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TWO
FILMS PERSONALIZE THE "WAR ON DRUGS"
 When A
Man Apart begins, Sean Vetter (played by Vin
Diesel) informs us that the border between México and
the United States is 5,000 miles long, separated by a 15 foot
fence, yet an average of 20 tons of cocaine goes across monthly
into the world's largest market of cocaine consumers. Vetter
not only ignores the Río Grande in his voiceover but
also the larger context as the story unfolds. Instead, we first
observe his group of "gangbangers" aiding the Mexican
police in arresting Memo Lucero (played by Geno Silva) and
his entourage after tracking them down for seven years. Lucero
(who resembles Fernando Rey in the 1971 film The
French Connection) is whisked across the border
and convicted, and then is incarcerated for two life sentences
at a federal prison. The gangbangers evidently were petty drug
dealers at one time, served their time, and now work undercover
for the Drug Enforcement Administration as a hardened and muscular "mod
squad." While in prison, Lucero sends a hired gun to kill
Vetter and/or his wife Stacy (played by Jacqueline Obradors),
and she dies in Vetter's arms at their Zuma Beach pad. Continuing
as an undercover agent, Vetter arranges to buy a large shipment
of cocaine through Jack Slayton (played by Timothy Olyphant),
a Hollywood hairdresser. A time for the buy is set up; the
location is a pier at San Pedro harbor. During the transaction,
one of the hairdresser's assistants boasts that he killed a
cop's wife, whereupon Vetter begins to pound him, thereby losing
sight of the drug transaction scam. As a result, several officials
die and DEA suspends Vetter for six months. Without a DEA assignment,
his quest for revenge has no distraction. The imprisonment
of Lucero means that someone will inevitably arise to take
his place; Mateo Santos (played by Juan Fernandez), Lucero's
second or third in command, accordingly emerges, using the
name "El Diablo." To headline his arrival as the
new top druglord, El Diablo ruthlessly kills Lucero's wife
and son. Lucero now wants revenge and puts Vetter on the trail
of El Diablo in exchange for having Vetter request a transfer
to another prison. El Diablo indeed is put out of business,
but Lucero escapes during the transfer, returning to his home
at the headquarters of the cocaine cartel in Colombia.
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Vetter
tracks again Lucero down, and he presumably is arrested
for the second time after a display of gunfire. Or is he?
At the end of the film, Vetter is at the grave of his former
wife. While filmviewers should draw the obvious conclusion
that the drug trade cannot be stopped so long as there
is an enormous market in the United States, the hero of
the film cannot get over his personal loss, all because
he insisted on playing the role of macho DEA agent instead
of choosing an occupation with more security for his family.
Directed by F. Gary Gray, A Man Apart exploits
themes from much more profound films, notably Traffic (2000)
and Blow (2001),
and then loses track of them by developing the character
of an egocentric fool who is consumed with guilt, revenge,
and self-pity. MH
 Gun
battles in the rainy Panamanian jungle bewilder the filmviewer
in Basic, directed by John McTiernan.
Who is fighting whom over what? Perhaps a second screening
will be required to answer the puzzle over the plot, but
lost is an excellent opportunity to present a contemporary
version of the 1950 classic Rashomon.
Instead, the ending is such a variation on U
Turn (1977) that few in the audience will
care what is true or false about all the corrupt, insincere,
cover-your-ass characters. Anyway, something went wrong
in the jungle. Ranger Sergeant Nathan West (played by
Samuel L. Jackson), who commands his recruits in impossible
weather,
presumably dies along with some members of his squad,
while the rest shoot at each other for no apparent reason.
Accordingly,
base commander Colonel Bill Styles (played by Tim Daly)
assigns two persons the task of debriefing the surviving
participants and then providing a coherent report on
what happened. They are Tom Hardy (played by John Travolta),
an alcoholic former Ranger and current Drug Enforcement
Agency official in Panamá City, and Captain Julia
Osborne (played by Connie Nielsen), head of the base's
military police. Flashbacks to the battle by the survivors
further confuse the narrative, as those interrogated
have differing versions of the events. Since there is
plenty
of money to be made in the drug trade, filmviewers may
suspect that there is an obvious motive behind the mystery--greed.
The only one who is left out of the cabal is Osborne,
and she is neutralized at the end of the film. But so
is the
audience, which will feel duped when big stars are unable
to shine in a cinematic black hole. MH
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