Apr 18, 2018
Today’s movie is “The 4th Company” (2016), the Netflix original crime thriller written by Mitzi Vanessa Arreaola and directed in collaboration with Amir Galván Cervera. The film follows Zambrano (Adrian Ladron), a juvenile offender sentenced to Santa Martha prison in 1970s Mexico, who joins the prison American football team and becomes part of the prison’s fourth company, a combination internal enforcement and external criminal organization run by Mexico City’s chief of police.
“The 4th Company” (2016) is set in the same prison in the story, using modern prisoners as extras, to recreate the real story of The Perros in Santa Martha prison. Arreaola and Cervera set out to be as realistic as possible for the story, using great song choices from the time, a mixture of both Mexican and American pop songs, and using great period-specific clips of the various news stories surrounding the actual Perros. A lot of content gets jammed into two hours, using the participation of The Perros in the city’s football league as a consistent backbone to the overall story, including the fall of the chief of police.
However, I found the film to have identity issues, sometimes working against itself. The film begins as a solo film, using Zambrano as our entry into the weird penitentiary world of 1970s Mexico, but then switches when he joins The 4th Company into a more ensemble film, with multiple backstories for various characters presented as quickly as they are resolved, and including the larger football season structure to the narrative. And the film gets really dark, not just with a high body count, but with a hopelessness that derails our commitment to the characters.
The result is a decent film with enough content to be an excellent longer form series, which would allow the viewer time to explore the relationships between the members of the company, or perhaps focus more on Zambrano’s internal struggles, not to mention the relationship between Palafox (Hernán Mendoza) and his daughter, or Combate (Andoni Gracia) and his revolutionary comrades. As it is, there’s too much to focus on to develop a connection with the film.
“The 4th Company” (2016) is a film with an identity crisis, unsure if it’s a football film, a crime film, a redemption tale, or an ensemble thrill-ride. And while it’s possible it could be all of those, it doesn’t seem to do any of them really well. All that being said, the cast puts in great performances, and the film does a great job showing the absolute corruption of the Mexican prison system, one of the worst in the world and for a long time. Sports fans and prison drama fans will enjoy this film, if they can handle the rest of the story that comes along with their particular niche.
Rotten Tomatoes: NR
Metacritic: NR
One Movie Punch: 6.8/10
“The 4th Company” (2016) is rated TV-MA and is currently streaming on Netflix.