Two Films, One View of Violence in Latino Life : Movies: A pair of films being shot on L.A. streets have similar plot lines, similar incidents and a fierce sense of rivalry between them. One writer has worked, at various times, on both scripts.

Two major-studio films about Chicano street and prison gangs--”American Me,” directed by Edward James Olmos, and “Blood In . . . Blood Out,” directed by Taylor Hackford--are in production on the streets of Los Angeles.

Both feature violent portrayals of young gangsters, random drive-by shootings, lives ruined by drugs and addiction and race riots filmed on location in state prisons.

In their efforts at authenticity, the filmmakers have already run into actual gang repercussion, marked by a drive-by shooting on the set of “Blood In . . . Blood Out,” where a 27-year-old caterer was seriously wounded. The incident occurred although both productions hired veteran ex-gang members and gang service consultants for credibility and, more importantly, security.

Even though both productions feature Latino actors in starring roles, and a sizeable numbers of Latinos are involved behind the cameras, the two films have become the target of criticism. Chicano activists are worried that, after the heroic portrayals of Ritchie Valens in “La Bamba” and Jaime Escalante in “Stand and Deliver,” Hollywood is about to offer a double-barreled portrayal of the darkest side of Chicano life.

Some observers who have read both scripts find it ironic that despite a wealth of material being shopped around for movie deals that portray a more varied range of Chicano life, the two films offer essentially the same story. That may be because screenwriter Floyd Mutrux has, at various times in the scripts’ development, worked on both.

Universal Pictures is filming “American Me,” a tale of Santana, an East Los Angeles barrio gang member, who becomes the kingpin of the Mexican Mafia in the California prison system.

Edward James Olmos, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in “Stand and Deliver,” not only directs and stars in the title role of Santana, but is also the film’s co-producer and credited screenwriter.

Disney’s Hollywood Pictures is shooting “Blood In . . . Blood Out,” which chronicles the story of three East L.A. cousins who are gang members. Their individual destinies take varied turns--one becomes a policeman, another an artist--but the movie’s principal focus is on the cousin who is sent to prison, where he befriends and later betrays the boss of the Chicano Mafia in San Quentin. Veteran director Taylor Hackford, who produced “La Bamba,” has previously described his film in the press as “a story of three cousins.”

The simultaneous productions have lead to a competition between the two films, with charges from one camp that the other film portrays Chicanos in a bad light, and an edict from Olmos that anyone who works on the Hackford film won’t work in his.

“I read for both films,” actress Alma Martinez said. “At the Hackford reading, I was given a script but warned not to let anyone else see it. They also said, ‘This isn’t the final version. We have rewrites.’ When I went to the Olmos reading, they told me the Hackford film wasn’t going to be a good film for Chicanos, that a lot of actors had read for it and turned down roles because the script was so derogatory to Hispanics. Of course, when they told me that, I understood and assumed theirs (the Olmos script) wasn’t derogatory.” Martinez wasn’t cast in either film.

Nosotros, the Latino actors clearinghouse, received calls from confused actors. “Most were asking if they should participate in the ‘Blood In . . . Blood Out’ script,” said Marc Allen Trujillo, current Nosotros president. “After reading 40 pages of it, I tend to agree it’s violent.” He added that actors were advised to make their own decision regarding “Blood.”

Others, including Latino writers and producers, claim the scripts have the same story line. Similarities include:

* The main character in “American Me” is named Santana; a principal character in “Blood In . . . Blood Out” is Montana (played by E. J. Castillo). Both Santana and Montana head the Mexican Mafia: Los Emes and La Onda.

* In both films, that character is betrayed by a trusted ally who is part Anglo. The traitor then takes over the Mafia operation in the penitentiary.

* In both films, a violent scene occurs in a prison pantry: In one, the homosexual rape of a prisoner; in the other, a homosexual is killed. The repercussions are the same: the long arm of the prison Mafia reaches out and orders the death of Chicanos or blacks outside the walls.

Suggestions that the scripts were similar surfaced earlier this year when the National Hispanic Media Coalition received complaints that the script of “Blood In . . . Blood Out,” written by Jimmy Santiago Baca and Jeremy Iacone, portrayed Latinos in a bad light. Sources later traced those complaints to the “American Me” project.

