Drug smugglers against the law
Bakang Israel | Friday October 14, 2016 16:51
This genre has produced epic blockbusters before such as Snitch, The Last Stand, Scarface and New Jack City, which propelled many greats like Dwayne Johnson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Al Pacino and Wesley Snipes respectively just to name a few among others. Recently cinemas cashed-in on this special genre as The Infiltrator brought action of illicit deeds treating enthusiasts at cinema to a dramatic true story that delights with cartel crime and fear. This film actually portrays one of history’s biggest seizures and the devastating choke hold drugs have on South America. The Infiltrator is based on the autobiography of the same name by Robert Mazur, a US Customs special agent, who in the 1980s helped bust Pablo Escobar’s money-laundering organisation.
In this one viewers get treated to Federal agent Robert ‘Bob’ Mazur (Bryan Cranston) going deep undercover to infiltrate Pablo Escobar’s drug trafficking that is plaguing the nation in 1986 by posing as slick, money-laundering businessman, Bob Musella. Teamed with impulsive and streetwise fellow agent, Emir Abreu and rookie agent posing as his fiancé Kathy Ertz Mazur befriends Escobar’s top lieutenant Roberto Alcaino. Navigating a vicious criminal network in which the slightest slip-up could cost him his life, Mazur risks it all building a case that leads to indictments of 85 drug lords and the corrupt bankers who cleaned their dirty money, along with the collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, one of the largest money-laundering banks in the world.
This film is very stimulating because of the catchy title, secondly for its array of a star-studded cast including Cranston fondly known for his drug dealing role in the television hit series Breaking Bad. In that series Cranston captivated masses by disguising as a science professor who cooked and distributed drugs. Such antics drew hordes of fanatics and critics to this latest rendition to witness what the versatile actor had in store for The Infiltrator. Watching this one realises why customs and airport security is so tight and seems to be the inspiration behind DStv shows like Boarder Security or How To Catch A Smuggler shows on CBS Reality. Seemingly so, the production did not disappoint, this can also be credited to the young director, Brad Furman who painted a good picture of the sinful smuggling underworld.
Furman is not a big-time Hollywood heavyweight director as this project seemed like his biggest star-studded production. Drug abuse and trafficking trade has many negative social impacts on countries. It yields a lot of corruption as it involves a lot of people from those directly involved in the trade suppliers, chemists, transporters, smugglers, as well as those involved indirectly in the trade such as politicians, bankers, police and so forth.
Action
The movie is eloquently paced as it immediately starts with displaying some of the behaviour of the unlawful drug world and maintains momentum of a nervy feeling all the way. This is because The Infiltrator also encapsulates information espionage amongst other elements as we see snitches or informants at the heart of every move drug dealers and law enforcers make. Also for instance, the film is very delightfully deceptive because cops and robbers drink from the same cup so the intricacy of who is who then becomes a marvel. This movie is also made charming by the fact that it has a sense of South America as there are moments the language changes to Spanish treating enthusiasts to that raw dealing atmosphere. Speaking of drug lord atmosphere the movie is very informative as it shows us why these culprits are the most feared when it comes to crime.
Brad Furman did try to paint a clear picture of why Escobar is touted as one of the godfathers of crime in the sense that, The Infiltrator shows us a command structure of the cartel and how difficult it is to penetrate from the outside to reach to the actual head of the cartel.
Not only that but also the nature in which drug money is cleaned of all bad deeds and reserved. I enjoyed this film because of that lecture on the background history of smuggling criminal activity. In today’s television shows we always see drug traffickers trying to deceive customs agents by smuggling drug pellets consumed in their stomach, well this takes us to where and how this crime started. The action is also just good and catalyst to the tense nervy emotion enthusiasts go through when watching the lead actor, Cranston’s undercover exploits as Ben Mazur.
Action highlights include informants being slaughtered, people being hijacked and attempted assassinations by Escobar’s Medellin Cartel lieutenant Roberto Alcaino (Benjamin Bratt). The film only captured a tip of history’s fiercest drug lord. This is because research done by yours truly about Pablo Escobar painted him in this manner “One of the most notorious drug lords ever was Colombia’s Pablo Escobar. The leader of the Medellin Cartel was dubbed ‘The World’s Greatest Outlaw’”.
Escobar ruthlessly controlled four-fifths of the world’s cocaine market through the 1970s and 1980s by shipping an estimated 15 tonnes of cocaine per day. By 1989, he was the seventh wealthiest man in the world. During his reign of terror, he was responsible for more than 4,000 deaths before he died in 1993 while being chased by Colombian authorities as FBI’s most wanted. Now in this modern era drug lords such as Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman and Ismael Zambada Garcia of Mexico are the ones who are at the moment leading all drug related criminal activity with a reported net-worth of $4 billion. Speaking of which it is jaw dropping and yet funny how drug lords make such enormous chunks of money. This part of their financial aspect also enthralled viewers when Alcaino (Escobar’s commander) confidently alluded to the importance of drug money saying, “The economy is addicted to drugs, if your USA government hadn’t confiscated some of my money your economy would have collapsed”.
This film is fascinating also because of the cinematography. It has that old vintage 1980s decade vibe and also the sound is provoking as it yields anticipation. The Infiltrator serves its biography states well as it transmits themes of corruption drug trafficking, money laundering, crime, trust, justice and family amongst others of the time. As a viewer one can feel the remorse from what Escobar and Mazur’s families went through during this operation.
Quotes from the movie
Roberto Alcaino (Bejamin Pratt) - Cartel always wins, the scores are cartel 100 and customs 00
Robert Mazur (Bryan Cranston) - I need to know if he is on my side, shouldn’t get me killed
NEWSFLASH - If you love biographies, be on the lookout for All Eyes On Me, another hip-hop true story like Straight Outta Compton. This one is about the life and legacy of Tupac Shakur, including his rise to super-stardom as a hip-hop artist and actor, as well as his imprisonment and prolific, controversial time at Death Row Records. The film looks cool as it stars Demetrius Shipp, Jr. who looks just like Tupac and also doppelgangers of Notorious BIG and Faith Evans. It is up for release in November.
Reception
The Infiltrator at the box office chart with sales of $5 million on its preview weekend. Also according to box office the film has gone on to gross $16 million and that is not impressive looking at the film’s $28 million production budget.
Top five movies in the world currently
1. The Girl on the Train
2. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
3. Deepwater Horizon
4. The Magnificent Seven
5. Storks
Ratings
This is an engaging experience that stimulates the imagination throughout. It kept one’s concentration levels abuzz digesting what actually happens in the smuggling world. I rate it a stunning seven out of 10.
Movie: The Infiltrator
Genre: Drama, Biography
Duration: 2 hour 7mins
Age Restriction: PG13
Release Date: September 23, 2016
Director: Brad Furman
Main Stars: Bryan Cranston leads (Robert Mazur), Benjamin Bratt (Roberto Alcaino) Diane Kruger (Kathy Ertz) and John Leguizamo (Emir Abreu)