The Two Escobars

Rarely has a film drawn me in this completely. From the moment it began, I was transfixed by the story of Pablo and Andres Escobar as well as their home country of Colombia. The filmmakers refusal to demonize Pablo (although he certainly did some horrible things) is impressive and it never fully lionizes Andres, either, which keeps it from devolving into soft-focus, sugar-coated BS. When the "own goal" arrives, the stakes are drawn so clearly and are so unbelievably high, it's almost unbearable.

One of the top 3 of the 30 For 30 sports documentary series (along with The U and June 17, 1994). In googling it I found one reviewer that didn't care for it because he had to read subtitles. Seriously? Ok, if you have a brain and a heart, you don't even have to be a soccer fan, watch this film. If you "don't like reading subtitles" go watch I dunno, Spider-man or something.

So the link between the two may be a little flimsy but this documentary manages to give decent overall coverage of both stories and how they came to intertwine. It's not perfect (e.g. failing to mention that most of the Colombian players who 'quit' the game returned almost immediately) but it keeps you interested throughout, has a good mixture of contributors and after years of rumour and speculation it's nice to get a definitive answer about the exact circumstances surrounding Anders' murder.

Exceptionally well crafted. The stories weave together in a totally logical fashion although the full impact isn't really recognized until the end even though we all know how it ends. The interviews do a marvelous job of narrating the story and the quality of footage they were able to find from the time period adds a lot to this show. Highly recommended.

Soccer is boring.

This could've lost 30 minutes easily and the incessant background music drone me to distraction but it's riveting stuff nonetheless as it's pretty recent history

A great documentary.

Very interesting documentary of a truly tragic story. The makers do an excellent job of knitting the two stories together into a fantastic narrative.

As a Colombian, it was hard as shit not to burst into tears multiple times throughout The Two Escobars. As a fan of informative, fervent documentaries, it was all too easy to be impressed with this incredible composition of two very seemingly different stories. I'll remember this one forever.

The Two Escobars is the second best 30 for 30 (its superior being the immaculate June 17th, 1994) despite not really being about sports. But then again, June 17th wasn't either -- whereas that one was about media perspectives, this one is about national identity. A link between both is that sports act as a filter to our society and, by extension, our problems. And yet in both cases, when the filter breaks, all hell breaks loose with it.