Works Cited

• Blood in Blood out. Dir. Taylor Hackford. Perf. Damian Chapa, Jesse Borrego and Benjamin Bratt. 1993.
• "Taylor Hackford - Biography." The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Web. 06 Jan. 2012. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000431/bio.
• "Blood In, Blood Out (1993) - Plot Summary." The Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Web. 06 Jan. 2012. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106469/plotsummary.
• "Snake Symbolic Meaning." What's Your Sign? Discover the World of Signs and Symbolic Meanings. Web. 06 Jan. 2012. http://www.whats-your-sign.com/snake-symbolic-meaning.html.

The Characters of Miklo, Paco, and Cruz

Miklos character has the blood of Hispanic and Caucasian running through his veins. He dislikes the fact that he won’t get accepted into the Vatos Locos because of his skin color. His character has a vast amount of bravery, desire, and power. Miklo utilizes all three extremely well in the movie. He wishes to join the street and prison gang, and uses his bravery and power to complete his craving. Pacos character also carries bravery, wish, and power. Paco starts off in the movie as a young man with an attitude who takes nothing from no one and will do anything for his gang and the members in it. Even though he teased and rejected Miklo many times, and is a character who is involved in criminal/gang activities, he can also be seen heroic. Paco doesn’t ditch his cousin Miklo in the scene of the car accident like the gang members, he stays with his cousin who is bleeding to death, and he also attempts to stop all of the violence his cousin is causing in prison. On the other hand, Cruz is a mellow character in the movie even though he is a gang member. His huge passion for art keeps him out of trouble, but after his attack from the rival gang, he sinks into more of a dark character. The death of his little brother, his back injury, and addiction to drugs, turns Cruz’s life around into a different direction.

Symbols and Signs

The film carries several symbols but mostly signs that can be pointed out trough out the entire movie. The Vatos Locos gang sign is “VL” and all of the gang members have it in a certain part of their body, representing their “set” (gang). Most of them have it on their hands between their thumb and index finger, and others on their mid-section or back, where it can be seen by the enemy. Every member in “La Onda”, the Hispanic prison gang, gets a tattoo of a snake representing their membership. A snake symbolizes rebirth because of its shedding of the skin, energy, wisdom, and desire. The flaking of a snake’s skin highlights the belief of life, death and rebirth. After Miklo proves himself to La Onda, a scene in the movie shows the leaders of the Hispanic prison gang surrounding him with a freshly made snake tattoo, where he is being welcomed and being set into the gang with the rules one must follow.

The Outline

  The film starts off focusing on the life of three related young men, the half-brothers Paco (Benjamin Bratt), Cruz (Jesse Borrego), and their bi-racial cousin Miklo (Damian Chapa). Both Paco and Cruz are members of an East L.A street gang known as Vatos Locos (Crazy Fools), where Miklo also wants to be part of but his cousin Paco rejects him due to his skin color, blue eyes, and blonde hair. “I may be white from the outside, but I'm brown on the inside, to the bone” -Miklo.  Miklo picks up his pride, proves himself to Paco by attacking members from a rival gang and gets accepted into Vatos Locos. The rival gang retaliates by injuring Cruz’s back for life and nearly ending his dream to pursue a career as an artist. The half brother, newly gang member cousin and the rest of the Vatos Locos become furious and attack early in the morning. The mission is accomplished at the break of dawn but turns into a high pursuit chase with Miklo bleeding to death in the back seat of a car. Paco crashes into another car and the rest of the gang members flee, leaving Paco and Miklo behind to get arrested. The related gang members’ life takes a dramatic split in a three way street. Paco gets send to boot camp to avoid time in jail, where he later joins the Marines and becomes an L.A narcotics detective afterwards. Cruz is able to continue his life as an artist but sinks in deeply into the addiction of heroin making him believe it’s the main cure to his back pain, and Miklo gets send to San Quentin prison where he receives the same disrespect his cousin Paco gave him before coming a member of Vatos Locos, but to gain the respect as a Hispanic he must prove himself to the Hispanic prison gang La Onda. With Miklo becoming a member of La Onda after killing a member from a white prison gang and Paco as an officer, problems and hate grow between them. The forfeits and betrayals both must make gets Paco closer to his drug addict brother and leads Miklo to becoming the leader of La Onda.

From law to film: Taylor Hackford

Taylor Hackford was born on December  31, 1944 in Santa Barbara, California.  He graduated from the University of Southern California in 1968, where he was a prelaw major. After graduating he volunteered for the Peace Corps in Bolivia, where he started using super 8 film during his spare time.  He then decided to change his career in law over to filming. Hackford started off working with a local television station in Los Angeles, where he later grew into producing until he reached the peek as a director. He has directed fifteen films, including Blood in Blood Out, throughout his life, some of them becoming hits in the film industry: The Idol Maker, White Nights, Ray, and the Devil’s Advocate.  Many of his movies carried famous names such as: Jamie Foxx, Al Pacino and his current wife, also academy award winning actress who starred in one of  his early films in the eighty’s,  Helen Mirren.  In 2005 he  was awarded  the “Film Society Award for Lifetime Achievement in Directing” and was elected President of the “Directors Guild of America” in 2009.

The Layout

When the question "What is your favorite movie”, I’m always able to say Blood in Blood out is my favorite movie of all. Similar to other prison/gang/racial movies like: American Me, American History X, Colors, and many more, Blood in Blood out explains the life of three related young men; Paco, Cruzito, and Miklo involved in drug, gang, racial activity, and the dramatic twist their life takes. Even though the movie might not be very well accurate to the true prison life outside the cameras, just being able to see and get the idea of how living the type of lifestyle the three young men lived through can actually recognized as reality. The one hundred and eighty minute film never gets old to me. I find it very appealing and still keeps me at the edge of my seat even though I know from the top of my head what’s coming up next. It’s a movie one can watch numerous times and still wonder why and how the three young men were able to live and choose the lifestyle they ended up with.