The one thing you dont expect in a documentary about the war on drugs is humour. This is an illicit and illegal trade with bitter gang wars, government crackdowns, betrayals and countless deaths, and yet Wildlands, a Ubisoft created documentary to accompany their upcoming Ghost Recon Wildlands game, has you laughing at several points.
Featuring lengthy interviews with several people who have been deeply involved with drugs on many levels, from trafficking to enforcing the cartels position, and, of course, the US governments attempts to fight back. It could almost be a Hollywood blockbuster, following the smugglers, enforcers, informants, DEA agents, and soldiers, and how their stories interlink and the drug trade feeds off itself. However, instead of a gritty crime drama, its a retrospective documentary on the rise and further rise of the cocaine trade.
Rusty Young acts as the narrator and interviewer throughout, with one of the key inspirations for the documentary being his bestselling book Marching Powder, which chronicles the story of Thomas McFadden. Born in Tanzania but raised in Liverpool, he found himself drawn into drug trafficking, smuggling heroin from Morocco into Europe. However, what makes his story so fascinating is that he found himself incarcerated in Bolivias San Pedro prison.
Thats not what youd expect, with San Pedro a million miles from the stereotypical British prison. Instead of blocks of cells patrolled by guards, this is effectively a small city in its own right, with prisoners having to pay to rent or buy cells, families moving in to live together, finding jobs within the prison, and so on. It sounds bizarrely idyllic, but underneath, theres still the danger, the corruption and the persistent drug trade. Rusty and Thomas actually met while he was still in prison, having created his own business within the walls giving tours to foreign tourists fascinated by this idiosyncratic place.
Its that experience and an almost instant connection that led to Rusty bribing guards in order to stay with Thomas for three months and write his story, and its their almost brotherly relationship thats the jumping off point for the rest of Wildlands.
From there, theres extended interviews with the renowned George Jung, the man who introduced the Medllin cartel to the potential of bringing cocaine into the US and made famous by the film Blow. Much of the rest of the film revolves around the rise and fall of this most famous and influential of organisations.
Though there are still moments of humour throughout the rest of the interviews, theyre undercut by the growing seriousness. This shift in tone is probably where the film is most successful, drawing you in with a surprisingly light tone that helps you want to understand some of these people, before showing you how it can all go south. One particular moment stands out for me, as Rusty calls up one of the few remaining members of the Medellin cartel to check theyre still up for meeting. As he speaks to Popeye, who was one of Pablo Escobars most trusted enforcers and confessed to the murder of over 300 people as he was arrested and sentenced to prison in Colombia, he asks if its OK that he brings a bodyguard with him. Popeye now leads a very different life, but it underscores the danger inherent in this world that Rusty is investigating.
The documentary raises some fascinating problems and poses interesting and challenging questions, both for you the viewer to consider, but also as Rusty talks to the eight people featured in the film. Perhaps the most profound element is the lack of answers. The interviews with those who fought against the drugs trade domestically and abroad, the DEA agents in the US and the Navy SEAL who served throughout South America, have no real solutions to what can be done about the ongoing problem, whether their convictions hold or they see that alternative methods are needed.
The US governments attempt to crack down both domestically and internationally via the War on Drugs might have succeeded in scoring huge drug busts and dismantling or severely weakening various drug cartels, but cutting one head off the hydra does little to stop the beast. Perhaps a better approach would be to try and shift the culture in South America away from seeing cocaine as an easy path to making money, or try to stop people trying and becoming addicted in North America and Europe? Whatever the case, theres no quick fix.
Going into the film, I had no idea how plausible a drug cartel state was, as depicted in Ghost Recon Wildlands. Certainly, the game sensationalises many things about this scenario, with the Santa Blanca cartel very brazenly in control of Bolivia, but theres serious suspicions that the current government of Bolivia is at the very least turning a blind eye to the drugs trade, if not actually supporting it in some ways. Certainly, Bolivian President Evo Morales has embraced the natural cocalero industry, from which cocaine is derived. Unfortunately, Rustys attempts to interview Morales ultimately failed.
Whether youre interested in Ghost Recon Wildlands or not, the Wildlands documentary is a fascinating look into the drugs trade on all levels, told in a compelling and engaging way. If anything, Id have liked the film to be a little longer, relaying even more of the stories, the highs and the lows of those ensnared in the War on Drugs.
Wildlands willbe available on Amazon Prime, iTunes, and Google Play from the 6thMarch.
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Engaging With The War On Drugs In Ubisoft's Wildlands Documentary - TheSixthAxis