reeves2002 Review of Gang Land

Gang Land (1998)

It was OK.I wish people would stop comparing it to AHX & RS

[4/10 · 8 August 2007]

I don't know why people keep comparing this movie with Romper stomper and American history X.To me it was nothing like them.It reminded me more of a TV movie called Brotherhood of murder.The special features on the DVD were interesting and fun to watch.There was deleted scenes,auditions,interesting skinhead facts and more. The only thing I hated was the movie was more about homophobia and gay bashing.Not that I support Nazi skinheads but I don't understand why they were so threatened by gays instead of the groups of black and Asian gangs in the neighborhood.There was an interesting remark made in the DVD extra features that mentions that there is more violence within their own ranks then there is violence towards others.I loved the scene in the movie when a huge group of gay men got together and bashed the skinheads back.I have never seen that before in a movie and they deserved the beating.It was nice to see a bit of payback from the gay community.Ironically the most vicious gay hating skinhead David Lee played by David Lee Willson has come out as a gay man in real life.I read a really cool article about this actor and how hard it was for him to play such an evil hateful role. A lot of people felt the acting in this movie was horrible.Yes some scenes were badly acted and a few of the actors were really bad, but it was their first time and this was the director's first film I believe.To me it seemed like real life and not the worst acting i've seen in a film. However David Wilson,Damon Jones,and David Oren Ward gave the best performances.Sadly I just learned actor David Oren Ward died tragically which is a shame since he was both talented and very handsome. The shocking rape scene was really well done but I didn't like how she treated her boyfriend afterwords since he was helpless to save her.And then to kill herself afterwards was cowardly and not believable.Yes it was traumatic but I have never heard of rape victims taking their own life because of it.What the skinheads did was rotten,but then so was what the group of black men did to her and her boyfriend.And then later the same group of blacks targeted the white girls.I am sure it probably happens a lot also,but they don't seem to be depicted as bad guys which is a total double standard.At that point I was waiting for the skinhead group to get even with them for shooting an innocent kid who was only lured into it because he was mentally challenged.And they were also protecting their female members from being nearly assaulted which any gang would do no matter who they are. In Pariah only 2 or 3 of them seemed like skinheads.At one point I was beginning to think they were not a group of skinheads but a bunch of unstable street kids.They all came from dysfunctional families,some were abused,a few were either mentally retarded and others just homeless and some brain dead from all the drug abuse.They were more like street punks who were discarded and who just wanted to fit in and belong. Another really good movie that is similar but not really about skinheads is the 1984 movie called suburbia.I read it was coming to DVD finally and I am looking forward to seeing it again.It reminded me of pariah, but an 80's version.