One Sentence Movie Reviews: “Blood In, Blood Out:”
Blood In, Blood Out (1993): "It is rarely a good sign when the Wikipedia entry for a movie is more compelling than the movie itself."
Notes: A classic case of eyes bigger than stomach. An over-three hour biography of 3 friends from East Los Angeles in the 1970s and the prison gang warfare of the period, where apparently, racially identified squadrons of convicts waged bloody mayhem throughout California correctional facilities to gain control of the system’s drug trade. Although BIBO claims the conflict is over (which I believe to a certain extent), the 2004 New Yorker profile of Aryan Brotherhood, tells me it has simply changed form. The FBI estimates that also Aryan Brotherhood makes up less than 1% of the prison population, it’s responsible for 26% of the murders in prison.
I’m fascinated by the topic and didn’t realize how emblematic the war was of the chaos of the era. American Me, a much better movie about the period, focuses on the Mexican Mafia and the historical links between the Zoot Suit Riots, the gang’s formation and the identity of the East Los Angeles community. In the east, the early 1970s was the time of the Attica Prison Riots, one of the darkest incidents in American law enforcement.
I don’t know the history well enough to say but I wonder if the modern prison reform movement came out of this messy time. It’s got me thinking, which I suppose makes Blood In, Blood Out a useful if sloppy, movie, a great topic handled with thumbs instead of care.