skillz

The title of this movie is slightly misleading. It is actually a low budget drama about a sliver of life in the Barrio. Don't expect to see an organized gang of thugs that are terrorizing the neighborhood, and running roughshod over anyone who gets in their way. Don't expect a plot that involves a turf war over who gets permission to sell drugs in the neighborhood. Also don't expect to see any 300 round-a-minute shootouts. Don't expect any butt-naked love scenes in Blood & Tears. In this movie you don't see any clubs that are fronts to hide the profits of crime bosses.If any of the above is your idea of entertainment you will be very disappointed. There is hardly any of the fluff (other than a hip-hop soundtrack) that is normally part of many big studio crime dramas to distract the viewer from the focus of the story.

What you will find is a main character who has to choose between avenging the death of a companion and raising the family that had to do without him during his nine year stint in the Big House. As you will see almost any group of non-whites can be labeled as a gang by mass media. In this urban narrative a few aquaintnces settle their differences with guns. After every scene the picture fades to black as if the closing credits are about to roll. But you'll know when the story is over. The bulk of the movie is profanity filled dialogue with the action occuring once in a while and coming in very short spurts of quick kills.

Blood & Tears looks like a symptom of a fatherless America. Mothers express their concern mainly through nurturing and compassion. While fathers do so through setting rules for their offspring; so they can develop discipline and become productive members of their communities. But when there is no father in the home, and mommy has to be away working, the male child often will seek and find masculine leadership on the street. The result: their only idea of structure is to watch your homeies backs to make sure they stay one step ahead of the law, and not get taken out by a rival crew. Their only concept of manhood lies in their ability to avenge their homey's death and not in their ability to properly raise their children. In fact how will they learn how to be an effective parent if the father is not around, or if the father is in a gang himself?

Even though Blood & Tears is void of a lot of the sensationalism of other "Hood" movies it only scratches the surface of a major survival issue in the barrio. Violence doesn't have to be about: ten square feet of territory,or about what posse gets to distribute illegal narcotics. Sometimes it merely involves an altercation between aquaintances that separate into cliques. Even though turf and dope is not involved, the killings still create problems for law enforcement. The killings still make low-income areas unsafe.

Blood & Tears starts out slow, but picks up when all of the characters involved come together. It shows how someone can get caught up in a cycle of revenge when no one was shown that there is life outside the barrio. But even if you come from the middle or upper-class suburbs you can see the adverse effect of not having an effective father.

Pepsi Cola had a very catchy slogan during the 1980s. But unlike "Pepsi" American Bandstand was NOT the choice of a New Generation! The long running music show had a big part in mainstreaming Rock N' Roll. Long time host Dick Clark had a winner for decades. Adolescents was the backbone of it's audience, butGeneration X was slow to embrace AB because MTV conspired with: syndicated, network and local music video programs to challenge American Bandstand's legacy. Music Videos had very little if any audience interaction, unlike Bandstand. This is regardless of whether the interaction had to do with a studio or television audience. VeeJays merely played videotapes. But on the contrary most television viewers did not have to wait for Noon Eastern on Saturday to see their favorite artists perform. Music Videos from decades prior to the Eighties consisted of footage from American Bandstand and talk or variety shows. But now the producers and directors of videos were no longer limited to the set of American Bandstand. They can shoot their videos on location or on major studio backlots. They had the freedom to use : animation, special effects, or any other format they liked. But during this added dimension in pop music what was the viewing experience like for American Bandstand? You tuned in to watch other people dance and to watch recording artists give lip-synch performances. "Dude! That is like, so lame!" As the youngsters would say in 1980s vernacular. With the advent of the Music Video Shows American Bandstand just seemed kind of weak! You may say "Skillz! if it was so lame then explain why a program like the syndicated 'Soul Train' continued to flourish with a simular blueprint of dancing and lip-synching?" I will tell you why! Because viewers wanted to dress in the festive gear that they saw on Soul Train, and they wanted to emulate the dance moves that they saw on the show that was dubbed "The Hippest Trip in America". You watched Soul Train so that you can look and dress the part; and you went clubbing with hopes that you would not leave the disco by yourself! But even compared to its more Nubiancentric competitor American Bandstand paled by comparison. Most of what you saw on Bandstand in the 1980s consisted of dancers dressed like they were at a church picnic and moved like wind-up dolls on the AB dance floor. AB was clearly a shadow of its former self. During the decade of New Wave and Boat Shoes and Micheal Jackson kids just didn't aspire to appear on American Bandstand like they did during previous decades. AB simply experienced the ratings dooldrums at best. Finally ABC ended it's long association with the music show and American Bandstand crawled to basic cable to die.

"Family Ties" original plan was to center around two former hippy parents. It showed Meredith Baxter-Birney as television's first successful working wife and mother. Sure the 1970s started to showcase unmarried career women and single moms, but the sitcom world by the 1980s had yet to purge itself of wives serving as homemakers! The Keaton family showed a woman balancing a career and motherhood, only to be overshadowed by "The Cosby Show". In fact during the third season of "Family Ties" NBC sandwiched it on Thursday nights between two popular sitcoms: "The Cosby Show" and "Cheers"! After spending three seasons following Cosby the "Peacock Network" uprooted "Family Ties" and had it exiled to Sunday night, in order to make way for Lisa Bonet to star in a "Different World"; which was then a sorry "Cosby Show" spinoff! "Family Ties" served as great springboard for Michael J. Fox! As the series progressed the focus was taken off of the liberal parents and placed on MJF's character: the conservative Alex P. Keaton. It was clear to viewers that without Alex there wouldn't be much to the show! While Meredith Baxter had a proven track record, she was clearly overshadowed by Michael J. Fox. After Fox starred in "Back to the Future","Teenwolf" and other theatrical release blockbusters; he was clearly being groomed for superstardom! In fact he was being molded into the "All-American Boy"! Fox found himself correcting the media by saying he was an "All-Canadian Boy", because he was a native of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada! None of the juvenile stars of "Family Ties" had the screen presence of Michael J. Fox. He was the only one that had a promising future after the series ended.There was good chemistry between him and the adult stars. There were many laughs when Alex's conservative views clashed with the left-leaning views of his parents. This is also combined with the awkwardness of adolescense and taking pride in the fact that he was smart. He exudes the real world sarcasm towards his younger sisters. Everyone else seemed to serve as interchangable leggo pieces! "Family Ties" without Michael J. Fox was like "Corn Flakes" without the milk!