NARCOTIC FILMS FOR ILLEGAL FANSThe Mexican Videohome Industry Makes Movies for the Masses
TEXT AND INTERVIEWS BY BERNARDO LOYOLA
PHOTOS BY ABELARDO MARTÍN
| Dos carteles (2000), starring Mario Almada |
During the last few years, Mexican directors have received unprecedented international recognition. Movies like Babel, Amores perros, Silent Light, Y tu mamá también, and Pan’s Labyrinth have won awards at film festivals all over the world. Actors like Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna have drawn attention to a new generation of Mexican thespians. Hooray for them. But can we get some Mexican movies that aren’t all arty and heavy and full of good acting and clever directing? Why isn’t there a Mexican film scene that cranks out movies for the lady making tacos by the side of the road in Juárez instead of for the intellectual guy who teaches film studies in Mexico City? Aren’t the poor and working classes of Mexico clamoring for films that they can relate to?
Well, I guess you aren’t Mexican like I am. If you were you wouldn’t have asked those dumb questions that I just put into your mouth because you’d know about the magic world of Mexican narco cinema. Come on, I’ll tell you all about it.
For over 40 years, a hugely active B-movie industry has been producing super-low-budget films about drug dealers, bad cops, corrupt politicians, trucks, and prostitutes, catering mostly to the blue collar back home and the millions of Mexicans living in the US. In Mexico, this industry is called “videohome” because the movies go straight to video. If you go to a video-rental place in East LA, you’ll find one copy of Amores perros, but it will be surrounded by hundreds of other movies like Sinaloa, Land of Men; A Violent Man; The Dead Squad,; Her Price Was Just a Few Dollars; Coca Inc.; I Got Screwed by the Gringos; Weapons, Robbery, and Death; and Robbery in Tijuana.
This industry is frowned upon by embarrassed and ashamed middle- and upper-class Mexicans, and many people we tried to interview about it felt offended by the fact that we were even interested in narco cinema. A movie like Chrysler 300 sold thousands and thousands of DVDs last year, but many people in the trendy neighborhoods of Mexico City have never heard of it even though it was playing on every TV in the working-class areas. As Hugo Villa, a former official at the Mexican Institute of Cinematography, told us, “This is not a surprise when you realize that only 18 percent of the population in Mexico can afford to go to see movies in the theaters.” The reality is that videohomes are a far truer reflection of the tastes of Mexico than the kind of stuff that makes Frenchmen pee champagne into their tux pants at Cannes.
These low-budget action flicks are often based on violent stories from local newspapers. They can be written, produced, and released mere weeks after the stories are published. They are also often based on myths and legends about the all-mighty drug cartels from the northwest region of Mexico and stories about Mexicans crossing the border. Also, hilariously, tons of narcocinema movies revolve around cars or trucks. In any store that carries videohomes, you can easily find movies like The Black Hummer, The White Ram, The Red Durango, and two of the most famous classics of the genre, The Gray Truck and The Band of the Red Car.
In the mainstream Mexican film industry, it is rare to find a movie that eventually gets a sequel. There’s no Y tu mamá también Part 2. But in the videohome industry, any successful movie will become a franchise, so you have Dos plebes 5, An Expensive Gift 4, Chrysler 300 Part 3, and so on. Most sequels are revenge stories based on the original movies.
A few decades ago, these movies used to be westerns or straight action movies, but over the last two decades, the focus has shifted to drug trafficking. Mexico is the number two producer of both marijuana and poppies in the Americas, the majority of meth that seeps into the States is being made in Mexico, and the whole country is basically a superhighway for US-bound cocaine. Drug trafficking is a $100-billion-a-year business, and about 30 percent of that is estimated to go into paying off the government and the police.
Today, the narco wars going on in Mexico are out of control. Every day on the news you hear about shootings, executions, beheadings, and corruption. But it’s not only the cartels that are at war with each other. The current government has tried to stop the cartels, effectively militarizing entire areas of the country. This has sparked even more violence. So we have the cartels fighting the government, the government fighting the cartels, the cartels fighting each other, brutal killings every single day, and a group of dedicated workhorse filmmakers turning the whole thing into video faster than you can say arriba.
We recently met and spoke with two of the biggest narcocinema men in Mexico. Here’s what they had to say.
See all articles by this contributor Anonymous, on Sep 29, 2009 wrote:
If you base your like on Mexican cinema based solely on Pan’s Labyrinth you are a damn fool. | | Anonymous, on Sep 28, 2009 wrote:
@ below
what does pans labyrinth have to do with anything? just cause its mexican? thats dumb. | | Anonymous, on Sep 28, 2009 wrote:
narco cinema could seem liberal and shocking at first, but after awhile they don’t think it would get old? Now it’s more like running in circles, no?
Although with other mexican films I purely enjoyed Pan’s Labyrinth. | |
| SSS*aa, on Sep 24, 2009 wrote:
oh and when reynoso says at the end that"God bless, we’ve always done things the way they should be done." that is fucking scary!
