“So what’s the difference between East L.A. and L.A.?” asks a cab driver in the opening scene of Taylor Hackford’s “Blood In Blood Out,” to which the main character, Miklo, responds, “It’s a whole different country.”
There are plenty of films about Los Angeles, but few of them have fixed their gaze on the less-glamorized East Los Angeles as tightly as Hackford’s 1993 film. In the, the three-plus-hour crime epic has become a cult classic and a hallmark film for Latino narratives in Hollywood. The movie follows the lives of Mexican American relatives — Miklo, Paco and Cruzito — as they navigate life in East L.A. as members of the street gang Vatos Locos. Their lives ultimately head in very different directions, but their stories and fates stay forever intertwined.The film stumbled at the box office 30 years ago but was saved from obscurity by Latino audiences, who reclaimed it as a cornerstone of their representation in cinema.
Part of what has drawn so many people to the film is its authenticity in narrative and setting. Jimmy Santiago Baca, one of the screenwriters, based the script on his own life experiences of incarceration and rehabilitation. But what really sets the movie apart is its undeniable sense of place. It wasn’t shot in some backlot; it lives and breathes its East Los setting. The community’s vibrancy, seediness and geographical diversity pop out throughout, helping ground the story in reality.
Wander the same streets that Miklo so loved and fought for, or take in the same view of downtown that Tres Puntos leader Spider can’t help but be impressed by. Just don’t expect to see Cruzito’s mural from the end scene; that painting is actually located in San Antonio, Texas .No matching places!
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