Walk Proud

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!

I just saw this film and I can't remember when but it had to have been in 1979 or 1980 of what I do remember, barely, is the ending. It was a shock though to see this completely and I don't quite understand why Robbie Benson was cast in this role but then again Hollywood is idiotic and should be recognized for what it usually does which is not helping matters any, especially on the cultural and social tip. Not saying anything against American actor Robbie Benson but this is just dumb. So, if I were to accept the idea that the actor's role is to try to assume the part of the character that he or she is trying to portray from males assuming female roles and vice versa to attempts in portraying other ethnicities, persons of different eras, ages, epochs and so on and so on etc. ad infinitum. To me, it smells like deceit and patronizing. Again, nothing against the talented actors and actresses in the film but straight to the writers and producers who are the idiots. I'm relieved that it failed but I'm also glad that this is around to show people the dumb stuff that Hollywood people were generating.