That was an excellent one.

Fantastic!

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Crips and Bloods: Made in America (2008)*** 1/2 (out of 4) Director Stacy Peralta does a very good job covering the brutal and deadly battle between rival L.A. gangs the Crips and the Bloods. This documentary looks at why the two sides took off in popularity and what is being done to try and stop the violence.I thought this was an extremely well-balanced documentary that gave an open and honest look at the subject. We're given quite a bit of history on racism and how South Central L.A. ended up turning into a ghetto when you've got so much rich things surrounding it. The documentary did a great job at covering the rise of the two gangs as well as all the violence that would follow. The issue of poverty and what that plays into is also reviewed.We get some great interviews with members of both gangs as well as family members who have had loved ones lost to the violence. Forest Whitaker does a very good job with the narration and adds a classy touch to the entire thing.

Here is what I got out of the film: cops kept the residents of this area bottled up because the surrounding neighborhoods feared what would happen if poor black people began to spread out. In doing this the cops proved to be arrogant, unfeeling and cruel. Eventually, the people in this ghetto formed gangs. At first the idea was safety and self-defense. But somehow this evolved into rival gangs fighting and killing each other. The irony is that the residents of the ghetto became exactly what they feared and despised: an organized force that kept people behind geographical barriers, held power through fear and intimidation and was respected because the members were devoid of compassion and feeling. The gangs used the cops as role models. While it is alleged in this film that cops beat up people simply because they were black, the black gangsters beat up people because of the color of the bandanna in their pocket. Whats the solution? Who says there is a solution?A riot is shown as a major turning point. All it showed me was that pushing people too far makes them do crazy things. In one scene we see rioters destroying a car. Later they pass a car turned upside-down. So whose cars were they? Some white slum landlord who fled on foot? I doubt it. I think some hapless resident of this neighborhood woke up the next day to find he didn't have a car anymore. And all so rioters could break something. What can you say about people who loot and burn down their own neighborhood? Wouldn't YOU want to contain them? Whats the answer? To me the moral was "get out of the area and don't come back", not "Join a gang and fight".This film was difficult for me to watch because of the overuse of visual effects. Motion sequences were sped up or run backwards and forwards. Stills used "camera shake" or unnecessary zooms. And everywhere was the "old film" effect where phony edge flare, scratches, jumpy picture and even the effect of the film jamming in the projector and catching fire. This stuff is OK if used very sparingly. When applied to every sequence, it get really tedious. And less hip-hop scratch on the soundtrack would have helped.Since I have never lived in this neighborhood, I can only guess how non-gang members feel. But somehow I think that a lot of folks who live in the neighborhood shown in the film wish the gang guys would just go away. To me, this film shows that the gangs hurt their own friends and neighbors a lot more than they help.

This was a superior movie. All gang members should watch it and see that what they're fighting for is nothing. This movie was an eyeopener and was very educational. It is sad that people are killing in and destroying their own neighborhoods. All of the years of fighting should have proved by now that nothing is gained with these deaths. The only hope is that the mothers only give birth to girls from here on and the females in these environments wise up and straighten things up. This fighting is not for honor or family. It is a testosterone battle that on one is winning. It is so sad that it takes the accidental murder of innocent children to open the gangs eyes, if only for a while. The government needs to implement something that will give these young men some pride and something to work toward besides daily survival. I was very moved by this movie.

A soulless and oddly voyeuristic white boy's visit to the South Side – seemingly for the first time – "Crips and Bloods: Made in America" offers few insights and much editorial gimmickry in an extended, ninety-three minute rock video which ultimately concludes that yes, THEY are human. Oh my goodness! Who knew?About fifteen years ago filmmaker Randy Holland made a documentary about the 1992 Los Angeles riots, "The Fire This Time," which covers the same material, with the same structure. Using interviews with scholars, statesmen and the mothers of murdered Black Panthers along with members of the community, this earlier film provides an intellectual context that explains the emergence of gangs from the ashes of militancy, whereas the Pearlta doc shows little more than a litany of anger and self-pity."Crips and Bloods: Made in America" was made in America on a nifty computer, by a filmmaker who thinks good editing entails hammering on the keyboard as though it were a drum kit; how cool. And while we're at it, let's use every single special effect available in Final Cut Pro – or was it Avid? These jitters, shakes, blurs and flashes, especially when used during talking heads or emotion laden file footage, totally disrespect the experience of the film's subjects. And even worse, the incessant, wall-to-wall music, dull and hypnotic to the max, opens up a giant chasm between the film and the viewer. In the end, a pointless and arty documentary. Look for the Holland film; libraries have it.