Bound by Honor

“No Baptist sermon, eh?” So crack the young heroes of this saga of Chicano brotherhood whenever they feel they're being lectured. And as often as the phrase is repeated in the film's three hours, you'd think the writers and director Hackford (An Officer and a Gentleman, Everybody's All-American) would be self-conscious about being preachy. But they hammer home their messages -- “Drugs kill,” “Forgive and forget,” “Everyone needs a family” -- with all the stony style of a Bible-belter recounting the perils of Hell. Sternly. Resolutely. Relentlessly. The result is a long dry walk on familiar filmic turf: the boyhood buddies from the wrong side of the tracks who end up on opposite sides of the law; the teen gangs whose increasingly violent clashes destroy young lives; the prison gangs who corrupt the innocent and destroy everybody's lives; the ex-con who can't get a break on the outside and returns to crime with tragic results; and so on. At the end, you feel dusty and worn and are prone to think of other talents who gave similar territory much more life. Which is unfortunate, because Hollywood doesn't venture into East L.A. that often, and less-than-memorable movies like this will do little to change that. What's more, two of the three leads clearly deserve better. Borrego shines as the trio's sensitive one, a painter of barrio life. The character is strait-jacketed by tragedy -- his back is broken by a rival gang, which leads him to drugs, which cause his kid brother's death, which estranges him from his family -- but Borrego grabs every opportunity for humor and gives him a dancing appeal. Bratt plays the hot-tempered tough headed for trouble who's straightened out by a stint in the Marines and turns cop. It's a clichéd role, writ large with “fury” and “self-righteousness,” but Bratt provides the man with enough warmth and sorrow to keep us drawn to him long after he has anything interesting to say or do. These two provide what little fresh air blows through this windy homily on the evils of gang life. Let's hope they breeze into a vehicle more worthy of their talents soon.