Cartel Land

Matthew Heineman's Academy Award-nominated "Cartel Land" is one of the most harrowing documentaries that you'll ever see. It focuses mainly on a community in Michoacán that formed a vigilante group to fight the drug gangs, since the corrupt government was no good at protecting them from the gangs. The other focus is a vigilante group in Arizona that sets out to stop the cartels from entering the US. It took some real guts to get this on screen (to say nothing of the danger that they likely faced in filming it). It just goes to show that the so-called War on Drugs is a failure at best. Not only is Mexico nearly a failed state, but the mass arrests for drug possession in the United States have devastated entire communities. Meanwhile, Portugal decriminalized all drugs in 2000, and drug usage fell there. The point is that there's no way to win such a war, least of all for the people in rural Mexico. They bear the brunt of the brutality, whether from cartels or from their own government. We must end this war. In an update since the documentary's release, José Mireles died of COVID last month.

This is not really a story. Just a collage of emotional footage. There is no reason. The the structure is not very clear anyway. To make things worse, the producers are doing their best of white washing the racist gangs North of the border. The ridicule of the wall is missed. The fact that the State is building up all this situation on both sides of the border is ignored. As they gloss over the fact that the worst gangs are State owned: a vast assortment of police and military forces. And the blame is put on the dirt poor peasants trying to make a living or simply trying to survive. And why are all these people so violent? I mean people far away from the traffic areas are quite peaceful while being almost identical genetically with these people. Who cares? The devil. After all all seem to be high on religion and low on education. And all that and many other previous wars simply for some old white men to draw a colored line on a map. But that is way over the head of the producers. Long live yellow journalism! Contact me with Questions, Comments or Suggestions ryitfork @ bitmail.ch

The Mexican side of this documentary is more than intriguing. What people go through is incredible. The patrol they created to fight against crime is something that most people probably stand behind and support too. The Arizona patrol on the other hand? A whole different beast (quite literally, especially considering the views they express and because it's not the same situation as across the border). Having said that, and if you are able to judge on your own and not take some things that are being said as more than they are: there is a real tension that builds up and even concerns families, bullying and trying to bring order where order is not wanted by the government (at least the current government in Mexico that is). And that's the thing: While the documentary takes a stance against drug and criminality, it almost embraces racism on the other hand ... either stay neutral or really make a good point

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning On the United States/Mexico Border, the Knights Templar drugs cartel plies its trade with ruthless determination, and terrorizes the residents of the villages and towns where it operates. In this lawless little corner of the world, where the police, army and government are as corrupt as, and in league with, the villains, it has fallen on some local people to stand up and make a difference. Lead by a charismatic, mature local physician, the Autodefensas are an army with no legal sanction, but the support of the people who know the cause they are fighting, but gradually they are infiltrated by undesirables who set them on a path of corruption. Meanwhile, a separate group of American fighters, with uncomfortable views towards their Mexican neighbours, operate their own little army. The 'cartel' phenomenon has been used many-a-times as a backdrop for your average action adventure, or crime thriller, but this is as close as you'll have come, probably ever, to getting up close and personal, and seeing what could be described as like a real life action film, with men in military fatigues spouting automatic weapons and prowling the outskirts of the desert in search of their prey, not to mention seeing men in car chases zooming in on those they are hunting. In this sense, Cartel Land takes the docu-drama concept and turns it on its head, delivering something quite unique. That said, on the expose front, it covers a lot of old ground that you would have already seen in any Ross Kemp/Channel 4 programme on telly, with some of the drug traffickers themselves appearing on camera only briefly, but just delivering the usual platitudes of how they live in poverty, and the real villains are those at the top. What's never been seen before, is the frustration of those living in the midst of the violence and corruption, and their resignation to having to come together and form their own group to tackle the criminals, and eventually the disillusionment and regret when even they appear to turn into something bad. You really get the impression of a group of people who depend on each other, and have only each other to lean on in this world. But their situation is already quite well known, and they get a lot more screen time than the surprising emergence of some American protagonists, although their xenophobia and racism makes them a little tough to warm to. By the end, it's lost it's narrative and sense of pace a little, but despite some faults, it's still an eye opening and daring work that deserves to be observed. ***

