'Narcos' director José Padilha: Pablo Escobar was the Al Capone of Colombia
The new Netflix series
set in the 1980s, tells the story of how the cocaine trade emerged from Chile, migrated to Colombia and arrived on the shores of the U.S. to be greeted by the likes of Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No" campaign.
The character of an American DEA agent based in Colombia serves as a narrator leading us through the story, but the anti-hero at the heart of the film is drug lord Pablo Escobar with his Medellin Cartel. While the DEA agent and other Americans speak English in the show, Escobar and his fellow Colombians speak Spanish. This makes "Narcos" the first bilingual show on Netflix. Ironically, Wagner Moura, the actor playing Escobar, is Brazilian, so he had to learn Spanish to play the part.
The director of the first two episodes of “Narcos” and one of the show’s producers is the Brazilian filmmaker José Padilha. He and Moura had worked together on Padilha's films “Elite Squad” and “Elite Squad 2.”
Before those movies became massive hits in Brazil, Padilha made his name as a documentarian. Most recently he directed the reboot of “Robocop.” "Narcos” Aug. 28.
Below are some of the highlights from the Frame's John Horn's conversation with Padilha, who insisted the show be shot on location in Colombia and that it be in both Spanish and English.
Interview highlights
PABLO ESCOBAR AS COMPELLING CHARACTER
Escobar to me — I mean, apart from being a mythical drug dealer and a mythical figure — he was a small-time criminal who was, at the same time, a sociopath, psychopath guy, for sure, and a megalomaniac.
And what's ironic is that by chance he ran into cocaine, that he made so much money, so fast that he's been one of the megalomaniacs in the world that really became what he thought he should become. It's like a megalomaniac that managed to accomplish what he wanted. And that fed him. You know, he wanted to be the president of Colombia. There was no limit for Pablo Escobar. That's what makes him such an incredible character for a series.
WHY SHOOT ON LOCATION IN COLOMBIA
First of all, I'm a documentary filmmaker. I like shooting in locations. And my movies that I did, "Elite Squad" and "Elite Squad 2," were shot on locations. I wanted to go there and capture the real feel of Colombia. You just cannot simulate Colombia. It's such a peculiar country with the Andes, with jungles, with cities like Cartagena. You just can't do that.
And so we went to Netflix and we said, one, shoot in Colombia. And two, we don't want to go to stages. We want to do a location-based TV series, which is crazy. Most TV series are studio-based, just because you have to do that so quickly. And so Netflix to my surprise said, "That's great, let's do that."
WHY HE WANTED TO MAKE THE SHOW IN SPANISH AND ENGLISH
And then the other thing I really wanted was for the Latino characters to speak to each other in Spanish. So we would actually have a bilingual show that emulated what actually happened down there, with American police officers and embassy people talking to each other in English and drug dealers and policemen talking to each other in Spanish. And again Netflix says, "Great, let's do that!" So we got two of the key things we wanted from the get-go. It really helped me, because I was able to cast great American actors, but also great Latino actors.
We have actors in the show, like Wagner Moura is Brazilian. We have Mexican actors. We have Colombian actors, Chile. We got people from all over Latin America. We've a great cast; as director of episodes 1 and 2, it was a dream come true.
THE TRUTHS AND MYTHS OF PABLO ESCOBAR
The first mythology we need to dispel is that people like Pablo Escobar in Colombia and in Latin America in general, and they don't. Actually, they hate Pablo Escobar with a passion more than anyone hates him anywhere else. Pablo Escobar put a bomb a day in Colombia — terrorized the people who lived there. He brought a plane down with a bomb to kill one person that he thought was going to be on the plane, and the person wasn't even there. Pablo Escobar is just, to make it very clear, a terrorist — not only a drug dealer.
So people hate him down there. But, having said in Medellin — the city where he's originally from — he built barrios. He built neighborhoods with his own money and gave people houses. In those neighborhoods, people like him.
And once we were there for scouting purposes and we were looking at the locations in the neighborhoods and all that, and somebody came down from the slum and told us, "Get out of here. Get your crew and leave fast. Otherwise you guys are going to have a problem." Because they were still loyal to Pablo Escobar, and they knew we were going make a series that was going to be real, and reality doesn't portray Pablo Escobar so well. So they basically kicked us out of there. So there is people who like him.
And also, he is Pablo Escobar. He is maybe the biggest drug dealer of all time. He has this aura. People like famous, powerful individuals, just like the same way America likes Al Capone — "like's" under quotes. I mean "likes" to talk about him and likes to make movies about him — the same thing happens with Pablo Escobar down there in Latin America, you know?
Warner Bros. eyes deal to produce Chinese-language films in China
The last “Iron Man” movie from Disney’s Marvel Studios was co-financed by the Chinese production company DMG Entertainment. But outside of a villain called “The Mandarin” — and a few extra sequences shot with Chinese actors for the version of the movie released in China — “Iron Man 3” was pretty much a very American movie.
Hollywood studios are starting to change course in how they work with Chinese partners. The Wall Street Journal reports today that Warner Bros. — the studio that’s home to Batman and Superman — is in talks to co-finance a slate of movies that will be made in China, in Mandarin, for Chinese audiences.
These so-called “local language productions” have been made before by American studios around the globe but not, apparently, on the scale that Warner Bros. is planning.
Ben Fritz of the Wall Street Journal joins The Frame to explain.
Interview Highlights
How big a market is China and how fast is it growing?
