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12 Loy. L.A. Ent. L.J. 477 (1992)
View at your Own Risk: Gang Movies and Spectator Violence

handle is hein.journals/laent12 and id is 495 raw text is: VIEW AT YOUR OWN RISK: GANG MOVIES AND SPECUATOR VIOLENCE I. INTRODUCTION On his way home from work in a Boston area ski shop, sixteen-year- old Marty Yakubowicz was confronted by an intoxicated teen-ager re- turning from viewing the film The Warriors.' The teen told Marty, I want you, I'm going to get you-a line from the movie; then the teen fatally stabbed Marty.2 Approximately one month later, on March 24, 1979, fifteen-year-old Jocelyn Vargas headed for the bus home after seeing the San Francisco premiere of Boulevard Nights. 3 Caught in the crossfire between two rival gangs who were also leaving the theater, she sustained a gunshot wound in the neck.4 Both of these incidents arguably present examples of life imitating art.5 These youths had viewed gang-themed motion pictures containing violent acts that likely triggered their subsequent violent behavior. While The Warriors and Boulevard Nights both depicted the lifestyles of His- panic gang members, more recent films focusing on the prevalence of black gangs in the United States have sparked similar violent acts at movie theaters across the country. The films Colors, New Jack City,' and Boyz N the Hood,9 released in April 1988, March 1991, and July 1991 respectively, have instigated a controversial debate over the rela- tionship between on-screen violence and real-life violence occurring in and around theaters screening these gang movies.0 Most recently, the January 1992 release of the urban action film Juice reinvigorated the debate over the violent tendencies aroused by gang films.'1 1. THE WARRIORS (Paramount Pictures 1979). 2. Yakubowicz v. Paramount Pictures Corp., 536 N.E.2d 1067, 1070 (Mass. 1989). 3. BOULEVARD NIGHTs (Warner Brothers 1979). 4. Paul Wilner, A Real-Life 'Boulevard Night'--A Constitutional Nightmare, L.A. HER- ALD EXAMINER, Dec. 30, 1982, at Al. 5. Priscilla Painton, When Life Imitates Art, TIME, Mar. 25, 1991, at 19. 6. See, e.g., Charles Schreger, Gang Movies Stir Controversy. L.A. TIMES, Mar. 28, 1979, § IV, at 14; Lois Timnick, Experts Fear Film's Impact on Chicano Gang Members, L.A. TIMES, Apr. 2, 1979, § I, at 3. 7. COLORS (Orion Pictures 1988). 8. NEw JACK CmTY (Warner Brothers 1991). 9. Boyz N THE HOOD (Columbia Pictures 1991). 10. Suzanne Rosencrans, Fighting Films: A First Amendment Analysis of Censorship of Violent Motion Pictures, 14 CoLuM.-VLA J.L. & ARTS 451, 471-72 (1990). 11. JUICE (Paramount Pictures 1992); see infra notes 223-32 and accompanying text.

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