Walkout

"Walkout" tells the story of the students in Los Angeles high schools in 1968, who stage a boycott of their schools in order to improve the quality of education for Chicanos. The film was skillfully directed by Edward James Olmos, who presents the story in a simple, direct way. There was an especially frank portrayal of the unacceptable educational standards in the schools attended by the young Chicano students.

The focal point of the story is the character Paula Crisostomo, an exceptional student, who risked her graduation to participate in the Lincoln High School walkout. A dedicated high school history teacher, Sal Castro, was instrumental in instilling idealism in his students, which resulted in their united efforts for a peaceful protest.

The film captured the passion of Paula in an emotionally-charged relationship with her parents, who strongly resist, but slowly come to understand, their daughter's activism. The entire cast, especially the young performers playing the students, was convincing as an effective ensemble in this fine film.

"Walkout" is another outstanding HBO project that tackles an important subject and provides an exceptionally high-caliber film. From 1968 to 1969, there was a substantial increase in enrollments of Chicano students in American universities, and this change was due to the consciousness raised by people like Paula Crisostomo and her teacher Sal Castro. In this film, Olmos and a superb cast deliver an important reminder about how a small group of young, passionate individuals have the potential to truly make a difference in their world.

First of all, this is the first movie ever about the Chicano civil rights movement. And as many Latinos know, the Chicano civil rights movement created some better opportunity for our people.

The cast is almost entirely Chicano, which is amazing within itself, seeing that Latinos only make up 2% of Hollywood. It gives us a chance to play Characters, and not only the "Brown person".

A piece of history is being told, which has been totally written out of History by the mainstream media & educational institutions. All of the police beating scenes in this movie were re-creations of archived material from TV Stations, which were not allowed to broadcast in 1968.

The protagonist is a young woman who is half Filipina & Mexicana. This is great because revolutionary leaders are usually only seen as tough men. This also shows that oppression crosses all color lines, the issues come down to a class struggle, and this can be a catapult for different ethnicities working together on common issues.

I feel that we should embrace this movie, and create others also, with stories of our peoples struggle. There are several movies about the Jewish struggle, the African American movement for equal rights, women's rights, but this is so far, the only one speaking of the Chicano civil rights struggle.

I was amazed that I never knew about this movement, I was in high school/ jr high in the late 80's - early 90's and this should have been a topic with in our US History text. We covered a small portion of the civil rights movement, a large amount with in the 1800's and nothing from the LA walkouts? My children and all children need to know about the strength people have had to make change, it's inspiring. Often people assume that only people hundreds of years ago made the sacrifices and changes, this was not that long ago and shows that people are able to accomplish anything together. I hope our children are as conscientious, caring and strong to stand up for what they believe is making a difference in the quality of the life in the world we share.

With DVDs and such, the valley of the LA is noticeable and stories relating to it can be rather relevant. Walkout is, to me, extremely relevant.

Modern days, DVDs and Blu-rays are a cultural norm. But recent disks can be very difficult to play on a computer unless one has purchased a full price, recent model, software player. Play on the player that is one's normal choice then the experience might be no go or very uncomfortable indeed. Cross cultural stuff as a problem too. A lot of that seems to come from how the USA and Japan understand good ways and they will not be impressed that I consider Walkout to be relevant in the here and now world. So, it does not point to a solution but it does hint about some qualities that a worthwhile solution might have.

The valley of the LA as a place of extremes. Extreme riches and extreme poverty. Extreme freedom and extreme lack of freedom. Chunks of peace and extreme violence. Lots of ways to get messed up by crime. Lots of ways to get messed up by the law.

East L.A. is somewhere that I had not heard about before getting a Blu-ray of From Prada To Nada. So, my tourist guide of the La suggested that East LA was one of the three areas to stay clear of. From Prada To Nada shows a fascinating district, Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico masquerading as the USA, and Walkout shows very different aspects, some of its history. Both talk about a place in the valley of the LA that some can love.

This shows young people in a land that says that their people are free and with a certain equality, yet their day to day experience in their neighbourhood and even at school says other. They try to face that in a way that incidentally says something positive about their country.

Their solution is very 1968. But it is also in harmony with what their country then said that it is about, it is not in harmony with what their country actually was. I find that to be inspirational. I find this to be a story that is helpful for trying to face the modern world. So, these days, what does England say that it believes in? Things have changed since 1968.

On a deeper level, the Mexican Americans faced a particular set of trouble, some still do. This even explains why Miranda Sanchez of Lizzie McGuire does not speak Spanish. But there are other minorities facing different problems and I am assuming that they will share some common allergy reactions to the modern dominant culture. As far as the real value of this story is concerned, this is just looking at the tip of an iceberg. I think of these as cursed individuals and modern times shows some managing to break free from some of their chains. For me, the bad guy is the dominant belief system of today.

These kids not even old enough to VOTE: With Determination-Organization-UNITY were able to make some changes for themselves and future generations. We can learn from that, their parents learned from them. To many people feel what can I do..its best not to make waves...just shut up and do your job. Its really not when there is injustice, prejudice and racism involved.

Movies like this: Empower people to Unite, Organize and have a Voice!!! Under any circumstances or oppressed situation. The timing of its release was right on target-with the Marches, boycotts and Demonstrations going on in this Country at the time in protest Racism!

I recommend parents watch this Movie with their kids. Well made, good acting and a part of History.