Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

The documentary is pretty one-sided in terms of what it covers. But I don't begrudge that what it does address did lead to gangs (segregation, racism, etc.). The film tells this side well with good background and history. I learned a lot about LA racial history. However, the "criminal enterprise" aspect of gangs isn't really addressed at all. Gangs have structures, turf, and commerce. While they may have sprung from hopelessness and segregation, they evolved into criminal enterprises that are quick to use deadly violence.I give this film 5 stars because it really addresses half the story. It is a good history lesson on why gangs came to be, but I would have liked to understand their structure and commerce more (the day-to-day reasons for their existence and brutality). The film kind of shrugs off the violence as gang members list many reasons why their lives suck. That's fine, but it really needed to be balanced more with what they gain from gangs through drugs, robbery and violence. The gang members are not powerless victims - they profit from and gain status from the violence.

This was a superior movie. All gang members should watch it and see that what they're fighting for is nothing. This movie was an eyeopener and was very educational. It is sad that people are killing in and destroying their own neighborhoods. All of the years of fighting should have proved by now that nothing is gained with these deaths. The only hope is that the mothers only give birth to girls from here on and the females in these environments wise up and straighten things up. This fighting is not for honor or family. It is a testosterone battle that on one is winning. It is so sad that it takes the accidental murder of innocent children to open the gangs eyes, if only for a while. The government needs to implement something that will give these young men some pride and something to work toward besides daily survival. I was very moved by this movie.

i read the last comment.. it was written by someone who didn't understand the meaning that this documentary wanted to represent... its about people not the materialism they created... its about feelings of being a human... what went wrong and what it really means.. its not about the shiny guns and wheels.. its a meaningful documentary everyone should watch it...how men where misguided because of the environment they lived.... how violence grew in that place.. the soundtrack was best of it... watch this documentary and change your life and you will know that you are in better place than them...

I was lucky enough to be part of a select crowd last week to see the Los Angeles premier of "Made In America" in the center of downtown LA. The atmosphere was charged with excitement as many of the characters who appeared in the film were there to see it, many for the first time. Though there were were sound issues early, the power and integrity of the film could not be masked. This is such an important film. It is so easy to live in this city, sitting back in condos in Sherman Oaks or fancy houses in Brentwood, and have no idea that a whole other city exists just south of the 10 freeway. Early on in the movie a number is thrown out; fifteen thousand gang related homicides in the past twenty years. Think about that for a moment. If that was happening in any other country, to any other race of people, there would be an out cry to the UN. In Los Angeles, it's just another day. Turn the page and see what Britney did this time. This is a story that needs to be told. The people of Los Angeles need to hear this. I heard some talk at the end of the film that they may try to show this in the LA school system. I hope that this happens. Knowledge is power. And, there is a message in here that needs to be shouted from the roof tops.I have seen some critics try to attack Stacy Peralta, suggesting that a white, former surfer/skate boarder does not have the right to tell this tale. I would ask, if not him, then whom? Who else has stepped up to put their reputation on the line, to go into these neighborhoods with an open mind and open heart, and sacrificed years of their life to give a voice to this condemned segment of society? This has been Stacy's most ambitious project to date. I applaud his efforts and congratulate him on shedding light on a subject that most of America would rather ignore.Please go see this film. Please tell your friends. It's not a romantic comedy. You will feel it in your guts for the next week or so. But, it's worth it, I promise.