Brutal, hard-hitting look at the Mexican Mafia in California, an organized crime group that I had little knowledge about or awareness of before I saw the movie. It's not a documentary, but apparently is based on true life and real people, which only makes it that much more chilling. Edward Olmos is excellent as the institutionalized gang leader who must repress any flickering signs of humanity within himself in order to be perceived as strong by those he leads. Also outstanding is William Forsythe as his "gringo" friend and associate. This is not a pleasant or easy film to watch; these guys make Al Capone and Dutch Schultz look like Spanky and Alfalfa. Apparently, Olmos received death threats from some of the very people he and the other actors portray in the film because he showed the character he was playing as having been homosexually raped while a teenager in custody, something that the real Mexican Mafia evidently viewed as a grave insult; the savage, cold-blooded murders portrayed or the callous ferocity ascribed to the characters didn't seem to disturb them at all.

it was a good movie despite the graphic violence. i actually was horrified the first time i watched it that i wuld have to stop the movie to recover from the scene i just watched. what is really upsetting is this movie is as close to real as you get as to what happens in prison. disturbing

*WARNING* VAGUE PLOT SPOILER! If you didn't like the scene in American History X you will definitely not like a certain prison kitchen scene in this movie. Talk about being etched into your mind. I needed therapy for this one. But again, I won't judge the movie on the basis of a single scene. I like how the movie spanned a long time and it did not give some kind of ideallic picture of how he rises out of his situation. Instead he is hopelessly trapped in it and his bad deeds come back to get him in this life.