Saw this at the screening with Kathryn Bigelow and director Matthew Heineman at the Arclight Hollywood. Generally impressive documentary that primarily follows two fascinating central characters: "Nailer," a man leading a vigilante group attempting to stop drug trafficking on the Arizona border, and 'El Doctor,' the charismatic leader of an anti-cartel militia in Michoacan, Mexico. The power of the film lies in how intimately it tracks these two characters. You get a first-hand look at what it's like being on the front line on the wars in "Cartel Land." The filmmaker bravely places himself next to our central characters even as bullets fly by. The weakness of the film, in my opinion, is that we never really get a sense of the larger situation of the Mexican drug cartels. The documentary assumes that you'll read about them elsewhere, and instead focuses on the immediate experience of the main characters. While this serves as an engaging and immediate narrative, it provides for a bit of a tunnel-visioned experience to the broader picture on the war on drugs. Heineman argued that his intention with the film was simply to tell these personal stories, but in my opinion it suffers with the lack of information about the cartels themselves to give these powerful personal stories their context.

Although he hasn't made the technical "best" documentary of the year), it's hard to see a documentary filmmaker who stuck his neck out more, literally, than Matthew Heienman to make Cartel Land (maybe Joshua Oppenheimer, in his way, put himself in danger to make his Indonesia docs, but he wasn't caught up in anything like this). He puts himself into some incredibly dangerous scenes, and from what I could tell it's not at all the case of him trying to get some extra dramatics or tension where there is none. On the contrary he follows the Mexican group the Autodefensas (at times when they are in the midst of shoot-outs and enemy fire) in their rise to become a major presence in Michoacan, Mexico, as well as how they became corrupted by the very forces they are/were up against. So points automatically have to go to the director for that, and he clearly is passionate about this issue - and as the wisest choice he doesn't put himself into it in the slightest (very much the objective, here and there more like a war cine-journalist when with his camera on the streets and roads and interrogation rooms). But I do wish that he had stuck to the story of the Doctor Meirelles and his group, as he and the world that he's in is just more captivating and stronger as a story of a rise and fall than that of the American who is supposed to be the 'counter-point' or other side example. His story, as a man who has split off from society (in part due to the 2008 economic collapse, among other issues), and formed a small would be (?) militia patrolling parts of the Mexican border for immigrants, could be compelling. But it's not even so much that the contrast or point-counter-point of him and the Doctor might not have some interest (I think the point ultimately is one guy really is fighting for his life and for others, and the other is more about rounding up illegal immigrants where, for some reason, border patrol doesn't seem to be around), it's more a flaw of filmmaking. I think that if Heineman had kept it all down as a story of the Autodefensas, he would have a full movie to tell, and indeed the two places - on the US/Mexico border and Michoacan, which is over a thousand miles away to the south - are so far apart that they don't have much relation to one another exactly. Of course the cartels are a problem in one spot as much as the other, yet on a simple film editing level, it throws off the balance. This could have been two documentaries, perhaps, again to bring up Oppenheimer, as compliments to one another. It's a shame that it doesn't work much better, since there's a lot of potent, incendiary stuff here. When Cartel Land works best, it all but indicts a country for not doing far more than it should, or what the president or government claims to do (again, this is the documentary, I'd have to read up more to know if the filmmaker doesn't show more sides to what the police or other military forces may or may be doing for the Autodefensas to rise up in the first place), and that corruption and crime becomes just a fact of life. It displays another form of terrorism that seems not as apparent as, say, Islamic fundamentalism but is no less a threat to the people where it takes place, though oddly enough what the film shows is the danger of vigilantism as well.

