Walkout
by Edward James Olmos
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Actor: Alexa Vega, Efren Ramirez, Laura Harring, Michael Peña, Yancey AriasDirector: Edward James Olmos
Brand: HBO Home Video
Producer: Edward James Olmos
Producer: Félix Enríquez Alcalá
Producer: Greg Spence
Writer: Ernie Contreras
Writer: Marcus DeLeon
Writer: Timothy J. Sexton
Writer: Victor Villaseñor
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 110 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-03-06
Audience Rating: Unrated
Model: 93312
Studio: Hbo Home Video
DVD Reviews of Walkout
DVD Review: QUE VIVA LA RAZA! 'Iron Jawed Angels' With Salsa!
Summary: 5 Stars
My introduction to the social activism of young Latinos during the Civil Rights Era came via a C-Span promotion of a book entitled "We Were There, Too", which features stories about real-life teenagers who helped shape the course of American History during various eras.
This HBO film, which is 2006's answer to "Iron Jawed Angels", fleshes out the characters involved, many of whom take part in the reenactment of their story.
It is early 1968 in East Los Angeles, California. Young Paula Crisostomo (a beauteous, effervescent, and charismatic Alexa Vega) and honor student at the predominantly Chicano Abraham Lincoln High School, observes the indignities imposed upon her fellow students by condescending White school authorities. Students are denied access to the school restrooms at certain times of the school day, but are punished for going to the bathroom behind the bushes of the campus or on grilles in the pavement. They receive corporal punishment for speaking Spanish in class (which, in real life, included slapping by teachers, although this is not portrayed in the film), they receive no information about Chicano contributions to American Society in History Class, are denied recommendations for Universities, and when in detention, are forced to do janitorial duty. The White principals don't even care to learn how to pronounce students' names properly, and when students' petition for better treatment is met with apathy by the predominantly White School Board, Paula, who has joined a group of radical Chicanos whom she met at a student leadership conference, suggests that the inner city schools stage a walkout.
Michael Pena, as Sal Castro, is fun-loving, instructional, and inspiring as the only Chicano teacher on the LHS faculty, who guides the young students through their struggle.
Paula, who works in a movie theatre, also faces opposition from her father(Yancey Arias), a janitor, who disliked her association with perceived agitators, but receives a bit more support from her mother (Laura Harring--still as lovely as she was when crowned Miss Universe in 1985), who expresses concern about Paula's potential repetition of a life mistake that she made.
March 6, 1968 begins with tense anticipation (as well as continued police surveillance) for Paula, Harry Gamboa(Germain de Leon), Mita Cuaron (Marisol Romo), Moctezuma Esparza(Bodie Olmos), and all the young leaders of the protest.
But at 9AM, an anxious, and initially weak-voiced Paula bravely fulfills her end of the bargain, as do the others. It is a truly powerful moment captured by the media.
A fun moment follows as we watch Sal, the students, and Brown Berets dance to "Land of a Thousand Dances" in celebration of their peaceful protest.
They receive word from the Chicano member of the School Board, Julian Nava (a dignified Edward James Olmos, who masterfully directed this production) that their demands would be considered the following week. Ultimately, the student leaders are not satisfied with that, and there is a second walkout the following day (in which some schools participate, but others do not), which has hazardous results.
The leaders of the protest are fully aware of a police informant among their ranks, although they were unable to place him, or her. The protests of March 9 are met not only by police brutality towards unarmed students-some of whom are hospitalized--but also by innacurate commentary
about the event by a condescending White news commentator who lacks any real understanding of minority issues to add insult to injury.
The final school protest finds Lincoln High School students participating in the walkouts yet again, only this time, joined by their parents in the wake of potential police hostility.
As Sal observed, it was a beautiful day to be a Chicano.
The beauty and solidarity of that moment is soon shattered by the arrests of the Brown Berets, Sal, and others as Paula prepares for her prom. A weeping Vickie Castro (Tonantzin Esparza), the college student who befriended Paula, comes to collect the High School Senior to figure out a plan of action.
The Chicano community rallies in protest against the unlawful arrests, and we see students aspiring to become more than society allows them to be.
One of the most stirring and heartening scenes is when Bobby Verdugo's brother (Gabriel Torres), asks him, "What are you going to be when you grow up, Bobby?", and Bobby responds, "I don't know. But when I find out, I'm going to be it!"
Que viva la esperanza!
Paula eventually confronts the informant as she and a crowd of Latinos demand the release of the East L.A. 13, and the American systems of justice and education gain a few more friends that day.
The walkouts spread across the country, and America is a better place in many ways as a result.
The question the majority of Americans should ask as they watch this brilliant film is how they would feel if their children were treated the same way in school. An interesting question considering that the same year the East L.A. 13 had their convictions thrown out of court, four white students (who were protesting more violently than the Latinos) were shot dead at Kent State.
Generally, this is a thoroughly commendable production about Chicanos, by Chicanos, capturing the turbulence of the '60s with precison, but leaving us with the message that anyone can change things for the better.
Description of Walkout
WALKOUT - DVD MovieIn an era when so many movies about inner-city youth focus on gangs, drugs, and violence, Walkout deserves props for its sincere depiction of the peaceful efforts of Chicano students to effect positive change in the Los Angeles school system. The year is 1968, a time of profound social upheaval, what with the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, the escalation of the Vietnam War, the chaotic scene in Chicago during the Democratic Convention, and so on. In East L.A., a young schoolteacher (Michael Pena) tries to instill pride in his students, reminding them of Chicano contributions to the Civil War and 'Nam and taking them on a tour of the west side, where they see how the other (i.e., whiter) side lives. Laura Crisostomo (Alexa Vega from the Spy Kids series), a good girl and ace student, soon finds herself caught up in the movement to improve conditions at local high schools--much to the chagrin of her dad (Yancey Arias), a strict Filipino immigrant mistrustful of "agitators" (this father-daughter dynamic, while not the film's only cliché, is perhaps its most obvious). Said conditions are not, in fact, all that horrendous; there's nothing good about corporal punishment (students are "swatted" for speaking Spanish during an English lit class), of course, but the lack of Mexican food in the cafeteria and the fact that school bathrooms are closed during lunch are hardly issues of earth-shattering importance. The students persist nonetheless, leading to mass boycotts (the titular "walkouts"), the predictable over-reaction by police and other authorities, and, eventually, some tangible results. All of this is presented by director Edward James Olmos (who also has a small onscreen role) and three screenwriters in the kind of earnest, inspiring style of a TV movie of the week (the film originally aired on HBO in 2006). But while Walkout is hardly what you'd call "edgy," its efforts to refute stereotypes and promote Mexican-American cultural awareness are nothing if not admirable. Bonus features include three audio commentary tracks, with participation by Olmos, the writers, and executive producer Moctesuma Esparza, who was part of the student movement (and is portrayed in the film). --Sam Graham
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