American Me

March. 13,1992      R
Rating:
7.1
Trailer Synopsis Cast

During his 18 years in Folsom Prison, street-gang leader Santana rules over all the drug-and-murder activities behind bars. Upon his release, Santana goes back to his old neighborhood, intending to lead a peaceful, crime-free life. But his old gang buddies force him back into his old habits.

Edward James Olmos as  Montoya Santana
William Forsythe as  J.D.
Pepe Serna as  Mundo
Panchito Gómez as  Young Montoya Santana
Danny De La Paz as  Puppet
Sal Lopez as  Pedro Santana
Dyana Ortelli as  Yolanda
William Smith as  Deacon
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as  El Japo
Daniel Villarreal as  Little Puppet

Similar titles

Straw Dogs
Straw Dogs
David Sumner, a mild-mannered academic from the United States, marries Amy, an Englishwoman. In order to escape a hectic stateside lifestyle, David and his wife relocate to the small town in rural Cornwall where Amy was raised. There, David is ostracized by the brutish men of the village, including Amy's old flame, Charlie. Eventually the taunts escalate, and two of the locals rape Amy. This sexual assault awakes a shockingly violent side of David.
Straw Dogs 1971
Sommersby
Starz
Sommersby
Set in the South just after the US Civil War, Laurel Sommersby is just managing to work the farm without her husband, believed killed in battle. By all accounts, Jack Sommersby was not a pleasant man, thus when he suddenly returns, Laurel has mixed emotions. It appears that Jack has changed a great deal, leading some people to believe that this is not actually Jack but an imposter. Laurel herself is unsure, but willing to take the man into her home, and perhaps later into her heart.
Sommersby 1993
Point Break
Max
Point Break
In Los Angeles, a gang of bank robbers who call themselves The Ex-Presidents commit their crimes while wearing masks of Reagan, Carter, Nixon and Johnson. Believing that the members of the gang could be surfers, the F.B.I. sends young agent Johnny Utah to the beach undercover to mix with the surfers and gather information.
Point Break 1991
Hannibal Rising
Freevee
Hannibal Rising
The story of the early, murderous roots of the cannibalistic killer, Hannibal Lecter – from his hard-scrabble Lithuanian childhood, where he witnesses the repulsive lengths to which hungry soldiers will go to satiate themselves, through his sojourn in France, where as a med student he hones his appetite for the kill.
Hannibal Rising 2007
Street Kings
HULU
Street Kings
Tom Ludlow is a disillusioned L.A. Police Officer, rarely playing by the rules and haunted by the death of his wife. When evidence implicates him in the execution of a fellow officer, he is forced to go up against the cop culture he's been a part of his entire career, ultimately leading him to question the loyalties of everyone around him.
Street Kings 2008
Imperium
Prime Video
Imperium
Nate Foster, a young, idealistic FBI agent, goes undercover to take down a radical white supremacy terrorist group. The bright up-and-coming analyst must confront the challenge of sticking to a new identity while maintaining his real principles as he navigates the dangerous underworld of white supremacy. Inspired by real events.
Imperium 2016
The Last King of Scotland
Prime Video
The Last King of Scotland
Young Scottish doctor, Nicholas Garrigan decides it's time for an adventure after he finishes his formal education, so he decides to try his luck in Uganda, and arrives during the downfall of President Obote. General Idi Amin comes to power and asks Garrigan to become his personal doctor.
The Last King of Scotland 2006
Down by Law
Max
Down by Law
A disc jockey, a pimp and an Italian tourist escape from jail in New Orleans.
Down by Law 1986
Do the Right Thing
Prime Video
Do the Right Thing
Salvatore "Sal" Fragione is the Italian owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn. A neighborhood local, Buggin' Out, becomes upset when he sees that the pizzeria's Wall of Fame exhibits only Italian actors. Buggin' Out believes a pizzeria in a black neighborhood should showcase black actors, but Sal disagrees. The wall becomes a symbol of racism and hate to Buggin' Out and to other people in the neighborhood, and tensions rise.
Do the Right Thing 1989
Lethal Weapon 2
Max
Lethal Weapon 2
In the opening chase, Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh stumble across a trunk full of Krugerrands. They follow the trail to a South African diplomat who's using his immunity to conceal a smuggling operation. When he plants a bomb under Murtaugh's toilet, the action explodes!
Lethal Weapon 2 1989

