First Hit: An eye-opening timely film about the Mexico United States border drama.
This is a film about two different issues: How the drug cartels in Mexico are taking over towns and intimidating the local citizens. Then there is the story on the Arizona side of the border and how citizens are out there protecting the area from the influx of Mexicans coming across the border illegally.
In the first story citizens want to take back their town by following a group, led by an MD, that is going out and arresting drug cartel members. This story gets worse as the government gets involved and we begin to see how the more things try to change, the more they stay the same. In the other part of the story, a vet who turned his own life around believes, with this friends, that he is saving the USA from influx of drugs and illegals coming across the border. He does his best to work with the US government but in reality he’s out there doing this thing. I would have liked more integration of the two stories, or separate the stories and make two films; both are interesting.
Matthew Heineman directed this film and some of the camera work during the raids on cartel personnel was fantastic. There are no holds barred as citizens walk up and hit the captured cartel members.
Overall: This was a very interesting film reflecting the conflicts below and above the US border.