This is NOT a documentary. It's liberal Hollywood garbage that is trying to hide under the ruse of a legitimate documentary. It's all staged folks, watch it again and take a closer look. Whatever your views on immigration and border security, don't let this lame film influence you.

Editors note: Almost always people comment on films on this website in quite a good way. So I never felt the urge to write/contribute something.... The film: First of all I never wrote a review on this website before. And to be honest i don't think this will count as a review. Actually it was never my intention to write a review but more so to ask a critical question... Is this still a documentary? The quality of the images, the story and of the film in general are mind blowing! It gets you thinking and shows you the good, the bad and the ugly (pun intended).The story itself and the people involved are real, but in my opinion this is a reenactment! Staged, beautifully done but staged... The subject and the way they showed it is compelling, brutal at times, and it will get you thinking but I can't lose the feeling i watched a movie/film and not a documentary... Which is either brilliant or bad... Help me out, your thoughts pls.

"Carte Land" (2015 release; 100 min.) is a documentary that examines what is happening in the Mexican state of Michoacán, in south-west Mexico (about 1,000 miles from the US border), and in a separate story, we also take a look at what some people are doing at the Arizona border with Mexico. As the documentary opens, we see Mexican guys cooling up meth somewhere in Michoacán. Comments one: "We know we do harm, but we come from poverty". Then we get to know a woman, who lost 13 (!) family members, all brutally murdered by the cartel when their employer (owner of a lime orchard) couldn't pay the cartel, so they shot his employees as revenge. Then we get to know Dr. Mireles, a Michoacán-based physician who is sick and tired of the violence, and realizing that the official authorities will not/cannot do anything, he decides to start the Autodefensas, a grass roots movement to claim back the streets and towns of Michoacán. Couple of comments: first, this is another documentary from producer-director Matthew Heineman, and with this latest, he hits the bull's eye. The situation in the Mexican state of Michoacán is so bad that people are outright desperate for relief, ANY relief. There is an astonishing scene that plays out in the city of Apo, where the Autodefensas capture several cartel members. Then the Mexican Army comes sweeping in, and tries to disarm the Autodefensas (yes! not the cartel). The town's population quickly gathers and essentially howls the Army back out of town. Jaw-dropping. There are other such scenes in this riveting, and revolting, documentary. With revolting, I refer of course to the deplorable situation the Mexican people find themselves in, left to their own devices with the state or federal authorities pretty much absent. Beware, on several occasions there is shocking forage or pictures, and this documentary is most certainly not for the faint of heart. Second, the 'parallel' story of the Arizona Border Recon, with veterans taking it on themselves to patrol the border to keep migrants out, falls utterly short and frankly looks a bit silly as compared to the stuff we see happening in Michoacán. It would've made the documentary even better by simply focusing on what is happening on the ground in Mexico. But even with that unnecessary side story, "Cartel Land" is an unforgettable documentary. "Cartel Land" made quite a splash at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, and when out of the blue this showed up at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati this weekend, I couldn't believe my luck and went to see it right away. The matinée screening where I saw this at was a private affair, as in: I literally was the only person in the theater. That is a darn shame, as "Cartel Land" makes for compelling, if at times uncomfortable, viewing. If you get an opportunity to check this out and draw your own conclusions, be it at the theater, on Amazon Instant Video, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, do not miss it! "Cartel Land" is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

MY RATING 6 out of 10. This is an eye opening documentary which follows groups of vigilante's who are so fed up with Mexican drug cartels they have decided to do something about it. The problem is that the lines are blurred as to who the criminals are and on what side they are on. Watching this film you cant hep but think Mexico is buggered. There seems to be no order and the country is entirely corrupt. If i was a Mexican it would totally depress me. There are some very gruesome scenes of what happened to some of the Cartel members and their victims and it's not for the faint hearted but don't let that put you off what is a fascinating look into another world.