You May Also Like

Bound by Honor
Bound by Honor
Based on the true life experiences of poet Jimmy Santiago Baca, the film focuses on half-brothers Paco and Cruz, and their bi-racial cousin Miklo. It opens in 1972, as the three are members of an East L.A. gang known as the "Vatos Locos", and the story focuses on how a violent crime and the influence of narcotics alter their lives. Miklo is incarcerated and sent to San Quentin, where he makes a "home" for himself. Cruz becomes an exceptional artist, but a heroin addiction overcomes him with tragic results. Paco becomes a cop and an enemy to his "carnal", Miklo.
Bound by Honor 1993
Antwone Fisher
Prime Video
Antwone Fisher
A sailor prone to violent outbursts is sent to a naval psychiatrist for help. Refusing at first to open up, the young man eventually breaks down and reveals a horrific childhood. Through the guidance of his doctor, he confronts his painful past and begins a quest to find the family he never knew.
Antwone Fisher 2002
The Shawshank Redemption
Prime Video
The Shawshank Redemption
Framed in the 1940s for the double murder of his wife and her lover, upstanding banker Andy Dufresne begins a new life at the Shawshank prison, where he puts his accounting skills to work for an amoral warden. During his long stretch in prison, Dufresne comes to be admired by the other inmates -- including an older prisoner named Red -- for his integrity and unquenchable sense of hope.
The Shawshank Redemption 1994
Blue Story
Prime Video
Blue Story
Blue Story is a tragic tale of a friendship between Timmy and Marco, two young boys from opposing postcodes. Timmy, a shy, smart, naive and timid young boy from Deptford, goes to school in Peckham where he strikes up a friendship with Marco, a charismatic, streetwise kid from the local area. Although from warring postcodes, the two quickly form a firm friendship until it is tested and they wind up on rival sides of a street war. Blue Story depicts elements of Rapman's own personal experiences and aspects of his childhood.
Blue Story 2020
Sing
Fubo TV
Sing
A koala named Buster recruits his best friend to help him drum up business for his theater by hosting a singing competition.
Sing 2016
American Psycho
Max
American Psycho
A wealthy New York investment banking executive hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he escalates deeper into his illogical, gratuitous fantasies.
American Psycho 2000
Top Gun: Maverick
Prime Video
Top Gun: Maverick
After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell finds himself training a detachment of TOP GUN graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen.
Top Gun: Maverick 2022
Uncut Gems
Paramount+
Uncut Gems
A charismatic New York City jeweler always on the lookout for the next big score makes a series of high-stakes bets that could lead to the windfall of a lifetime. Howard must perform a precarious high-wire act, balancing business, family, and encroaching adversaries on all sides in his relentless pursuit of the ultimate win.
Uncut Gems 2019
The Terminator
Prime Video
The Terminator
In the post-apocalyptic future, reigning tyrannical supercomputers teleport a cyborg assassin known as the "Terminator" back to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, whose unborn son is destined to lead insurgents against 21st century mechanical hegemony. Meanwhile, the human-resistance movement dispatches a lone warrior to safeguard Sarah. Can he stop the virtually indestructible killing machine?
The Terminator 1984
Prisoners
Prisoners
Keller Dover is facing a parent’s worst nightmare: his young daughter and her friend have gone missing. Heading the investigation, Detective Loki arrests the only suspect – the driver of an RV on which the girls had been playing – but a lack of evidence forces his release. As pressure mounts, Loki’s team pursues multiple leads while a frantic Dover decides he has no choice but to take matters into his own hands.
Prisoners 2013

Reviews

AniInterview
1992/03/13

Sorry, this movie sucks

... more
Ensofter
1992/03/14

Overrated and overhyped

... more
AshUnow
1992/03/15

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

... more
Aubrey Hackett
1992/03/16

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

... more
Ron Briseno
1992/03/17

I honestly thought it was a good flick -- worthy of 8-stars, but I'm giving the film 10-stars to counteract the tool who said he gave it 1-star because he thought the overall rating was too high. :)A powerful and realistic look into the gang culture within the Mexican American population. Very gritty and very disturbing, as a it should be.

