August 30, 2020

A perfect pairing of sound & vision - American Me


American Me was one of the more controversial releases of 1992. It's the story of the Mexican Mafia, La Eme, and it's birth among the Chicano gangs in the prison yards of California. It's a shockingly violent film and that violence crept into real life too when at least 3 consultants who had worked on the film were murdered in and around Los Angeles on the orders of La Eme who were, to say the least, not happy with the depiction of their origin. It's a memorable film though, especially the scene below and it's fantastically economical use of music to trace the passage of time.

 Montoya Santana (based on real life gang member Rodolfo Cadena) has become a big man in juvenile detention after killing an older boy who attacked him. With his star on the rise he's reunited with an old friend of his, JD, a white teenager raised in Chicano surroundings, (Based on real life gangster Joe Pegleg Morgan) and he's growing comfortable being state property. 


From the innocent 50's sounds of Bobby Day and Rockin' Robin to the sleazy 70's drawl of Los Lobos and Shotgun we pass 15 years in the blink of an eye, the sound of transition being the bang of a handball against a backboard that sounds very like a gunshot. Our boys have grown into Edward James Olmos and William Forsythe. Hair styles have changed, khakis have turned into blue jeans. Faces have hardened. A decade and a half in the joint takes it's toll. Boys to men. Men in charge of the yard at Folsom, the prison made famous by Johnny Cash. The petty crimes are in the rear view. Montoya and Joe are murderers now. They deal in drugs and blood. The song playing over them now feels apt rather than childish.

 15 years of crime. Enough stories to fill a 3 hour crime epic. American Me skips it all in the space of 10 seconds. Brilliant.

 Previous pairings

 Beetlejuice
Hard Boiled
8 mile
Wheels On Meals
The Office (UK)
Do The Right Thing
Se7en
Mad Men
The Colour Of Money
Rules Of Attraction
Kickboxer                                  


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