(Spoiler alert: This review contains commentary on the entire film. While the film lacks the twists of a fictional movie, if you want to experience the film without knowledge of the events please do not read.)
ESPN has raised the bar for sports documentaries with their 30 for 30 series. Rather than simply covering great athletes and well known sporting events, the series has detailed less popular stories or illuminated the story behind the biggest moments in sports over the past 30 years. Jeff and Michael Zimbalist's The Two Escobars may be the best 30 for 30 film to date.
The film tells the story of what is known as "narco-soccer." The term derives from a period in Colombia's history when the cocaine kingpins used soccer clubs to launder their money. Of all the drug lords, none was more influential than Pablo Escobar.
Pablo Escobar makes for a compelling character. Depending on who is being interviewed, he is portrayed as a ruthless murder or a Robin Hood-type hero to the poor. This dichotomy would easily justify him as being both Escobars, as referred to in the title.<...
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‘Life Doesn’t End Here’: A Review of ‘The Two Escobars’
On June - 23 - 2010