A documentary about drug trafficking set on both sides of the U.S./Mexico border.
In Mexico, a group of citizens unite to form a militia in order to combat the murderous drug cartels that terrorize their towns. In America, a group of "patriots" organize a vigilante platoon to patrol the desert and turn any illegal immigrants over to the proper authorities. In both cases, the motivation is the same: each group feels that it must take matters into its own hands since they can't rely on any system of organized legal procedures to do it for them. In Mexico, the law enforcement is corrupt and frequently working with the cartels; in the American wilderness, it's non-existent.
"Cartel Land" suffers from this split perspective after a while. It's as if the filmmakers didn't get enough footage of the American vigilante group but couldn't bring themselves to excise it altogether. As a result, it feels underdeveloped and takes away attention from what's going on in Mexico, which is gripping enough without having to share screen time. One thing the Mexican situation makes clear is that civilian militias don't work; they do for a time while everyone's intentions are noble, but sooner or later they fall prey to opportunists, in-fighting, and violence. The townspeople support the militia for a time, until the militiamen start randomly invading houses and beating up people they even slightly suspect may be involved in drug activity. This may be intended as a warning to the Americans in this film and others like them that taking the law into your own hands is the stuff of action movies, not real life. Perhaps that's why the American-set part of the film was left in even when it doesn't completely gel with the rest of the movie.
Parts of this film are fascinating if depressing, but overall the effect of the film is blunted by this lack of focus on the part of the filmmakers.
Grade: B
In Mexico, a group of citizens unite to form a militia in order to combat the murderous drug cartels that terrorize their towns. In America, a group of "patriots" organize a vigilante platoon to patrol the desert and turn any illegal immigrants over to the proper authorities. In both cases, the motivation is the same: each group feels that it must take matters into its own hands since they can't rely on any system of organized legal procedures to do it for them. In Mexico, the law enforcement is corrupt and frequently working with the cartels; in the American wilderness, it's non-existent.
"Cartel Land" suffers from this split perspective after a while. It's as if the filmmakers didn't get enough footage of the American vigilante group but couldn't bring themselves to excise it altogether. As a result, it feels underdeveloped and takes away attention from what's going on in Mexico, which is gripping enough without having to share screen time. One thing the Mexican situation makes clear is that civilian militias don't work; they do for a time while everyone's intentions are noble, but sooner or later they fall prey to opportunists, in-fighting, and violence. The townspeople support the militia for a time, until the militiamen start randomly invading houses and beating up people they even slightly suspect may be involved in drug activity. This may be intended as a warning to the Americans in this film and others like them that taking the law into your own hands is the stuff of action movies, not real life. Perhaps that's why the American-set part of the film was left in even when it doesn't completely gel with the rest of the movie.
Parts of this film are fascinating if depressing, but overall the effect of the film is blunted by this lack of focus on the part of the filmmakers.
Grade: B