Gangland: The Complete Season 6 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Gangland: The Complete Season 6 Blu-ray Movie Review

"Nimby" may not be an option anymore.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 8, 2010

Not in my backyard has been the mantra of neighborhood proponents who don’t want megamalls or Walmarts encroaching on their idyllic suburban existence. But it might also be an apt phrase, albeit one of denial (in a psychological sense), for those who resolutely refuse to admit their cherished hometowns are teeming with some pretty ugly characters. If there’s anything that Gangland, History Channel’s disturbing long running series about gang life in America, makes clear, it’s that no place is immune to the cancerous spread of gangs. There are inner city gangs, there are country gangs. There are gangs that terrorize small suburban communities. If Gangland never really addresses the socioeconomic reason for the rise of this phenomenon, it nonetheless gives an up close and personal look at these carousing groups, assemblages with their own often strict codes of honor, pecking orders and rough and tumble internal politics. The “Nimby” chanters may find themselves silenced—as indeed I was—as this sixth season journeys everywhere from Brownsville, Texas to Atlanta, Georgia to Los Angeles, California to my hometown of Portland, Oregon, as it examines gang life in its various incarnations around the country. There’s a startling variety of gangs, some racially motivated, others seemingly only bound by a love of something as relatively innocuous as motorcycles, but there’s no disputing the fact that for the most part these are very scary people who seem to thrive on intimidating others.

Gangland begins its sixth season with a trip to the desert country of California, where a group called the Vagos has been raising a ruckus for almost 50 years. This initial episode is a good overview of several themes which will recur throughout the entire season, including the almost fetishistic focus on such things as “patching” (awarding various patches to gang members for activities), turf wars, recruitment and the weird sort of brotherhood which exists within these groups. Anyone thinking this is a picture perfect Sons of Anarchy situation, with pretty boys doing occasionally violent things, will have a quick reality check throughout both this episode’s, and the entire season’s, reenactments of various murders and terrorizing the group not only engages in, but actually encourages. Time and again, both in this initial Vagos outing, and throughout the sixth season, innocent—or at least relatively innocent—bystanders are caught in the crossfire of gang warfare and are killed with nary a second (or probably even a first) thought.

While the series tends to focus on cities that have some major economic issues, which in turn breeds the sort of gang activity which is Gangland’s focus, there is at least one surprising exception in this sixth season, and it is none other than the city I call home, Portland, Oregon. Portland and Oregon in general have been harder hit than a lot of the rest of the country during this recent economic downturn, but what’s most astonishing about Gangland’s episode about Portland’s “own” gang, Volksfront, is that it’s been around for decades, starting in the relatively flush times of the 1990s. Portland would never strike the casual visitor as anything approaching a haven for gangs. It is often called the west coast’s “most European city,” with elegant one way streets, beautiful brick lined lanes and a nice combination of big city vibrancy and small town hominess that I personally often liken to Salzburg, Austria. What may liken Portland even more to Salzburg, Austria, to viewers of the Volksfront episode is the fact that Portland is evidently a refuge for neo-Nazi White Supremacists. Northern Idaho has gotten a lot of press for being a similar refuge, and Portland did have one infamous case many years ago when an Ethiopian man was beaten to death by skinheads, but I frankly had never heard of Volksfront. What made this episode all the more disturbing is how mild mannered and actually articulate a lot of the interviewed members were. These are not “snaggle-toothed” country bumpkin types, they seem relatively well educated, are definitely well spoken, but their belief system is like something out of Josef Goebbels playbook.

What Gangland makes clear is that no region of the United States is immune to the effect of gangs. What is perhaps even more alarming is how the sudden appearance of one gang seems to start a sort of cascade reaction, where other gangs quickly join the fray. What typically happens next is an all too predictable “intramural” warfare where gangs can go on murderous sprees for as ridiculous a reason as the fact that their gang names share the same initials. From Trenton, New Jersey to Detroit, Michigan to Denver, Colorado to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Gangland explores the varieties of hate mongering that keeps these groups thriving. There seems to be no dearth of new members available to the groups, another seriously disturbing statistic.

Gangland does a very good job interviewing current and former gang members, as well as various members of law enforcement. Several of these gangs have faced Federal law enforcement action under the RICO statutes, and we get an interesting background look at how the Feds are trying to tamp down burgeoning gang activity by charging the groups under some unusual and innovative interpretations of the law. Several gang members and law enforcement professionals are interviewed in “disguises,” with shadows falling across their faces and their voices altered electronically so that they can’t be identified. What is abundantly clear is that most strategies to deal with gangs have been ineffective in the long run. There are short term gains to be sure, where small armadas of gang members are rounded up and arrested, but there seems to be a hydra-like ability of these groups to replace one incarcerated member with two new ones.

Gangland has already completed its seventh season. Though the show certainly follows a well worn formula, it also is one of the few History series which doesn’t rehash the same material over and over again. What has become startlingly clear in the many seasons of Gangland is just how prevalent gang activity is throughout the United States. As riveting as the series often is, it wouldn’t be a bad thing if the show were canceled simply because there were no more gangs to cover. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be in the cards anytime soon.

Gangland: The Complete Season 6 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Gangland rumbles into town with an AVC encoded 1080i image in 1.78:1. This History Channel series sports a softer look than some other recent A&E product, some of it due to some post-processing and blown up archival 16mm footage. The colors here are robust and well saturated, though the entire series suffers from low contrast, some of it evidently intentional. A lot of the interviews are swathed in shadows so that faces can certainly not be made out and at times not even much of the body of the interview subject. Fully lit interview segments look a good deal better, with good to excellent fine detail and excellent sharpness. There's quite a bit of post-processed work here, especially in some of the establishing shots of cities that start off each segment, and those look intentionally washed out. There's nothing horrible by any stretch about this video presentation, but overall it doesn't pop the way, say, Ancient Aliens does.

Gangland: The Complete Season 6 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The good news is this is one A&E released series without the omnipresent use of LFE delivered via its lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix. The bad news is that LFE has been replaced with a virtually nonstop use of rather annoying underscore, a sort of proto-techno rock oriented thumping bass and drum thing that may get on your nerves as much as it did mine after an episode or two. Aside from that qualm, this is a nice sounding track, albeit narrow, with lots of good low end for things like roaring motorcycles, and with all dialogue being clear and crisp. There is the frequent use of electronically altered voices for some of the "anonymous" interview footage, but even that can be made out without too much effort.

Gangland: The Complete Season 6 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The third disc has a brief featurette, Gangs of New York City (SD; 14:46) which gives a general overview of the city's long history with various gangs.

Gangland: The Complete Season 6 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Gangland could benefit from a little bit more introspective look at the gang phenomenon. The reportage here is fine as far as it goes, but there's a lingering question as to "Why?" Why do these people get involved in this lifestyle? What makes them espouse such hatred and distrust? This is not an easy watch, and parents with young children should certainly not watch this with the kiddies present. But for those who want to feel the pulse of our current troubled socioeconomic times, Gangland could well be an alarming wake up call. Recommended.