Title: CARTEL LAND
The Orchard
Reviewed by: Harvey Karten for Shockya. Databased on Rotten Tomatoes.
Grade: B+
Director: Matthew Heineman
Cast: José Manuel Mireles, Tim “Neiler” Foley, Paco Rangel Valencia
Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 6/29/15
Opens: July 3, 2015
In the old days before color TV’s were invented, it was easy to tell the good guys from the bad guys, particularly in Westerns. The good guys wore white hats, the bad donned black ones. The Indians were always bad, the cavalry good. Some time after color TV was invented the job became more nuanced. A cowboy could wear a combination black and white hat. What are we to do? We had to wait a half hour until the hero/villain did something. Now you may have to wait quite a while in a film, even to the end, and then you may still not know what’s saintly, what’s diabolical.
Who are the good guys in “Cartel Land”? The government? Yes and no. The vigilantes who take back towns controlled by the drug cartels? Same. The drug cartels? Yeah, they’re probably bad, but still, as one meth cook tells us in the first two minutes of this blazing documentary, “We know we do harm with these drugs, but what can you do? We come from poverty.” Capitalism at work.
Right from the earliest scenes, Matthew Heineman, who takes on the risky job of cameraman as well as director and producer, stresses action over analysis. He realizes that even a movie about the illegal drug business that has resulted in “harm” to Americans and the deaths of some 60,000 Mexicans through gang warfare and revenge killings, will have its audience wondering who to root for. Maybe we should exonerate the cartels since without customers in the US of A, there would simply be no drug business south of the border. Stop the purchase of drugs and you stop their manufacture. Fat chance. If Heineman were to spend more time in analysis—for example, why does the Mexican government quickly release drug lords that the vigilantes turn over to the legit authorities? Why is the government in cahoots with the drug lords? Why did the government imprison the one guy in the state of Michoacán who was getting results in cleaning up the towns taken over by the cartels? No such luck. Maybe the producer-director-hand held-cinematographer was afraid of boring us if he let up on non-stop action. However, as a result, “Cartel Land” that could go over with an audience the typically avoids documentaries like the plague since it comes across throughout like an exciting narrative.
While vigilantes on both sides of the border are given time and space, the Mexican guys get much more. The principal character is Dr. José Manuel Mireles, a surgeon by trade, a blazing leader of townspeople who want to take back their lives. Mireles leads the Autodefensas, ordinary people armed with far more than pistols to challenge the veritable army of drug gangs. But as some of the “ungrateful” citizens in at least one time point out, Mireles is using the same tactics as the criminals—breaking into houses of suspects and looting them, and manhandling the people they handcuff, beating them over the head, kicking them in the chest and worse.
On the other side of the fence, in rural Arizona, Tim “Nailer” Foley leads an armed group of rough, tough Marlboro men who at first go after illegal immigrants who allegedly take jobs away from Americans, then turn their attention to drug smugglers. Foley’s men use night-vision goggles and carry powerful rifles and repeating guns.
Perhaps when the DVD comes out there will be considerable time given to how the film crew was able to get permission to accompany the men on both sides, as this picture could conceivably be up for photography awards if enough voters in various groups get to see it. Heineman not only knows how to film: he also knows how to make a documentary, eliminating talking heads interviews by having characters talk directly to the camera or each other. No professors on display here, and deeper analysis aside, that’s not a bad thing.
Unrated. 100 minutes. © Harvey Karten, Member, New York Film Critics Online
Story – A-
Acting – B+
Technical – B+
Overall – B+
