A couple of video reviews

So I've watched a couple of movie reviews from over the weekend.

l) American Me--I watched this one last week on STARZ and holy crap....what a great movie.  Edward James Olmos, one of the really great character actors, proves his ability to play the lead role in this study of Mexican gangs and the role they played in the lives of a group of friends starting in the early 60's through their release from prison almost 20 years later.  Olmos is his usual stellar self in the role of the leader of the gang, and is ably assisted by William Forsythe, who plays sort of a white guy who's in the gang.  This is kind of a "warts and all" look at ganglife, so its not like it glamorizes gang life.  I read that the real Mexican mafia that was portrayed here had some issues with the film--not as an entirety, but with a few specific scenes.
Not for everyone, but some terrific acting.......as well as more than just a few references to......"ese"....."vato"...."odelay".....ya know.    ***3/4
2) Platoon--Winner as Best Film in 1987, this is a really gripping, terrifically acted, pretty much depressing look at the early part of the Vietnam War, reportedly based on director Oliver Stone's own experiences as a soldier.  There are some truly great performances here, with the really showy pieces being Charlie Sheen (never better) as Stone's alter-ego, Willem Dafoe in a career making role as a sympathetic sargeant
& Tom Berenger--who truly was robbed out of an Academy Award in the role of the hateful, bigoted, mean spirited Sgt Barnes.  Berenger's character is scarred on the outside--the right side of his face is horribly disfigured and its obvious that he's dead on the inside, without sympathy for either his own troops or the enemy.  He's become a man who's entire being has become consumed with war and the fighting that it involves.  He has to be praying for the release that will only come with death.
Its an incredible performance, because his character is a total S.O.B., but you can't take your eyes off of him.  That being said.....as tremendous as Berenger is....in a smaller role, he almost manages to be eclipsed by young Kevin Dillon, as a bigoted young soldier desperate to prove his manhood.  There's a scene in the middle of the film, and its really a very disturbing scene, where the squad comes onto a village after having had one of their unit killed.  Like a pack of wolves in search of a fresh kill, the young soldiers hit the village and prey on the old, the sick and the weak.
Its brutal to watch and shows the true hell that war is.
This is a tremendous film.   ****3/4

Later,
Jeff