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jdanielwilliams
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Bastards of the Party (2005)
What a documentary should be: informative, honest, compelling.
As a young man who was born and raised in Los Angeles - "bourgie" but close enough to gang culture to understand the nuances of daily life for gangbangers - I can say with confidence that this was an incredible look into a culture that many people know of but don't really know much about.
Gang culture is the result of early, quite innocent militarism for the purposes of self-defense allowed to go completely astray. This film gives an inside look into the history and development of the violence gang culture of Los Angeles, a Roman-style tangle of syndicalism and family ties, full of the good-ole Southern ignorance, self-righteousness and hypocrisy.
Some commenters considered the left-wing editorialising that goes on throughout the film to weaken it's credentials as an authentic documentary, but I do not agree. The leftism of the historians used as sources of information in the film are coincidental to the informative value that those historians provide. It can be overlooked, and should be, as director Cle Sloan himself admits that he is not as smitten with the gang culture as he is expected to be.
The film also places the seemingly unrelated Black Power Movement in the proper context and providing the inspirational link between this Movement and the gangbanging culture. It is fascinating to ponder, and provides a great lesson on human nature and human frailty, especially the frailty of young men who grow up in communities where the grown men of wisdom are systematically removed.
Home video footage of gangster funerals, cruising, and sign language was riveting to watch.
The overall product I think is satisfyingly dispassionate and non-judgemental until the very end, I think. Cle Sloan admits that gangs contribute to the destruction of these communities and need to change. That is the true value of this fantastic film, I believe: it humanizes the gang culture and helps the viewer understand the psycho-spiritual conditions that lead to the kind of violence that the Bloods and Crips practice on a regular basis. Cle Sloan believes the gangs can be changed for good, and, as I tend to agree. The Bloods and Crips do not just consist of "niggas with attitudes" - they are lost men who need direction and self-respect.
Highly recommended.