I realize this was written, produced, and directed by Robert Altman. (I guessed it when I noticed it was supposed to be taking place in Kansas City, Altman's home town.) But, man, what a lousy movie this is.
None of the performers went on to notable careers with the exception of the good protagonist, the nice kid who refuses to join the gang of suburban white delinquents. That would be Tom Laughlin, who had a brief period of celebrity about 40 years ago through the instruments of the Billy Jack movies, confused but well-meaning attempts to illustrate the good life.
There's a reason for the careers of these actors, male and female, to have sputtered out. I've seen better performances in high school productions of "Our Town." Hardly a spoken word is believable, and it doesn't help that the characters are shackled to stereotypical roles.
The fact that it's so awesomely dated isn't necessarily bad. Artifacts are of their period by necessity. But all the "warning signs", of which much is made in the narration, point in the wrong direction. The middle-class white suburban kids all went to community colleges and became X-ray technicians. But in the cities, the baby boomers entered their teens and went ape as they found out that, gee, crime sometimes DOES pay and furthermore it's FUN to outwit or outgun the victims, even if the material rewards themselves were modest.
As a sociologist I couldn't help noticing that "Juvenile Delinquency" rather suddenly disappeared from college curricula. I suspect that part of the reason was that so much of the data showed a disproportionate number of African-American kids and other minorities were involved, so it became politically incorrect. About the same time, an interpretive position called labeling theory became popular, which I won't describe but which, in essence, allowed us to shift the responsibility from the miscreant to society. Books appeared with titles like "Blaming the Victim." Eldrige Cleaver's career as a rapist became a political act.
Anyway, back to the movie. Some movies have a reputation of being so bad that they're fun to watch once in a while. "Reefer Madness" is kind of amusing. But other bad movies are just excruciatingly dull. This one joins John Wayne's "The Conqueror" in belonging to the latter class.
None of the performers went on to notable careers with the exception of the good protagonist, the nice kid who refuses to join the gang of suburban white delinquents. That would be Tom Laughlin, who had a brief period of celebrity about 40 years ago through the instruments of the Billy Jack movies, confused but well-meaning attempts to illustrate the good life.
There's a reason for the careers of these actors, male and female, to have sputtered out. I've seen better performances in high school productions of "Our Town." Hardly a spoken word is believable, and it doesn't help that the characters are shackled to stereotypical roles.
The fact that it's so awesomely dated isn't necessarily bad. Artifacts are of their period by necessity. But all the "warning signs", of which much is made in the narration, point in the wrong direction. The middle-class white suburban kids all went to community colleges and became X-ray technicians. But in the cities, the baby boomers entered their teens and went ape as they found out that, gee, crime sometimes DOES pay and furthermore it's FUN to outwit or outgun the victims, even if the material rewards themselves were modest.
As a sociologist I couldn't help noticing that "Juvenile Delinquency" rather suddenly disappeared from college curricula. I suspect that part of the reason was that so much of the data showed a disproportionate number of African-American kids and other minorities were involved, so it became politically incorrect. About the same time, an interpretive position called labeling theory became popular, which I won't describe but which, in essence, allowed us to shift the responsibility from the miscreant to society. Books appeared with titles like "Blaming the Victim." Eldrige Cleaver's career as a rapist became a political act.
Anyway, back to the movie. Some movies have a reputation of being so bad that they're fun to watch once in a while. "Reefer Madness" is kind of amusing. But other bad movies are just excruciatingly dull. This one joins John Wayne's "The Conqueror" in belonging to the latter class.