Discoverability seems to have long been a problem for this movie, thanks partly to some hijinks surrounding its title.

It was originally written and promoted as "Blood In, Blood Out," but was given a limited release in 1993 as "Bound by Honor" instead. Director Taylor Hackford says the production company, Disney-owned Hollywood Pictures, feared that the original title sounded too violent for the period following the L.A. riots.

He also says this is the reason it only got a limited release, and why its release was delayed in Los Angeles specifically, due to the timing of the related Rodney King verdict. Those limitations, in turn, were why it tanked at the box office.

That could sound like a filmmaker looking for someone else to blame, were it not for the fact that it later did very well on home video under its original title, "Blood In, Blood Out." (To make matters more confusing, some vendors used the extended title "Blood In, Blood Out: Bound by Honor.")

Disney certainly had a point about the film's violence. It tells of three brothers (one of whom was played, as you say, by future "Law & Order" star Benjamin Bratt) growing up in L.A. in the '70s who get pulled into the gang culture plaguing the city.

The gang wars it depicted were, of course, a factor in the L.A. riots and the violence that generally infected much of the youth culture in the city at the time.

That puts "Blood In, Blood Out" (or whatever you choose to call it) in league with the vibrant subgenre of movies that came out exploring this issue, including "American Me" (1992), "Menace II Society" (1993) and the landmark, Oscar-nominated "Boys N the Hood" (1991).

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