"Boulevard Nights" ultimately is disappointing, since screenwriter Desmond Nakano falls back on some miserable melodramatic devices to force his material to a showdown. The gangs are portrayed as simply an integral, volatile part of the environment in a conventionally realistic social melodrama. Although "Boulevard Nights" got caught in the backlash of protest caused by "The Wariors" and became associated with an outbreak of gang violence in San Francisco, the film conspicuously lacks the inflammatory aspects of its controversial forerunner. The premise is certainly strong enough to sustain interest, and the movie has been trimly directed by Michael Pressman and evocatively photographed in the streets and communities of East L.A. Drawn back into the neighborhood gang, he becomes one of the casualties of escalating reprisal raids between his pals and a rival gang. When Chuco is expelled from school, Raymond persuades his boss to give his kid brother a chance, but Chuco doesn't have the same incentive for staying on the straight and narrow. His respectable aspirations are reinforced by his lovely fiancee, played by Marta Dubois, who has a secretarial job downtown. Raymond has a job he likes at a local auto shop that specializes in customizing. The elder Raymond, played by Richard Yniguez, has survived and outgrown the youthful delinquency and neighborhood gang loyalties that still strongly influence the behavior of Chuco, portrayed by Danny De La Paz. "Boulevard Nights" contrasts the fates of Raymond and Chuco Avila, brothers from the Mexican American barrio of East Los Angeles.
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