Seraherrera The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Blake Rivera If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

wes-connors In sunny California's Los Angeles area, clean-cut white youth gang members are ready to retaliate against a rival Hispanic gang. Later, a friendly police officer tries to talk a young Spanish-accented boy out of continuing his life of crime. Alienated in an "unfriendly" environment, the boy narrates this short drama. It's a social consciousness effort by Sid Davis and Arthur Swerdloff. Most likely, this was shown to 1950s schoolchildren in an attempt to fight juvenile delinquency. Those who've seen the 1961 musical "West Side Story" will notice plot similarities. That show was staged in 1957, and was first proposed as about similar Los Angeles gangs. Among other things, it had Sharks, a concerned officer, an integrated dance and "happiness" in the form of Natalie Wood. "Growing up in an angry world" is repeated as the story's main problem. There are no songs, but "Gang Boy" provides a solution in caring for younger siblings and finding common ground. The film is definitely not art, but it does effectively make its point.***** Gang Boy (1954) Sid Davis, Arthur Swerdloff ~ Curly Riviera

preppy-3 Based on a true story that took place in California. There is a Mexican gang and a white gang who hate each other with a passion. They're going to have an all out war to see who's better. The police hear about this and talk to Danny the leader of the Mexican gang to try to prevent it. The movie goes back in time and shows how,and why, the Mexican gang started. Then it comes back and shows Danny making a decision. It all leads to an unbelievable but predictable happy ending.Back in 1954 this must have been hard-hitting. Fights between interracial gangs were not shown in movies at all. Seen today it comes across as obvious and simplistic. They used real gang members to play the roles of the kids to add authenticity...but they were horrible actors. There was some very obvious overdubbing and the "fights" were obviously staged and ineptly done--it's pretty obvious that none of the kids were hurt. Still this movie is well intentioned and shed some light on a subject that most Americans didn't know about. For that alone I give it a 6.

dougdoepke Interesting artifact, very much a reflection of its time. During those post-war years, juvenile delinquency grew as a national concern as a teenage sub-culture began to emerge. In urban areas, gang "rumbles" often made headlines as youths clashed with chains, fists, and sometimes, knives, as dramatized in this 30-minute short. These could be seen as "turf' wars or, at times, as racial clashes, but rarely—if I recall the LA area of this short correctly— was anyone killed. Note how the solution portrayed here can be described as a "liberal" one — that is, by appealing to youths' better instincts, instead of the more traditional reform school path.However, gangs-- at least in the last 50 years-- have evolved from street-level "clubs" into criminal enterprises, trafficking in drugs, guns, and other illicit activities that are often connected with adult-level prison gangs like the Mexican Mafia or the Aryan Brotherhood. Unlike the 1950's, rivalries are now routinely settled with "drive-by" shootings, at the same time, the bodies pile up in poorer and minority neighborhoods. Younger kids can easily be recruited since gang membership offers both status and the prospect of a money-making future. Just as importantly, liberal solutions, as portrayed in the Davis short, offer little prospect of success, while only those programs addressing the deeper causes of poverty and racism hold much promise.Nonetheless, this earnest little docu-drama presents an interesting contrast to such sensationalized youth films of the time as Rebel Without a Cause (1955) or The Blackboard Jungle (1955). I am curious, however, where the producers expected the 30-minutes to be shown and to what effect.

boblipton There are a lot of technical problems with this picture that make it pretty bad. The whole thing was shot MOS and the occasional bits of dialogue were looped inexpertly, and often by people who couldn't read the lines with any verisimilitude. In addition, the print I saw -- broadcast on TCM today -- is grainy, fuzzy and the color has distorted over the years.Yet there is tremendous documentary realism in this piece. First, the gang members are played by actual gang members -- several of them are thanked for their help in the opening credits. Combined with the poor prints, that produces a documentary feel to the movie. The narration, spoken with a Latino accent about how the particular gang came together tries to justify the gangs, but it is not very convincing, and that also makes it seem more real.Although undoubtedly intended as a pure exploitation movie -- Sid Davis did a lot of them -- these details make it an accidental masterpiece.