Plot: What’s it about?
Santana (Edward James Olmos) has spent most of his life behind bars, sent to juvenile detention as a teen, then shipped to Folsom Prison as an adult. As he hasn’t been a free man since he was a teen, Santana only knows the life inside prison, which can be brutal. He found that out when he first arrived in juvenile detention, when another prisoner tried to rape him, but Santana fought back and killed his attacker. He soon began to build up his Mexican Mafia status, thanks to his close friends and others who want to change their place within the prison. As an adult, Santana runs the Mexican Mafia from inside the prison, but after an extensive stretch, he is now released back into the world. The outside world is strange to Santana, as his power inside doesn’t always translate to power on the outside. As he struggles to find his place in the outside, both in his gang life and his personal life, can he keep himself from being devoured by his own violent lifestyle?
This is by no means a terrible movie, but The Godfather, it isn’t. I’ve seen a lot of gang oriented movies and overall, American Me just isn’t up to the level of the best ones. I’d call the movie more middle of the pack, as the story is good, but nothing original and the pace is brutal at times. The movie runs over two hours, but seems like it could have been twenty minutes shorter, as some stretches seem to drag on. The time spent on certain characters never even pays off, so what could have been interesting subplots wind up abandoned. Edward James Olmos directs and handles the lead role, but I think he is a better actor than director, as American Me never stands out from the others of its kind. The social messages are good ones, don’t do drugs and don’t be in gangs, but the story around them needed to be better. Universal’s high definition release is a disappointment, with a substandard transfer that gives us no real reason to upgrade.
Video: How does it look?
American Me is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. I did side by side comparisons with the standard release and to be honest, I didn’t like the result. This transfer exhibits a clearer image, which yields more detail, but the clarity also brings the flaws into greater detail. The grain is thick at times, which softens the visuals and I saw a lot of artifacts, even more than I noticed on the standard release. I might be insane, but I expect fewer digital artifacts from a high definition transfer, but Universal has dropped the ball on this one. This should be an example to the studios, as movies needs to be restored or at least cleaned up, as high definition only magnifies existing flaws.
Audio: How does it sound?
This movie doesn’t have a complex, high end sound design, so it shouldn’t be a shock that this Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 soundtrack isn’t that remarkable. Some scenes have more presence than others, such as when violence erupts, but even then, the sound isn’t the kind that impresses. Which is fine in this case, as the movie just needs solid, natural audio and that is what it gets in this treatment. The music sounds good, while dialogue is clean and never hard to understand. This soundtrack won’t win any awards, but it covers all the bases. This disc also includes a French language track, as well as subtitles in English and French.
Supplements: What are the extras?
Lives in Hazard is an hour long documentary that to be honest, I enjoyed more than the movie itself. The piece looks at the real life gang situation, including some gang members who participated in the production of American Me. You can tell Olmos wanted a realistic, on location environment for his movie and sadly, this documentary tells us that some gang members and former gang members who helped the production, ended up murdered. This is a well made, realistic look into the gang lifestyle that tries to present the facts and take the shine off the lifestyle. This disc also includes the film’s theatrical trailer.
