Saw this on FB:
The executive producer is the one who did Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty. I watched about five minutes of the first and couldn’t stand it anymore, but was pleasantly surprised with the latter. Curious to see this one, the trailer looks good. I find the topic surprising too.
Looks good. Curious what role the gringo is playing in the story and whom he is associated with.
The vast majority of Americans have no knowledge of how bad the cartel violence actually is south of the border. Although, most here I’m sure are aware.
For friends and colleagues I often point them to an outstanding website that is often shocking and brutally honest in the level of violence that occurs. Caution - it will show photos and video of everything from mass mutilations to videos of dudes being field dressed alive. Yeah, that bad of situation down there.
The Panteo mindset video with Paul Howe really opened my eyes. I knew it was bad, but seeing really brings it to life…
The violence is all so close to home.
That is the most insane thing. We live in America and this is our neighboring country, and this is happening right next to us. I think that is a lot of what drives the vigilantes in Arizona for better or worse, and they fear that this bloodletting of the Mexican drug wars is going to seep across our borders.
http://www.mensjournal.com/travel/events/the-story-behind-sundance-favorite-cartel-land-20150126
Thank God I am not the only one that CANNOT STAND The Hurt Locker!
Thank you for the heads up on Cartel Land though, am interested in it as well.
Interesting.
Thanks to the OP and all of the folks who posted a link.
I grew up just North of Nogales Mexico and I’ve really become concerned for relatives still living in the area. When my 75 year old Mother wants a new handgun for Mothers day, well shit just aint right.
This is on Netflix.
One particular highlight is when the Mexican army shows up to disarm an Autodefensa militia group and does so… and then the whole town turns out with clubs, makes the army give the guns back, and then drives the army out of town. The Federales, on the other hand, seem to leave them well enough alone - at one point the Autodefensas capture a couple of members of a cartel called the Knights Templar and promptly hand them over to a group of Policías Federales. Later, the Autodefensas are manning a checkpoint, stop a man with Templar tattoos, and then say that they’re going to interrogate him and shoot him (whether they do this or not, I cannot say).
One thing of interest is that the Autodensa that they show appear to be fairly well-armed, compared to the rimfire rifles and hunting rifles that I’d expected. And one Autodefensa leader carries an FN FAL but no hand gun (in fact, it appears that many of them are armed either solely with long guns or solely with handguns).
If what y’all mean by “the gringo” is who I think you mean (I’m watching the documentary, not the trailer right now), he’s a guy involved in a group called, “Arizona Border Recon,” - armed citizens who patrol the US-Mexico.
It’s not as bad as “The Thin Red Line” or “Casualties of War”, it just wasn’t a great movie but they gave it an Best Picture and Best Director oscar in order to have a “first woman” director award. I actually liked some of her films like “Near Dark” and “K19”, and I even understood what was attempted with “The Hurt Locker”, the main problem is it was overhyped and everyone had to gush over it for the token director award.
And honestly it was up against a bunch of pure crap movies like Avatar, District 9, Inglorious Bastards and Precious. So for that year, it really was the best movie nominated.
I guess it still surprises me that so many here in the US don’t know how bad it is in MX. This has been going on for a long time and you still have people go down there for “cheap” vacations.
It (the DVD) has been in my Netflix queue for a while now but I still don’t see a release date on it.
Yes, things are really bad down there. I used to visit Mexico 3-4 times per year. I haven’t been in at least 15 years and have no plans to do so. Not worth it, IMO.
One of my buddies friends got kidnapped in Mexico.
Unless they start allowing open-carry of carbines, and I get CAS, I ain’t going anywhere near that country.
How’d that go for him?
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He lived…bailed out at a redlight and ran for his life.
For years,back in mid-nineties and early 2000’s… when I was truckin and took a load down to Laredo, I walked across the border alone into Nuevo Laredo to shop, eat, and just get out of the truck awhile. Never had a problem…but I wouldn’t go now in a tank.
I used to do the same in about the same time frame. No mas!
I have friends who still routinely go to Mexico. I just don’t understand the appeal of vacationing in a JATWISH (just another third world sh!thole). If they leave the major resort areas their lives are at risk. No thanks, there is plenty of cool stuff to do in the US. If I really feel the need to leave, I’ll go back to Europe.
Just watched it, it’s definitely worth a look.
I watched this a couple months back on Amazon prime. I thought it was really well done. The people they follow south of the border interested me the most, and the amount of things they deal with. Some self inflicted.
old thread 
funny just watched this a couple days ago and the next one that came up called narco cultura !
the narco cultura one was interesting also
lots of folks love to go down to rocky point from here in AZ and they always say how safe it is etc… ? I’ll pass