Drive-Ins Pull Gang Movie After Violence

In the wake of weekend shootings at two Southland drive-in theaters showing the gang-related film “Angel Town,” two exhibitors decided on Tuesday to discontinue showing the film for a second week.

AMC Theaters pulled the film from three of six Los Angeles-area theaters, while the Pacific Theaters chain discontinued the run at all six drive-ins where it was playing.

“Angel Town,” which is about a kick-boxer who takes on a Los Angeles gang leader, opened fairly strongly on 40 screens last Friday.

An 18-year-old suspected gang member suffered a chest wound Friday when a fight involving more than 100 gang members erupted into gunfire at Orange County’s Hi-Way 39 Drive-In in Westminster. In an unrelated incident, two alleged rival gang members heading for the snack bar were wounded at the South Bay 6 Drive-in complex in Carson.

“You can’t lay these problems at the altar of the picture,” said Eric Karson, producer-director of “Angel Town.” “The movie does depict real street fighting but its focus is the hero’s attempt to help a family resist the lure of gangs.”

Karson said the exhibitors’ decision to stop showing his film had broader implications.

“It’s hard enough to get a picture with ethnic content off the ground in this town, hard enough to get a small independent picture into the theaters which the major studios have all locked up,” he said. “Now we’re also bucking theater owners who are denying us a voice and engaging in censorship before the fact.”

Pacific Theaters said its decision to cut short the Hi-Way 39 Drive-In run on Saturday was a precautionary move.

“That theater was a trouble spot,” said Milton Moritz, Pacific’s vice president of advertising and public relations. “Because the movie seemed to attract a certain element, we considered it prudent to take it out and let things simmer down.

“It has nothing to do with discriminating against a small independent film company,” he added. “A lot of theaters didn’t play another gang film--’Colors’--when it was released a few years ago. And that picture was released by a mini-major: Orion.”

AMC acknowledged that the weekend incidents influenced its decision.

“We didn’t experience any violence per se, “ said Greg Rutkowski, an AMC vice president, “but at several theaters, we felt the potential was there.

“We’re not trying to be a censor but we do retain the right to choose what we play on our screens,” he said. “We have to do what’s best from a business point of view. That turns not only on the immediate dollars and cents a film generates--the film did open well--but on protecting our long-term relationship with our patrons.”

Jack Myhill, general manager of the San Francisco-based Syufy Enterprises, which owns the South Bay 6 Drive-In, disagreed.

“Our attitude is never to pull a film,” he said. “We consider that an intrusion on the First Amendment. There isn’t a motion picture playing that someone won’t object to. If we reacted to every complaint, not a film would be playing. This is a definite overreaction. People are operating out of fear.”