I was truly gripped by Bastards of The Party as it aired on HBO yesterday evening (2/25/07) and I recommend it highly to those seeking substantive cultural information on the modern history of gangs, inner-city black life, the history of modern los angeles or the role of government and police in all three venues.
The greatest thing that can be said about this film from me is that it brought me one or two degrees closer to a non-pejorative, non-dismissive and non-judgemental understanding of a pocket of human life that I would - in fear and racial difference - never want to understand.
Even though myself and 190 million other white Americans may never be tainted with the cruelty and death that has gone on in Los Angeles, this film instructs us that the basic concept of American "justice for all" has gone mad here. And perhaps begin to reveal light about how it's gone mad in the overall....certainly at odds with all the nice inscriptions and beatific monuments found in Washington DC.
Time does not allow me to categorize some artistic nuances missed (perhaps a follow up later here) but this is a good cinematic jumping-off point for further consideration of the issue.
The greatest thing that can be said about this film from me is that it brought me one or two degrees closer to a non-pejorative, non-dismissive and non-judgemental understanding of a pocket of human life that I would - in fear and racial difference - never want to understand.
Even though myself and 190 million other white Americans may never be tainted with the cruelty and death that has gone on in Los Angeles, this film instructs us that the basic concept of American "justice for all" has gone mad here. And perhaps begin to reveal light about how it's gone mad in the overall....certainly at odds with all the nice inscriptions and beatific monuments found in Washington DC.
Time does not allow me to categorize some artistic nuances missed (perhaps a follow up later here) but this is a good cinematic jumping-off point for further consideration of the issue.