Blood in, Blood out - sworn to life and death

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Movie
German title Blood In, Blood Out - Sworn to life and death
Original title Bound by Honor
Blood In, Blood Out (Film) Logo.png
Country of production United States
original language English , Spanish
Publishing year 1993
length 180 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Taylor Hackford
script Jimmy Santiago Baca ,
Jeremy Iacone ,
Taylor Hackford
production Jerry Gershwin ,
Taylor Hackford
music Bill Conti
camera Gabriel Beristain
cut Fredric Steinkamp ,
Karl F. Steinkamp
occupation

Blood In, Blood Out - conspired to life and death is a film drama from the year 1993 . It tells the story of the young Chicano Miklo Velka ( Damian Chapa ), Cruz Candelaria ( Jesse Borrego ) and Paco Aguilar ( Benjamin Bratt ) in the period from 1972 to 1984, based on the true experiences of the writer and screenwriter Jimmy Santiago Baca. As members of the Vatos Locos , a gang in East LA , they fight for daily survival in their barrio . Things turned around when, after a gang war, Miklo was imprisoned in San Quentin and Paco was drafted into the army.

action

Miklo returns - admission to the Vatos Locos

After a long time with his father, Miklo Velka, son of a white man and a Chicana, is returning to his hometown in East LA as his parole is about to expire. As soon as he arrives, the rivalry arises with his cousin Paco, who has never really accepted Miklo as a family member due to his white skin.
Cruz, Paco's half-brother, tries to smooth things over between the two. Through his negotiating skills, but also through diversionary maneuvers (he always points out his painted pictures), he has managed to settle many a dispute.

Gang wars with rival gangs

But when the three of them watch after a crazy jaunt how some members of the warring gang of the "Tres Pu (n) tos" are out and about in the Vatos Locos area, Paco asks Miklo to show "what color" he is. Miklo, who wants to prove his courage, smashes the rear window of the car of the outnumbered opponents; then the three flee. This in turn causes the Tres Puntos to attack Cruz, who is having a rendezvous with a young lady after a party, and seriously injure him a few days later. Thereupon the Vatos Locos undertake an act of revenge, as a result of which Spider, the leader of the Tres Puntos, is killed. Miklo, who shoots Spider more or less in self-defense, is shot by him. Paco, Miklo and two other gang members are chasing the police; After an accident, the other two are able to flee, Paco, who does not want to leave the injured Miklo alone, is arrested together with him.

In the San Quentin prison

Miklo is sentenced as the "main culprit" to a long prison term in San Quentin , although the whole action actually came from Paco and he already wanted to shoot the defenseless Spider, which was prevented by Miklo. Everyday life in prison is characterized by the rivalry between the white gangs (the "Aryan Vanguards", see Aryan Brotherhood ), blacks ("Black Guerrilla Army", see Black Guerrilla Family ) and Chicano ("La Onda", see Mexican Mafia ). Those who want to assert themselves would do well to join one of the gangs. The youthful Miklo immediately arouses the sexual desires of the older inmates, especially the Chicano Popeye and the white "Big Al". Popeye tries to rape him, which the leader of the Chicanogang, the more intellectual Montana, prevents. However, because of his white skin, Miklo does not want to take him into the gang, which he tries desperately to do. He can only be included in “La Onda” if he kills an enemy (blood in, blood out). The chance for this arises from the lusts of Big Al, who is enemies with the Chicano and gives them some difficulties with the help of a corrupt guard. Miklo pretends to accept Big Al's advances and stabs him as he pretends to give him oral pleasure. He is then accepted into "La Onda" and also takes over the lucrative betting business previously operated by Big Al. Since they want to continue to benefit from this, the guards cooperate from now on with Miklo, who is becoming a "constant" in the jail business.

Paco the drug cop

Paco, who had only been convicted as a sideline offender, had been given the choice of serving a prison sentence or joining the army, and he chose the latter. After completing his military training, he switched to the police. Meanwhile, Cruz initially had considerable success with his painting, but at the same time already consumed drugs. He crashes completely and is cast out by his family, including Paco, when his and Paco's 13-year-old half-brother Juanito finds a heroin syringe that Cruz left behind and injects air into his vein and dies from it. Faced with this event, Paco decides to devote his life to combating drug trafficking and joins the LA Police Department of Drugs. Five years later (1980), he and his colleagues raid Popeye, who has now been released from prison and who lives in East LA PCP laboratory, but have to release him for lack of evidence.

