Walk Proud (1979)

Beautiful, moving film.

A lot of fun.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Very interesting little gang drama movie. Robbie Benson as a Chicano named Emilio Mendez was an experience to see. I feel he did a good job. Complete with brown contacts and a brown tan! He looked so different. i always wondered how the movie would played had he just used his own eye color as there is light eye-colored Latinos.he probably would have been called "El Guero"(The White Boy)Sarah Holcomb did an interesting part as the Anglo girl who falls in love with Benson's Chicano boy. Too bad she basically did no more acting after this.(she did 4 movies and a video in all her short career!) Henry Darrow (whose real is Enrique Tomás Delgado) did a OK turn as Mike Serrano. How ironic that in the 60's, Darrow was the ultimate Latin heartthrob on television. With a smooth, ingratiating style and a killer smile that brightened up the small screen. The same way Benson was now doing here.Pepe Serna as Cesar, the leader of the gang, seemed a little to old (for me) somewhat to be the leader of any gang. He would have done better in the Henry Darrow role I think. Trinidad Silva did much better as Dagger. He just seem more real and more relaxed as if that was just really him.. I'll always remember him as 'Frog' in the film Colors(1988) Too bad he he was killed that same year in a car accident. he was a very decent actor.Ji-Tu Cumbuka had a nice role as Sgt. Gannett who is investigating the gang on many related charges. Eloy Casados was OK as the leader of the opposing gang and Daniel Faraldo was somewhat over acting as El Tigre, a member of Casado's gang. Faraldo nowadays somewhat resembles Al Pacino! Lol Irene DeBari as Benson's mom did a credible job. Gary'Carlos'Cervantes as always does a good "Homeboy from the Barrio" A similar role he has done in many roles. Panchito Gomez had a little role here but he was still a little one himself(He was 15 but looked younger). Panchito was always a good reliable little actor for these type of movies but just vanished in 2003 and hasn't been seen since, And Angel Salazar, who had a minor role here but 4yrslater would rise to 'A' class with Scarface(1983) as Chi Chi with Al Pacino.interesting trivia: 3 actors here later went on to star in Scarface(1983): Pepe Serna,Angel Salazar and Gary 'Carlos'Cervantes. Serna received 4th billing here but in Scarface, he got 12th. While Salazar who got 29th here got 10th in Scarface and Cervantes who got 16th billing here, got 25th in Scarface! my how things change.And last but not least, Thomas Rosales Jr. a staple in almost all action films as a stunt person, did the stunts for this film also. Interesting choice of music, Elton John and and Santana even Benson singing his own composition: "Adios Yesterday"

I always loved Robby Benson when I was a kid. So when I saw a title in the TV guide line up, that I had never heard of, I set out to give it a shot. But watching this movie Robby couldn't keep up the "gangsta" strut throughout. I guess I just look for inconsistencies. The movie itself wasn't all that bad. Typical 70's Robby stuff. Trinidad Silva (Hill Street Blue's fame) of course has his Chicano gangster character down pat. I happened to come across this movie in the movie guide for an Encore channel. I thought I would give it a go. All-in-all not a bad movie, if you can get past the typical "hokey" 70's gang stereotypes. Think Shaft or Foxy Brown. But, if you like Robby, I think you will like the movie.

This is the infamous riot inducing Chicano gang flick. Two theatres in LA were nearly levelled by outraged Hispanic patrons who took offense at this minstrel show. The ultra-vanilla Robbie Benson dons brown contacts, dark makeup & seems to be channelling the Frito Bandito as a Latin gang member (?!). He then trashes his friends & heritage when he hooks up with a nice white girl. WALK PROUD has all the racial sensitivity of BIRTH OF A NATION & while it is absolutley (unintentionally) hilarious, it is still depressing to consider that as late as 1979 there were still people in Hollywood this clueless & unintentionally rascist. Luckily the impact of the box office failure of this soggy tamale was that we were spared many more awful Robbie Benson performances. Benson did have one more ethnic slur of a performance though. In 1981 he lumbered though the unwatchable THE CHOSEN where he played a Hassidic Jew in a film that advanced anti-semitism more than David Duke ever could.

Robby Benson and a cast of others star in this love/action type story. When Benson gets involved with a girl in school he starts to try and distance himself from his friends. This is a hard to find movie. I don't think I've ever seen it on tv. But if you ever come across it you should give it a look!