... more
eric262003
1992/03/18

Over the past few years, anything that featured Edward James Olmos left be with a bit of mixed feelings about the individual. There's no doubt that he's a very talented performer, but it's his film choices that gets my goat. But when seeing the movie "American Me" knowing that he not only starred, but directed the movie, I actually was starting to take him in considerably. Knowing that such a talented performer being held back by poor decisions, we surely won't find him being wasted by his own movie.Based on the life of Mexican mob kingpin Rodolfo Cadena (founder of La Eme), it shouldn't come as a surprise that there will some dramatization being that it's a biopic and not a documentary. This movie follows his hard-fought life, this movie is as simple as it gets, the story of how La Eme started. Montoya Santana (who was in his younger days played Panchito Gomez, later played by Olmos), is a Chicano youth growing up in Los Angeles' Barrio section forms a posse with Mundo (Richard Coca later Pepe Serna) and JD Morgan (Steve Wilcox/ William Forsythe) and dubbed the group under the moniker La Primera. One day, they took a detour through a rival gang's hangout spot, they break into a diner. The owner, who live nearby to them, catches them and sends them to juvenile hall and JD gets a prosthetic leg. This further explains why Roldolfo befriends a Caucasian guy who speaks with a Latino accent and is part of their circle. These events lead up to the gang going to jail and the formation of La Eme comes into fruition.The film stands out as a personal pet project for Olmos as he informs his audience about the dangers of joining a gang. He speaks truly of this cause from experience being born in the Barrios himself. And even casted real prisoners from Folsom Prison as extras to prove his points.His choices of what he brings into his movie is quite interesting and very fascinating. Such examples including the opening settings of his interpretation of the 1940's Zoot Suit Riots and it features a city war between vicious seamen in the California area as they attack Latinos predominately clad in Zoot Suits who represented Latino pride which lead to friction between Mexican-Americans and Caucasian-Americans which was what spawned gangster life among Latinos in the California area.The soundtrack was quite impressive too featuring an eclectic array of classic songs from the 1950, 1960's and the 1970's including Ike and Tina Turner's version of Sly and the Family Stone's "I Want to Take you Higher" and Latino group Los Lobos doing Junior Walker's "Shotgun" amongst others. The film is generally one big flashback focusing on Santana's story from his childhood to his prison sentence and his narration is crisp and very well detailed."American Me" will not bite you to get attention, nor will it annoy you in any way. But what it does is it'll tell a wonderful story. And even you root for Santana all the way, he's in no way by any means an inspiring hero we can idolize with. Even when he tries to become a better more likable individual, we can't ignore the fact that he is a thug and a brute who gets what he deserves. The movie can be pretty ugly at times. Not Scorsese ugly, but violent enough to keep our attention going. It's a bit gooey with the rape scenes, but it still contributes in keeping with the flow of the story. Overall it's an authentic and captivating film that has a steady flow about a subject never really mentioned in movies.

... more
Dalbert Pringle
1992/03/19

American Me is, to say the least, one hell of a rough and raunchy movie-ride.American Me drags the viewer straight down into a literal cesspool of crime, where 'cut-throat' violence and murder prevails.To give you some idea of what you're in for with this flick - There are a total of 6 - Yeah. That's right - 6 rapes in this flick. Of these 6 rapes (all violent, of course), only one is a heterosexual rape. With American Me's running time of 2 hours, that averages out to be about one rape every 20 minutes. Is that good, or bad? I guess it all depends on your own personal view of homosexual rape. For me, one rape would've be quite enough. I get the message. Thank you, very much.Set in Los Angeles, American Me ambitiously attempts to cover 30 years in the life of a Chicano Gang Leader named Santana. Of those 30 years covered in this flick (from the age of 19 to the age of 49), Santana spent a whopping 18 of them behind bars in Folsom Prison, California. All of Santana's crimes were, in one way, or another, related to heavy-duty drug dealing and/or armed robbery.While serving time in prison Santana, a real shrewd and ruthless operator, quickly became the undisputed ringleader of what was known as the Mexican Mafia. It was, literally, he who ruled over the drug dealing and murder inside Folsom. Any in-mate who ever dared to double-cross Santana, for whatever reason, was unmercifully subjected to the most unbearably violent gang rape imaginable, and, then ultimately murdered. Any murder ever arranged by Santana was always carefully orchestrated so as to appear as if it were purely accidental.Of his time spent outside of prison, Santana just couldn't cut the mustard. He sincerely did try to turn over a new leaf, but, no way. He just couldn't seem to avoid getting caught up in the same old 'cat-and-mouse' game of crime, all over again. It didn't take long for Santana to be pounding the beat behind bars, again, serving, yet, another long term of sentence.Santana is eventually stabbed to death in prison, where his own men betray him and even take part in his murder.As movie-entertainment, American Me has a fierce, raw power, all of its own. With its eyes wide open, American Me doesn't flinch from reality once. It forces and compels the viewer to watch all of the unpleasant, gut-wrenching horrors of prison-life, defying anyone to turn their eyes away from the atrocities on the screen.Released in 1992, American Me is an impressive directorial debut by Edward James Olmos, who also played the part of the hardened criminal, Santana.

... more
HEX21
1992/03/20

Great movie, because its a true story. Which today La Eme is alive and well as well as Nuestra familiar, two of the strongest and scariest Mexican/American gangs around. For those who don't understand gang activity may have a hard time understanding the movie, and may feel it might be corny though this stuff happens everyday and let me tell you it's not corny,it happens in our country everyday. Watching this film will open up your eyes and understand how serious our gang issue is in our country. You may thing that it's just another movie and that is was cheesy, but remember again this stuff happens everyday,it may not occur in your neck of the woods, though when you least expect it La Eme or Nuestra familiar might be near?

... more