It's a good thing that this movie was a box office flop. It shows Mexican American stereotypes in late seventies Los Angeles in a way that is at times cartoonish and at other times very one-dimensional and at one moment patronizing, another moment condescending. Robby Benson is completely wrong as the American born what do you call a teenager with a Mexican mother and a white father who never took responsibility for him. He has no idea about his father until his grandmother dies and he goes down in Mexico where he meets his dad which begins to upset his whole identity. He's part of what he called "a club" which is really a gang, filled with anger and violence and stereotypical immaturity. All of the Mexican Americans speak with an accent that is very Speedy Gonzales / Frito Bandito in nature, and at times, Benson is so breathy that you fear he'll pass out from talking too much and not breathing while saying his lines.
But there's a tenderness to his character underneath the violence, even before he finds out his true parentage, having fallen in love with a nice white girl (Sarah Holcomb) and even getting to meet her parents, given a warning by her possessive father. But it's more than the stereotypes that causes this film to fail. The situation is over the top and often unrealistic, and any attempts to be sincere fall flat. But it's not the complete disaster that its reputation has gotten, just disappointing considering that it could have really been an important film padded shoulder a more well-rounded view of the Mexican-American community. Benson isn't awful. He just isn't this character.
But there's a tenderness to his character underneath the violence, even before he finds out his true parentage, having fallen in love with a nice white girl (Sarah Holcomb) and even getting to meet her parents, given a warning by her possessive father. But it's more than the stereotypes that causes this film to fail. The situation is over the top and often unrealistic, and any attempts to be sincere fall flat. But it's not the complete disaster that its reputation has gotten, just disappointing considering that it could have really been an important film padded shoulder a more well-rounded view of the Mexican-American community. Benson isn't awful. He just isn't this character.