I did not intend to write a review of this film, as I am against the romanticized portrayal of the great killers in human history. I went on the principle, dust and oblivion be damned to their memory and not to follow up their remembrance. But today I was on the subway and saw posters advertising this film. It's a box-office hit and I find it creepy how a crime movie is gaining in popularity. On the poster a sexy Sofie Vergara, not at all like the real one, who looked like a fat cook figure from the communal canteen. Sofie's character seems capable of murder, so mysterious and full of nastiness. But in the film the real murderer is romanticized, you really feel sorry for the woman left without three children, that were murdered by hitmen, especially since it's not clear from the film that she killed 200 people, directly or on command, as happened in reality. There are films that make you empathise with the killer and I realised that the problem is not me empathising, because I am still human, it is normal to have feelings of compassion for a person who loses their children, for example, but it is the fault of the film that it melodramatizes an evil character and pulls at the heartstrings of the viewer. You forget with each episode that you're actually watching a woman stained with blood. Narcos, on the other hand, set out to tell Pablo Escobar's story in a somewhat honest way (I don't think I have the guts to watch season three about the Cali cartel anymore) and, as a viewer, you find yourself identifying with cops or members of paramilitary organizations in the annihilation of that killer, you kind of forget your humanity, and you don't stop watching the gruesome episodes, you keep going, because, right, you want to see Escobar taken down.
My point is that these shows do nothing but pull you into a range of feelings that are damaging to your psyche, and that there is a risk that any romanticization of a murderous story (oh, how the pedal is pressed as a staunch family man, Escobar's loving husband and father!) will make you accept evil as natural and justified, because, you see, those heinous crimes were committed by people who were helpless and loving at their core. Nothing more mystifying, these beings, Griselda, Escobar, all cartel members, can be called anything, only human beings not, they lived in a different register, they are anomalies of human nature and that's why I think it's better to dust them off and forget their names.
My point is that these shows do nothing but pull you into a range of feelings that are damaging to your psyche, and that there is a risk that any romanticization of a murderous story (oh, how the pedal is pressed as a staunch family man, Escobar's loving husband and father!) will make you accept evil as natural and justified, because, you see, those heinous crimes were committed by people who were helpless and loving at their core. Nothing more mystifying, these beings, Griselda, Escobar, all cartel members, can be called anything, only human beings not, they lived in a different register, they are anomalies of human nature and that's why I think it's better to dust them off and forget their names.