I thought hollywood’s production companies where tough at auditing scripts... imagine this... you say the wrong thing or portrait certain cartels the wrong way and you are in deep shit before you become deep dead!
yeah freedom of expression to the masses though cinema!!!... not. | | |
| SSS*aa, on Sep 24, 2009 wrote:
as much as i would love to relate or to like these films, i really can’t. So what’s this? so now its cool to like what the masses like? or is it cool to glorify people that come out of poverty by drug trafficking? Come on the masses are stupid and ignorant and making films about a bunch of lazy wankers that take the quick and unsustainable route out of poverty just doesn’t do it for me. They forgot to mentioned the horrible acting, the storyline is usually just stupid and very basic visually and intellectually... and once you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all... sorry i might be one of the ’other half’ of mexicans that find them revolting...
if you are not mexican you’ll find the first narco film you watch funny, there wont be a second one i bet ya! just imagine films glorifying all the american ghetto gangsta culture of 2pac and the likes of having films glorifying the british anglo yob culture... if you come from these countries you know what i mean and it’ll probably wont be your cuppa tea... it’s the same in mexico and it’s the same for me. sorry just being honest. BUT! i do admire the efficiency in production time and costs... and the distribution settings... that is fucking great, i’m taking that on board.
| | Anonymous, on Sep 24, 2009 wrote:
as much as i would love to relate or to like these films, i really can’t. So what’s this? so now its cool to like what the masses like? or is it cool to glorify people that come out of poverty by drug trafficking? Come on the masses are stupid and ignorant and making films about a bunch of lazy wankers that take the quick and unsustainable route out of poverty just doesn’t do it for me. They forgot to mentioned the horrible acting, the storyline is usually just stupid and very basic visually and intellectually... and once you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all... sorry i might be one of the ’other half’ of mexicans that find them revolting...
if you are not mexican you’ll find the first narco film you watch funny, there wont be a second one i bet ya! just imagine films glorifying all the american ghetto gangsta culture of 2pac and the likes of having films glorifying the british anglo yob culture... if you come from these countries you know what i mean and it’ll probably wont be your cuppa tea... it’s the same in mexico and it’s the same for me. sorry just being honest. BUT! i do admire the efficiency in production time and costs... and the distribution settings... that is fucking great, i’m taking that on board. | | Anonymous, on Sep 23, 2009 wrote:
And where exactly would I find one of these? Mexican flea markets? | | Anonymous, on Sep 22, 2009 wrote:
they put the bag over his head since that makes it more humane. | | Anonymous, on Sep 22, 2009 wrote:
Pan’s Labyrinth is by a Mexican director... duh. | | Anonymous, on Sep 22, 2009 wrote:
These movies sound so much better than any movie i saw this summer. Actually, better than nay movie i’ve seen in the past 3 years. | |
| Rook, on Sep 22, 2009 wrote:
This is great. It has to be a nice release from the people, especially along the border towns, that have to deal with violence in a very real and in-your-face way almost every day. | |
| dangerboy, on Sep 22, 2009 wrote:
evn the name "narco cinema" is great. | | Anonymous, on Sep 22, 2009 wrote:
Those are some of the best movie titles ive ever seen | | Anonymous, on Sep 22, 2009 wrote:
huy we grow watching those movies how can i forgot la banda del carro rojo los hermanos aldama ,, etc, ahuevo esas peliculas rifan | | Anonymous, on Sep 22, 2009 wrote:
I didnt realize the divide in Mexico was so sharp | |
| kennyp, on Sep 22, 2009 wrote:
sounds like the makings for an epic hungover shitty movie marathon. | | Anonymous, on Sep 22, 2009 wrote:
I can stomach things like this much easier than the Alarma! videos where there are real heads on the floor. | |
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| gremlin5, on Sep 22, 2009 wrote:
this is awesome... great find | | Anonymous, on Sep 21, 2009 wrote:
gimme more of that !!!!!!!! | | Anonymous, on Sep 21, 2009 wrote:
oh my god! All I want to do is eat Jorge Reynoso’s hot sauce | | Anonymous, on Sep 21, 2009 wrote:
"La Hummer negra" what a great name for a movie | | Anonymous, on Sep 21, 2009 wrote:
Mario Almada looks like a bad ass. old school mexican gangster | | Anonymous, on Sep 18, 2009 wrote:
Pan’s labyrinth is a Mexican movie. That it’s set on Spain doesn’t mean anything | | Anonymous, on Sep 18, 2009 wrote:
Pan’s Labyrinth is from sapin not mexico!!!! | | Anonymous, on Sep 18, 2009 wrote:
Hey, what about Casi Divas?! It’s not arty but it’s fun. And it even got a release on US theatres. | | Anonymous, on Sep 18, 2009 wrote:
boring article, and what...? | | Anonymous, on Sep 14, 2009 wrote:
I wanna hear some of these narcocorridos...a drug ballad sounds like it would be cool | | Anonymous, on Sep 11, 2009 wrote:
my new favorite genre: Mexican Narcotic Films | |
| thedon, on Sep 10, 2009 wrote:
wow, that guys been in over a 1000 movies. must be hard keeping them straight, if he even can. | | |
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