Pablo Escobar, possibly the most notorious and recognizable of cartel kingpins in recent years, his notoriety attributed in part to being the face of the infamous Medellín cartel in 1980s and ’90s Colombia, but also from being the subject of the Netflix smash hit, Narcos where his reputation as the most fearsome man in South America preceded him. Charlie, chang, snow, blow, or as many know it, cocaine, the drug that has as many names as Salvador Dalí, was the commodity Escobar dealt in. That white powder which is hoovered up through rolled-up dollar notes is associated with wealth, addiction, and a seductive quality that can be traced back to the days of 1920s Hollywood.
From TheWolf of Wall Street to Scarface, glamorizing drug use has become a habit within itself, and drugs have become the centerpiece of a surprisingly large amount of television lately. Aside from Narcos, the past 20 years have seen TV shows like Ozark, Breaking Bad, Weeds and Queen of the South which focus on drug dealing and drug cartels, but Hollywood cinema might be the most prolific. Having become a Hollywood mainstay, these are some of the best movies about drug cartels…
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6 Blow
New Line Cinema
With the ongoing Heard/Depp defamation trial a permanent fixture in the papers, some allegations from Heard regarding Depp’s relationship with cocaine makes the selection of his 2001 movie Blow, in retrospect, a tad ironic. Nonetheless, Depp is incredible as usual in Ted Demme’s screen adaptation of Bruce Porter’s book of the same name, a biographical account of the fascinating life of George Jung, a drug smuggler for the Medellín cartel and one of the most prominent US smugglers of the 1980s.
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5 American Made
Universal Pictures
Based on the remarkable story of TWA airline pilot Barry Seal, Doug Liman’s American Made (previously known as Mena) follows Tom Cruise as Seal and his work as a Medellín cartel drug smuggler, and subsequent position as a DEA informant. Cruise plays Seal in all his ostentatious glory, unburdened by the weight of responsibility, and of the tons of cocaine he is entrusted to transport on behalf of Escobar and the like. American Made is the kind of showy, exhilarating, adrenaline-fueled over-indulgence that Cruise has built his reputation off. The 2017 screenplay screams big-picture presence, and along with Cruise’s ‘leave nothing on the field’ performance, it provides just shy of two hours worth of cartel-infused drama.
4 End of Watch
Open Road Films
Starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña as the film’s protagonists, End of Watch utilizes a dash-cam-like, POV-style, commonly used in factual TV cop shows, to brilliant, heavily-stylized effect. The film kicks off with a voiceover from Officer Taylor (Gyllenhaal) delivering the standard police spiel that they’re just the good guys, doing their job by enforcing the law. However, as the movie trundles on the likable and at times off-the-(hand)cuff duo, they frequently take advantage of their position, while simultaneously earning the respect of the criminals they deal with.
After a routine traffic stop leads the pair into uncovering a Mexican drug cartel’s operation, they are duty-bound to follow the lion into its den despite potentially life-threatening consequences. The film’s great needle drops and killer soundtrack, most memorably Public Enemy’s Harder Than You Think, is an ingenious accompaniment to a movie that emphasizes how violence breeds violence in a community that is, in part, self-governing, “‘F the Police’ but who’s stopping you from killing me?” a poignant lyric goes, in a film full of boyish fun, excitement, and reflections on the community it represents.
3 Sicario
Lionsgate
The masterful director Denis Villeneuve helmed 2015’s Sicario. The extremely tense film follows the story of naive FBI agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt), who is tasked with the mission to bring down a Mexican drug cartel operating across the American/Mexican border, alongside the tormented ex-prosecutor Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro) and Kate’s boss, special agent Matt Graver. The trio must navigate their way through the ever-mounting pile of bloodied bodies, or in Sicario’s case, hanging. While the film is a largely fictionalized account of the horrors that occur under a cartel’s merciless jurisdiction, a lot of its context appears to be harrowingly accurate and truly highlights the barbarianism of cartel “business.”
2 Traffic
USA Films
Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic scooped up four Academy Awards, including Best Director at the 2001 Oscars. The film follows the stories of four people’s lives across America, all of which are interlaced due to the impact the country’s drug trade has had on their lives directly or indirectly. Traffic is a true modern masterpiece, and Soderbergh carefully pieces together a powerful cinematic jigsaw puzzle.
As Roger Ebert so excellently put it, “The movie is powerful precisely because it doesn’t preach. It is so restrained that at one moment — the judge’s final speech — I wanted one more sentence, making a point, but the movie lets us supply that thought for ourselves." The film is a brilliant exposition of drug wars and drug cartels, while also detailing the devastating effects of substance use.
1 Scarface
As Michelle Pfeiffer’s Elvira Hancock turns to a geared up, unobservant Tony Montana (Al Pacino), and retorts “don’t get high on your own supply,” she not only conceives a common, now globally-recognized quote, but she foreshadows the precarious and inevitably fatal route Montana is soon to take. A Cuban refugee, Montana is forced to flee his native home in Scarface, and seeks the unattainable American Dream. Along with his friend Manny (Steven Bauer), the pair form their own drug cartel and begin to take on the criminal underworld’s head honchos.
In the present day, Brian De Palma’s Scarface is paid homage by millions worldwide, and not just through its quotable dialogue, but through the iconic black, white, and red poster that decorates the walls of homes (and dorm rooms) around the world. The colors denote Montana’s quasi-three-dimensional worldview: things are simplistic in uncomplicated black and white, but the deathly blood-red is always lurking if interests don’t align with his. It’s simply one of the best films about gangster, crime empires, and drug cartels ever made.
