An absolute waste of money

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This movie was hands down, excellent. As a history buff, I thoroughly enjoyed learning the history of L.A. The first hand accounts along with the imagery was fantastic. I have read several reviews and noticed that people seem to think something was missing from the movie since it didn't go into as much depth in discussing the mechanics of the gang lifestyle. Well, I think they may have missed the point. As the title suggests, these gangs were MADE in America. And the movie goes to great lengths to illustrate this.Others were not satisfied because they weren't spoon fed the who, what, when and where of the origins of the gangs. This was done on purpose. If you paid attention to Kumasi, he told you everything you needed to know. When he said : "Part of the mechanics of oppression is to pervert people into becoming instruments of their own oppression." – this was the beginning of the Crips and Bloods. If you don't know anything about Hoover of COINTELPRO, then maybe you won't get it. You have to read between the lines.How do think they have such powerful guns, what about drugs? I'm no conspiracy theorist but the evidence is outstanding that the Crips and Bloods formed out of an attempt to eradicate a certain community.This movie should be shown in all schools and parents should show it to their children. Thank you Mr. Peralta and everyone involved in the making of this film.

The documentary is pretty one-sided in terms of what it covers. But I don't begrudge that what it does address did lead to gangs (segregation, racism, etc.). The film tells this side well with good background and history. I learned a lot about LA racial history. However, the "criminal enterprise" aspect of gangs isn't really addressed at all. Gangs have structures, turf, and commerce. While they may have sprung from hopelessness and segregation, they evolved into criminal enterprises that are quick to use deadly violence.I give this film 5 stars because it really addresses half the story. It is a good history lesson on why gangs came to be, but I would have liked to understand their structure and commerce more (the day-to-day reasons for their existence and brutality). The film kind of shrugs off the violence as gang members list many reasons why their lives suck. That's fine, but it really needed to be balanced more with what they gain from gangs through drugs, robbery and violence. The gang members are not powerless victims - they profit from and gain status from the violence.

This was a superior movie. All gang members should watch it and see that what they're fighting for is nothing. This movie was an eyeopener and was very educational. It is sad that people are killing in and destroying their own neighborhoods. All of the years of fighting should have proved by now that nothing is gained with these deaths. The only hope is that the mothers only give birth to girls from here on and the females in these environments wise up and straighten things up. This fighting is not for honor or family. It is a testosterone battle that on one is winning. It is so sad that it takes the accidental murder of innocent children to open the gangs eyes, if only for a while. The government needs to implement something that will give these young men some pride and something to work toward besides daily survival. I was very moved by this movie.

I watched this documentary as part of the Independent Lens series on PBS, and thought it was great. The film covers a lot of topics related to the gang of South Central Los Angeles, from their earliest history to the socio-economic causes to the effect it has on real families. And it ends with a sense of hope that the people of that community can in fact put an end to the cycle.It would be easy to do a documentary on this topic that reeks of white guilt or points fingers or cozies up to the gang members. But instead, this film takes a very neutral viewpoint. That's part of what makes it great. Plus, it's very well done technically. The soundtrack is outstanding, the narration is good, and the audio is unusually good for a documentary.I give it an 8/10.