This is the infamous riot inducing Chicano gang flick. Two theatres in LA were nearly levelled by outraged Hispanic patrons who took offense at this minstrel show. The ultra-vanilla Robbie Benson dons brown contacts, dark makeup & seems to be channelling the Frito Bandito as a Latin gang member (?!). He then trashes his friends & heritage when he hooks up with a nice white girl. WALK PROUD has all the racial sensitivity of BIRTH OF A NATION & while it is absolutley (unintentionally) hilarious, it is still depressing to consider that as late as 1979 there were still people in Hollywood this clueless & unintentionally rascist. Luckily the impact of the box office failure of this soggy tamale was that we were spared many more awful Robbie Benson performances. Benson did have one more ethnic slur of a performance though. In 1981 he lumbered though the unwatchable THE CHOSEN where he played a Hassidic Jew in a film that advanced anti-semitism more than David Duke ever could.
Review of Walk Proud
