I saw this film on my own back in college when I had practically no money to my name and a mountain of debt. Being a first year film student, I appreciated the rough look of the film and saw how it was possible for a director to make an intense and electrifying film in a cheap documentary style as long as the script and actors worked well enough. My biggest problem with the film is that after all the build-up and many layers of story that intersect from time to time, there isn't really any conclusion to speak of. It left me feeling very raw and disappointed to the point where I'd say that it counts against the film, even if that's what Soderbergh was going for.
From corrupt Mexico Cops to a government official with a junkie daughter, two cops who arrest a trafficker to make him testify against a big fish, to the big fish's wife who starts running her husband's operation once he gets arrested, the stories have varying levels of interest. In my personal opinion, I would have much rather seen the wife get a lot more screentime and a clearer sense that she gets pushed into the drug trade out of sheer desperation. It would have been a fun evolution to see her become more of a heartless kingpin (queen-pin?) herself. We get some of that for sure with her extorting a hit man to work for her, but I would have loved to see more of that. I found the daughter storyline upsetting in the same way I found the movie KIDS disturbing, but it doesn't quite go far enough to dissuade young people watching this from going down the same path. The subplot of the two Mexican cops intertwined in a drug war between two rival cartels gets a little too complicated in my opinion, hurt by both their characters being so undeveloped that it's just hard to care about them.
I didn't remember Tomas Milian having such a large role as a Mexican general so it's nice to see him with a lot to work with so late in his career. Overall the cast couldn't be much better with a lot of them covering similar ground that they had earlier in DRUG WARS: THE CAMERENA STORY. Sadly this movie didn't spur the studios to put out the full series on DVD, but possibly had the opposite effect by inspiring them to package the cut down highlights as a standalone "movie".
All in all something of a beautiful disappointment. I would love to see Soderbergh tackle the same subject matter again with the same cast and crew, only with a more satisfying script.
From corrupt Mexico Cops to a government official with a junkie daughter, two cops who arrest a trafficker to make him testify against a big fish, to the big fish's wife who starts running her husband's operation once he gets arrested, the stories have varying levels of interest. In my personal opinion, I would have much rather seen the wife get a lot more screentime and a clearer sense that she gets pushed into the drug trade out of sheer desperation. It would have been a fun evolution to see her become more of a heartless kingpin (queen-pin?) herself. We get some of that for sure with her extorting a hit man to work for her, but I would have loved to see more of that. I found the daughter storyline upsetting in the same way I found the movie KIDS disturbing, but it doesn't quite go far enough to dissuade young people watching this from going down the same path. The subplot of the two Mexican cops intertwined in a drug war between two rival cartels gets a little too complicated in my opinion, hurt by both their characters being so undeveloped that it's just hard to care about them.
I didn't remember Tomas Milian having such a large role as a Mexican general so it's nice to see him with a lot to work with so late in his career. Overall the cast couldn't be much better with a lot of them covering similar ground that they had earlier in DRUG WARS: THE CAMERENA STORY. Sadly this movie didn't spur the studios to put out the full series on DVD, but possibly had the opposite effect by inspiring them to package the cut down highlights as a standalone "movie".
All in all something of a beautiful disappointment. I would love to see Soderbergh tackle the same subject matter again with the same cast and crew, only with a more satisfying script.