Narco Cultura (2013) - Shaul Schwarz

Shaul Schwarz' Narco Cultura takes a look at the growing number of Mexicans and Latinos who glorfiy the narcotic trafficing lifestyle in America, follwing one such musician who praises these traffickers as a model for success.  Justaposing the story of these young muscians who glorify drug traffickers with the real horror drugs cause in Juarez, Mexico, Narco Cultura is an effective portrait of the horrors the drug trade brings, being told in a relatiely unique way.  While juxtaposition of the glorification of the drug trade in youth culture with the violence and death it brings is a unique narrative device, Narco Cultura grows more and more taxing as it progresses, not having anything new to say, in what amounts to the film spinning its wheels of despair in a cycular way that grows old for the viewer.  One of the most important attributes of a documentary is its ability to give its viewers perspective into its subject,  and Narco Cultura excels in this area, capturing the constant state of fear, violence, and death that plagues the Mexican bordertown of Juarez, Mexico, a major hub for the international drug trade.  The perspective Narco Cultura gives into the Criminal Investigator was one of the more poignant aspects of the film, a man who cannot leave his home for safer pastors, intent on doing his job.  The film exposes how even the good men are just part of much bigger system of corruption, a shattered system that needs a major overall.  While Narco Cultura doesn't hae much to say that hasn't already been said, the film is a rather exhaustive expose into the drug trade.  

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