The coalition, which routinely evaluates scripts for their accuracy and sensitivity in depicting Latinos, requested a copy of the script. Their request was at first denied by Hackford’s Vato de Atole Productions, but Hackford later relented when the coalition agreed to a legal waiver that forbids making their evaluation public. Shortly afterward the coalition learned that Olmos had a similar project pending. Olmos offered his “American Me” script, and requested confidentiality.

“We responded to Taylor Hackford, giving him our opinions of the script. We followed the same procedure with ‘American Me,’ ” said Esther Renteria, the coalition’s president. “They’re not Latino films, but films about gangs and prisons.”

In response to recommendations for changes from the coalition, screenwriter Jimmy Santiago Baca wrote a copyrighted letter defending his “Blood” script. He claims it was inspired by his own prison experiences in his native New Mexico.

Jose Luis Valenzuela, director of LATC’s Latino Lab, which has commissioned Baca to write a play, has read Baca’s “Blood In . . . Blood Out” script. “The images were very violent, very negative. I’m not saying that we (Latinos) can’t do Mafia-type movies like Coppola or Scorsese, but the characterization in his first draft wasn’t as strong as its violence.” Valenzuela received an offer to work on the film as a producer but declined after reading the script. “The second draft was better than the first, but I’d already made my decision,” he said. (Coincidentally, his girlfriend, Evelina Fernandez, has the lead in Olmos’ “American Me.”)

The “American Me” script has its roots in Floyd Mutrux’s 1975 film “aloha, bobby and rose,” which featured a young Eddie Olmos in a bit part as a Chicano pool shark. Mutrux wanted to write a film about Chicanos, and completed his “American Me” script in the mid-1970s. The screenplay was shopped around, but no studio was willing to finance the gang and prison film after theater violence contributed to the box office failure of two similar Chicano gang themed films, “Boulevard Nights” and “Walk Proud.”

Olmos optioned Mutrux’s script about five years ago, but the project didn’t get a green light from Universal until this year. After rewrites of the script, Mutrux and Olmos were listed as co-screenwriters. More recently, the credit line has been revised to: “Screenplay by James Edward Olmos, based on screenplays by Floyd Mutrux, Desmond Nakano and Edward James Olmos.”

The “Blood In . . . Blood Out” script began when producer Jerry Gershwin originally hired novelist Ross Thomas to write it in the early 1980s. It then went into development under director Harold Becker.

More recently, Mutrux worked on a script rewrite.

Whether Mutrux’s story ideas ended up in the current script aren’t known. According to the film’s publicist, Catherine Moore, “Baca came on and worked with Jeremy Iacone on a new draft when Hackford joined the project about a year and a half ago. Baca has been pretty much on his own since then.”

The Times attempted to contact Baca and Mutrux to discuss the scripts. Calls and requests to Universal and Hollywood Pictures, as well as calls to the individual writers, were not returned.

Danny De La Paz starred in “Boulevard Nights,” a 1979 gang film written by Desmond Nakano that boasted an almost completely Latino cast. De La Paz’s comeback role of sorts is in “American Me.”

“My big ambivalence when I first got offered the role was: ‘Oh God, East L.A., playing a gang member and prisoner. I told Eddie (Olmos) I feel I’m locked in a cage and can’t get out,” De La Paz said.

“When I first read it, I didn’t see why Eddie was doing it. But he made me realize something, and he’s right, the role is a good role, it just happens to be a gang member prisoner from East Los Angeles. Sure, the film has a lot of violence, but Eddie is also showing the other sides of the characters. He’s not just showing us as violent animals but as human beings, real people with dark and light sides. Another filmmaker might not have done the same and we’d come off as stereotypical bad guys. Instead, those real moments are going to take the film to another level.”

Gregory Nava, who directed the 1984 sleeper hit “El Norte” says he’s not surprised by the fact that two gang theme films are being made.

“Gangsterism is one way immigrant cultures enter the mainstream. It’s traditional in American life and film. People move into outlawism by being rejected. Criminal elements are all part of the mix from ‘Little Caesar’ to ‘The Godfather.’ The Latino experience is unique, but it’s also part of that process of entering the mainstream.”