Miklo's dismissal

Miklo also submitted a parole application in 1980, but it was denied. On the advice of his gang leader Montana, he is now beginning to seriously prepare for an honest life outside of prison and is catching up on his school leaving certificate in prison. In 1982, after nine years in prison, he was finally released on parole. Freed again, Miklo tries seriously to lead an honest life, but this turns out to be difficult. In the absence of alternatives, he has to move in with his prison gang member and "friend" Popeye (who wanted to rape him at the beginning of his term in prison), who, unlike him, does not even think about earning his living honestly, so that there is soon friction. Miklo got a job in a tire factory, mediated by Popeye, where he worked hard, but things weren't going well here either: His boss, who knew that the police wouldn't believe the ex-convict, settled his betting debts with Miklo's money by not paying him his overtime on the pretext that he had stolen money and had to pay it back. So disaffected about the "honest world" and dissatisfied with the subordinate life he has to lead in freedom, Miklo gets into a conversation at home between Popeye, some other Chicano and Popeye's moneylender (for his drug deals), who rob the group of a money transporter want to let. After Popeye backs off in an argument with Miklo, Miklo succeeds in persuading the client to entrust the "operation" to him and not to Popeye. He rejects the appeals to Cruz, with whom Miklo is in contact again (he only spoke to Paco once on the phone), to remain honest, and raids the money transporter with the Chicano. In order to get revenge, Popeye gives Paco's partner an anonymous tip on the phone, which means that Paco and his colleague are on site at the time of the attack. A shootout ensues, as a result of which Miklo's cronies can flee, while Miklo, on the other hand, is shot from behind by Paco, although he has revealed himself to him, because he refuses to give up. Due to two shots from Paco's revolver, Miklos lower leg has to be amputated before he has to go to prison again - this time for life. Paco, plagued by remorse, apologizes to Miklo in the hospital, but Miklo rejects this, as does Cruz, with whom Paco wants to reconcile, pushes him back.

Back in jail

In San Quentin prison, Miklo works in the prison library because of his prosthesis. The relationships between the gangs have meanwhile changed to the disadvantage of “La Onda”; Montana, who is more and more immersed in his books and scientific essays and is planning a book about the “Chicano in prison”, has lost the thread and could not prevent gang member Carlos from getting into the drug trade that was previously fought over between whites and blacks and thereby both La Onda split and the other two gangs turned against the Chicano. When Carlos, who previously stabbed the black main dealer, is massacred by the blacks, Miklo and his like-minded colleague Magic see the opportunity to create a clear situation through a counter-action, which Montana forbids. The two then forge a plot to “save La Onda”, even though they say they “love” Montana, and send one to a black and BGA member who is his cellmate outside of San Quentin through his daughter's visit to Montana fake wooden comb, the secret kill order of the BGA, whereupon this Montana stabs. As expected from Miklo and Magic, it seems plausible that the AV faked the comb to blame the BGA and start a war between Onda and BGA; Nobody sees through the clever plan of Miklos and Magic. They appear to accept the offer of the BGA leader Bonafide and surprisingly attack the whites together on the Mexican "Day of the Dead"; all AV leaders are killed. Then the Chicano turn against the blacks, who think they are safe, and also murder their leaders.

The prison authorities then have the Onda gang leaders transferred to different prisons in order to break up the group; Miklo, who became the leader by planning the action, summons everyone to create their own group. Magic shows Miklo the bar of soap they both used to forge the BGA's wooden comb. Magic had kept it in order to have something in hand with this piece of evidence against Miklo, in case the latter should turn against him. He explains his motivation to Miklo and finally hands him the soap with the words “Now I want you to destroy it”, as he is a true leader. Together the two destroy the soap.

Miklo has meanwhile accepted his life as a prison king and gang leader as his fate and with it buried his hatred of Paco. The latter, on the other hand, is shocked by the brutality of his old "blood brother" and now explains to him that he will be done with him forever. He then has to question his condemnation in the final sequence of the film when Cruz, who has reconciled himself with him, shows him that ultimately only his (Paco's) demanding and aggressive behavior 12 years ago was responsible for everything coming like this how it came about, and each of the three is now what it is.

criticism

"Epically broadly staged, the film tries to avoid hasty solutions and to convey insights and knowledge."

- Lexicon of international film

Trivia

  • Director Taylor Hackford later claimed in an interview that the prison scenes were shot with eight actors; the rest of the cast would actually be prisoners from San Quentin .
  • Differences in synchronization: In a scene when Miklo visits the leader (El Mero Mero) of “La Onda” to become a gang member, he replies: “You speak Spanish? Parrots too! ”. In the German version the answer is: “There are some who want something here Guerro. Everyone has wishes! ”.
  • The German Film and Media Assessment FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating particularly valuable.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Blood in, Blood out - Conspiracy for life and death. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used