both films, the pistols or violence of the Zoot Suit and Watts Riots in L.A. were passed to the hands of the children of that violence, and once again passed down to the children of them. In both American Me and Menace II Society, the filmmakers urge to show the effects of gang life, rather then show them shamelessly and exploiting them. Both filmmakers used the backdrop and media hype and public outrage surrounding the Rodney King verdict to accentuate the problems in their “hoods,” and to bring to the attention of the youth in these hoods and in the general public that something needs to be done to stop it.
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