BOULEVARD NIGHTS
US, 1979, 97 minutes, Colour.
Richard Yniguez, Danny de la Paz.
Directed by Michael Pressman.
Boulevard Nights shows us Hispanic American Graffiti and Warrior types. Los Angeles Boulevard riding and rumbles become violent with expected results. This film is not original but it does present its themes modestly and well, and the hero Richard Yniguez is engaging. Thematically, the film is also very interesting because its plot and situations are straight from such westerns as Saddle the Wind and Night Passage with cars/horses, ranchers/gangs and good and bad brothers and riding to vengeance. By using this American lore in 20th. century urban settings which alarm the public, the film comments both on U.S. past and present (and with irony because of the minority and bilingual setting). Interesting (and hopeful?) social movie making.
1. The title and its focus, Los Angeles, expectations and their fulfilments?
2. The film reflecting the trends of the 70s? The overtones of American Graffiti and the emphasis on youth, cars, cruising the boulevards? The background of the warriors and the gang genre of the late 70s? The overtones of the basic western's plot and the way that the 19th. century thews are transferred to the urban setting of the 70s?
3. How accurate was the picture of Los Angeles, Spanish American society? The picture of America in the late 70s, youth? Music and its background, cars, gangs, rivalries, violence, employment and unemployment, relationships? How much insight into this world?
4. The background of the gangs, their territories, the streets, the tattoo symbols and status? The battle lines and the way these were emphasised at the beginning and in the final confrontation? The opening and the presentation of the gangs and their confrontations? How well was this theme continued throughout the film? The violence and the raids, the eruptions, the vengeance? The violence of the clashes and their point, lack of point? The rivalries in the boulevard, the visits to homes, the smashing of cars, guns and killing? The inevitable consequence of vengeance? The importance of drugs and their influence on the members of the gangs? Gangs and this way of behaviour as part of American life? The police and their trying to cope? Why the rise of gangs?
5. The basic western story and its structure for this film? A different kind of frontier? the Hispanic American frontier? The fights parallelling those of the West? The story of the two brothers, one reformed and the other bad? The good brother wanting to marry and settle down, the bad one with the gang? The clashes and the consequences, the unnecessary deaths, the responsibility, the vengeance and the heroic saving of the good brother by the bad brother? How well the transition from the West to the city?
6. How sympathetic was Ramon as hero? His place in the gang in the past, his changing? His status and his strength? His work, enjoying going on the boulevard on weekends, his devotion to his car, sense of fun, love for Denise and his decision to marry her? A tough man who had become stronger? His work, skill, exercise? Devotion to his mother, his protecting his brother? His support, covering up for him? The enjoyment of life with the cars, the bouncing of the cars in competitiveness? Cars, Denise and his having to choose? The effect of Denise's hostility and his being jolted into proposing to her, the preparations for the marriage and the effect on him, the happiness of the wedding? The impact of his mother's death and the family bonds especially for vengeance? The background of his continued worry about Chuko? His avenging Chuko's self sacrifice? Denise and himself at the end facing the future? What future? How typical were Ramon and Denise of this city world? The hopes for building from sow kind of disturbance to a more peaceful future?
7. The portrait of Chuko as the younger brother, his devotion to Ramon and yet his resenting his over-protectiveness, his belonging to the gang, his tattoo, hat, knife? The interview for the job, his work and yet his being unreliable? The drugtaking and the effects? The rumbling of the cars in the boulevard? The violence and the fights? The rest of the gang as similar to himself? The smashing of the car in vengeance? His being hurt by Ramon and his hiding away and missing his brother's wedding, his mother's death? His pride, his resentment of being called dumb? Denise's influence on him for his final decision, his confrontation of the gang, the inevitability of his death, his final words and his giving his life for his brother? A portrait of lost possibilities?
8. Denise as the attractive heroine? Family background, love for Ramon, their dates, their going to the motel and the background of their sexual relationship? The preparations for the marriage after her confrontation of him, the sequence in the restaurant and their moving to the fast foods cafe? Seeing her at work and her skill in her job? The getting of the dress, the wedding rehearsal, the happiness of the marriage and the reception? The sadness of the death, the funeral sequence? Her plea for help from Chuko? Her pleading with Ramon against vengeance? The final sequence and their hopes for the future?
9. The sketches of the various gang members and the illustration of their toughness and violence? Their tattoos and their status and the long sequence of Chuko's tattoo? Their sniffing paint etc.? The rumbles? The sequence where Chuko asked the little boy to say 'Hi' to the members of the other gang? The future of the members of the gangs?
10. Work at the garage, the owner and his hiring Chuko, the attacks and his bleeding nose? The friends of Ramon and his reliance on them?
11. The mother, her worry and devotion, the happiness of the marriage, the accidental death and what it triggered off? Denise's family and the domestic sequences?
12. How important was the social observation of the film, peripheral society in Los Angeles, the growth of the Spanish-speaking residents, language problems? A picture of bilingual America, multicultural America? The background of Spanish/Americans and their traditions, religion?
13. Old American narratives in the modern setting for insight into contemporary society and human nature?
