Review of Cocaine Cowboys (2006) by Mike S — 07 Dec 2011

Very gripping account of the history of the drug trade, and how it transformed the U.S into a crime-infested war zone. Centered around interviews with some of the pivotal names behind the killings and smuggling, we get a shocking inside-look into the minds and events that got it all started.

What's scarier yet though, is that many of these cold-blooded murderers and morally depraved criminals, bear the faces of ordinary people, that you'd never imagine to be taking lives for a living.

Such as the reign of the "The Godmother" - a Colombian woman who for a while ruled the underworld for the Medellín Cartel. A truly despicable human being, who would send assassins to murder children, for the simple reason that they belonged to a rivalling family.

Or as in the case with one of her hitmen, Jorge "Rivi" Ayala, who brags in the interviews about the countless killings he did for The Godmother. It left me with a bad feeling in the stomach, just hearing about the sick and evil atrocities of these heartless monsters.

In spite of this though, I was thoroughly compelled by the stories shared with us. It dispels a lot of the illusions created by Hollywood and popular media, while at the same unveiling that sometimes reality transcends the fictional.

A truly horrifying exposé, but also brilliantly constructed and compellingly absorbing. A word of warning for those planning to see this though: the imagery of this film is at times extremely gruesome and disturbing.

So much to the point that I would label it as snuff. If you can endure that, however, then I can highly recommend this very thought-provoking and emotionally stirring documentary.