Why We Need a Sensationalized Bloody Video Game About the Mexican Drug War
Call of Juarez: The Cartel, a game about Mexico's drug war, has been condemned by Mexican politicians as cashing in on tragedy. And that it does -- but maybe it can also get people in the U.S. to pay attention to the deaths of 40,000 people.
Due out next month, Techland's Call of Juarez: The Cartel is a first-person-shooter built around a premise that's been the basis of more movies than I can count: Bad guys (Mexican drug lords, in this case) attack cops in America. Cops then send their baddest guys (one of whom is a gal) to the bad guys' lair to clean it out. Let's call it Dirty Harry Meets The Wild Bunch Meets El Mariachi On The Way To Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia.
We interrupt this game to bring you... reality
The thing that has made this game notable even before its release is ... reality. What were once just absurd Hollywood plot ideas are now a pale imitation of the death and destruction taking place in America's most populous neighbor. In the last five years more than 36,000 people have been killed as a result of drug-related violence. (That is a low estimate. The Mexican government hasn't released a new total in six months.) Many of them murdered in ways too gruesome to even contemplate for long. At least part of the game is set around Ciudad Juarez, which averaged eight murders a day last year.
So it's totally understandable that the game has prompted a lot of anger in Mexico. The Juarez state legislature passed a bill asking the national government to ban the game. And, as Congressman Ricardo Boone Salmon's comments make clear, this is neither hysteria or grandstanding:
It is true there is a serious crime situation, which we are not trying to hide.... But we also should not expose children to this kind of scenarios so that they are going to grow up with this kind of image and lack of values.Despite the war's staggering brutality, it has not made much of an impact on the American psyche. Certainly once you get away from the border states, news of people being killed in Mexico at best elicits a response of "isn't that a shame."
Maybe Call of Juarez is just what the American people and media need to get us to pay attention. The phrase "drug war" really doesn't do justice to the situation there. A friend who has a deep knowledge of law enforcement says Mexico is on the verge of becoming a failed state. Despite this we get far more news about violence in Baghdad or Afghanistan than about Mexico.
So hoorah for Call of Juarez. Let it generate as much controversy and outrage as it can. Publisher Ubisoft will cry all the way to the bank, I'm sure. And the game is appropriately gory. The UK has ruled buyers must be at least 15 because of "frequent strong language, bloody violence and sexualized nudity." (Oddly, you can't apply the bloody violence to the cause of the sexualized nudity. As one reviewer noted: "Shooting [strippers] in the strip joint leads to mission over.")
Bring on the virtual violence. Maybe then we'll pay attention to the real thing.
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