China is the second biggest movie market in the world, but more importantly it's the fastest growing. So far box office this year is up — I believe — 43 percent, which is the kind of number you never see in the U.S. or any other major market. This is despite all the recent economic troubles there. For Hollywood studios who are looking to make more money at the box office, it's the most important place to be.
Historically imported American movies have dominated the box office, but that's not the case this year?
Yeah, that's right. What's interesting is that Chinese movies are finally becoming more popular in China and, in fact, within those box office numbers I cited before what's interesting is that local language production is up 63 percent this year and imported movies are only up 21 percent at the box office. Six of the top 10 movies so far this year have been Chinese movies. Filmmakers there are getting better at making movies that appeal to Chinese audiences.
So Warner Bros. will make movies in Mandarin for a Chinese audience, not to appeal to U.S. audiences, too?
Correct. They want to take more advantage of this fast-growing Chinese box office, but because the government has strict quotas on how many movies can be imported every year, there's not really much more opportunity for Warner Bros. to release more of the movies they make there. So the solution is to form a joint venture where they'll produce more new movies in China that are specifically intended for that audience.
What has the track record been like for other studios attempting to strike film deals with China?
It's been mixed. The good news for these American companies that are partnering with China in the past is that they've gotten a lot more access to the market. A lot of problems have come with it, the "Transformers" movie, for example, made a lot of money in China, but there were also numerous lawsuits against paramount due to, you could generously say, misunderstandings between the studio and the many partners they tried to work with. And of course there have been lots of censorship issues, the more in bed you are with state-backed companies or the government itself, the more you have to deal with the government's views on what's OK and what's not OK to show in your films.
Gardens & Villa converts a warehouse on the L.A. River into the band's home
Just a little bit north of Dodger Stadium, there’s a growing art community on the banks of the Los Angeles River. The neighborhood known as Frogtown has a population of about 7,000 people, and it’s rapidly changing due to the city’s plans to revitalize the river and its surroundings. As longtime residents worry about gentrification and rising real estate prices, the area has become a magnet for artists of all sorts.
Gardens & Villa is an indie rock band from Santa Barbara that found inspiration for its new album, "Music for Dogs," from living in Frogtown. Spurred on by the creative energy of the neighborhood, the band built a compound with a dozen other artists, where they all live and work.
The Frame’s James Kim visited Frogtown and spoke with songwriters Adam Rasmussen and Chris Lynch to find out how the local environment shapes the music of Gardens & Villa.
Interview Highlights:
The members of Gardens & Villa haven't always lived in a warehouse on the Los Angeles River. Before they were in Frogtown, they were living in a warehouse in Glassell Park, a nearby neighborhood in northeast Los Angeles. But then, as Chris Lynch confesses, they were all evicted about a year ago. And thus — Frogtown and a new warehouse.
I feel like we're living in a really inspiring environment. There's not a lot of traditional comforts — we live in a warehouse and we share two showers between 12 people. But all expression, really, is a reflection of where you're at. — Adam Rasmussen
At first, that expression was about the angst and uncertainty that came from being evicted. Their new song, "Paradise," for example, centers on the line, "I'm gonna find my paradise," which Lynch says was almost like a mantra for the band. But then they took a risk and signed a seven-year lease on a warehouse in Frogtown.
Of course, warehouses generally aren't equipped for immediate occupation, so the band had a lot of projects to immediately overcome. First, "there were decades of spider nests and funky, weird, alien bugs," that Lynch had never seen before. Or there was the time they had to spend days scraping up tar to build a working bathroom.
Any question we had, like, "How do you install a toilet," led to a lot of YouTube videos. We just threw it all together and figured everything out. We didn't know how to do anything before we moved in here. We just figured it out. — Chris Lynch
They both list the things they've added to their warehouse home: they got a dog, they set up a disco ball, and sometimes they host roller skate parties. As Lynch puts it: "I think living in a warehouse is like living in a giant blank canvas."
It also helps if that blank canvas is located on a river. As Rasmussen points out: "The water's really peaceful. If I'm ever having a crazy day, I can come down to the river. It takes five to 10 minutes, but I can literally feel a physical change in my body."
But it's about more than just carving out a space for themselves; it's about finding a place within a larger community, one that actively affects the music of Gardens & Villa. Rasmussen remembers that one time he heard some mariachi music drifting in from outside. So he put it in a song.
Towards the end of the record on the song "Happy Times," the mariachi sample actually comes from across the street — it's maybe the best Salvadorian restaurant in East LA, Salvamex, and I heard this beautiful music so I just got my iPhone out and started recording. — Adam Rasmussen
Maybe Gardens & Villa are more active about taking inspiration from their surroundings, but they argue that people's art always reflects their environment — or, as Lynch puts it: "If you're an artist, you're basically a sponge. And if you lock yourself up in your room, you're probably going to make art that reflects isolation, not just mentally but also physiologically. We're constantly absorbing our environments."
A college freshman's introduction to Springsteen's 'Born to Run' and the American Dream
It was September of 1975 and I was in my first semester at the University of Texas. At the first meeting of my American Studies survey class, the professor — a passionate man named Tom Philpott — rushed in and handed out the syllabus. And then he said to ignore what was listed for the first class because we were instead going to listen to what he called the most momentous American rock album ever recorded.
I’d never heard of Bruce Springsteen, much less “Born to Run.” I had been raised in a household where my older brothers played only R&B. But then Professor Philpott played the Springsteen song, "Jungleland," and said no one had ever written more eloquently about the American Dream.
I listened half-heartedly until Clarence Cleamons’ sax solo came in — and then I was hooked. I could hear the American Dream, beckoning and warning. And I took my stand, down in Jungleland.