Does people believe this movie misrepresents Mexico as a country?

Thanks for your post man.

My opinions are very similar to yours. It would seem that here in Mexico, there's a huge subconcious need to hide the reality. We LOVE to believe that we are first world (or at least very close to first world), and we try with all our might to ignore a certain part of our (sad) reality.

Yes, we do have several big cities in our county. Yes, Mexico city has a cultural scene competitive with lots of cities in the world. Yes, Guadalajara is pretty, colorful and relatively non-violent. Yes, Monterrey is rich and has first-class infrastructure. But cities are not the only reality out there.

We live in a country where "pueblo" (town) is a derogative. No one will admit their home "city" to be really a town. That probably stems from the 60's, when the government was trying (very hardly) to convince the whole world (including us) that Mexico was a developed country. Of course, that brought us the 68 olympics plus that-other-thing that I probably shouldn't mention, but that's another story.

While around 50% of the population now lives in a city, we routinely try to forget about the other 50%. That part of the country where people don't have access to potable water, adults have a low stature due to malnutrition, bloody feuds are common, there are no real roads to connect the communities with the cities. That reality is out there, but the majority of us decide to ignore it from out comfort zone.

So, I can only applaud a movie that forces us to look to the people most of us swear don't exist.

muy bien dicho, cabron! I agree with your sentiments 100%.

I mostly agree with you, however, the reality shown in the movie IS exaggerated on purpose.

SPOILER::: SPOILER::::

Benny takes revenge on the celebration of 200 years of independence, killing the local president. In real life, the Bicentenario fest had "Cero Kills". So, in fact, reality was less violent than the movie's depiction of Mexico.

The movie invites us to think but I don't think it is trying to represent someone's reality. It is only telling us a narco story with mexican style.

Well, to answer your original question, no we don't. From our perspective, the whole eccentric image of driving gaudy pick up trucks blaring polka music is spot on. I know people in Mexico want to portray a bougie middle class image, but what we see here in the US are Mexican-"Americans" that reinforce that negative cowboy stereotype. Here in the US, our opinions arent based on what we hear on the news or movies, but what we see on our own streets.

In fact, we see wannabe narcos here all the time. Its really pathetic how some of these guys cross over just to alienate themselves even further by acting like complete idiots, ie: playing loud narco-corrido music on a weeknight, on their cars, snorting coke at children's birthday partirs, etc.
Its actually quite disrespectful. These new wave of immigrants arent the type of mexicans i knew growing up. Theyre very different and more hostile. Its even worse in rich areas in the US since thats were unemployed mexican immigrants stand around looking for jobs.
So you see, Americans see a negative image of Mexico. They see them as trouble makers. Think about it, illegal immigrants post up at rich area gas stations looking for work every morning. Not just suburbs, but areas w/ +$1, 000, 000 homes were affluent people live. Naturally thats going to piss off old rich people. It definately ruins Mexicos image.
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Even other hispanics try to distance themselves from being labeled as Mexican. Every one thinks all Mexicans glorify drug runners, and dealers. So while Mexicans get offended by these stereotypes, your compatriots are creating scandals up north of the border. Im saying this as a pro imigrant hispanic, you can imagine what a conservative american has to say.
By the way, Mexico is listed by US government's watchlist as one of the most dangerous places to travel. The list consists of countries like a Iraq, pakistan, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Haiti, North Korea, etc. The only othrr latin american country listed was Colombia.
So you can see that Mexico's image is as tarnished as could be.

Even though as the one of the songs said, I am a Mexican American, I am fortunate to have grown up in Texas. I do however have many relatives who live in the country of Mexico. I can't speak to what happens with the "Narcos" or with the politicians, but I can tell you that many of my relatives live in fear of the crime they are surrounded by on a day to day basis. In the last few years, I have visited some of my relatives who live in a small "pueblo" which has experienced shootouts on the streets between rival drug gangs. Yes, in the US, we also have these things happening in some of our larger cities, but if you are fortunate, you can sometimes move to different parts of the cities, where you don't have to live with this daily fear. I am the last of my 5 siblings, who is not afraid to travel to Mexico, but I am careful of where I go and try not to be out at night if I am not familiar with the area. Unfortunately, this fear of US citizens to travel to Mexico, has only hurt them even more, since they do not have this additional influx of US dollars coming into Mexico. Lastly, I will say that for all the advantages of living in the US, my relatives in Mexico have a much more "close knit" family way of living, that I only wish we had here.

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I'd say it doesn't spawn much conservancy since it's a Mexican movie. Movies from all over the world take place in the country in which they were made and features intense conflicts. Pretty much every movie portrays their country in a negative light in some way or another.