Bound by Honor

The novelist Ross Thomas wrote the first script in the early 1980s; it was developed under Harold Becker and reached Taylor Hackford years later. Edward James Olmos was offered both the direction and the lead, and declined. Hackford saw a chance at a hard prison picture, pitched it to Jeffrey Katzenberg, and two Disney labels handled distribution. Shooting began in May 1991 in and around Los Angeles and East Los Angeles. The crew were allowed inside the walls of San Quentin, where inmates and staff of the time appear as extras and the warden got a long scene tied to the plot. In El Sereno the crew were fired on while striking a set; a caterer was wounded. The paintings credited to Cruz were made by the artist Adán Hernández. The climax mural could not be painted on the reservoir wall for lack of permission, so it was done on plywood panels set in front. The studio changed the title too: after a fight broke out before a test screening in Las Vegas, Blood In Blood Out became Bound by Honor, over Hackford’s open objection. A good fit if you want three relatives tracked at once and do not mind the prison stretches dominating. Not for anyone expecting the violence passed over quickly; the film stays with it.