What was the point?

The point of the movie can be summarised by what Brad Pitt's character said about snuff films saying that by watching one you are an accomplice to that murder (because if there was no market for it there would be none made).

And there's a scene in the end where Fassbender's character sees all the affected families protesting against the murders of loved ones commited by the cartel, a organisation Fassbender helped finance and therefor was partially responsible for not only his fiancees murder but all of their victims (to a degree). But he didn't realise that until that point because he was used to his lush lifestyle in a fancy villa.

So basically the point of the movie is that everything you do has an effect on the people around you, so you need to be careful.

Death to mainstream cinema!

Well, I see some people say that the film did not have any structure and at first I taught the same and was a bit confused and disappointed. But I think that this was intentional and a very good move from the filmmakers.

You see, a lot of criminal movies show us the criminal world and explain in detail who is connected to who, who is the main boss, who is the assassin, who is the small drug dealer ... everyone has a label and you see the big picture, BUT live is not like that. If you get involved in this world then you only see what a small part of the people involved tell you (most of this are stories like the Javier Bardem's character is telling) and you don't know who is connected to who and there is no clear structure.

This is the whole point of the movie - the counsellor comes from a world that has some clear rules, he expects that he can reason with the cartel and explain himself, that he got involved just a bit in the crimes and is not part of the violence, just provides legal advice and is involved in a higher level (financial), BUT again what he misses is that this is another world. And Brad Pitt's character tried to warn him a few times. He says that he can not imagine what the cartel is capable of. It is a different world. In this world there is no structure and even the big players can lose without warning. In this world you can pay with your life very quickly and as we saw you can pay with something even more valuable - not your life, but the life of innocent people like the counsellor's wife. You end up with that grief and this is the result of the world that you created, there is no turning back, you made the choice a long time ago and you went down that road. Once you crossed the line you are in a different world with different rules and sometimes even ... no rules at all. Like the "passenger" in the truck - he is just there, because THEY think it is funny.

And people will continue to ask "but why this", "why that" and they still miss the point that like the guy on the phone call said - he has a few more phone calls to make and then probably take a nap. So for him all these stories and peoples lives and fate is just a phone conversation, business as usual. He has one call after another. The counsellor thinks he is special and asks if they can meet and discuss - and the guy says - we are doing this now. In this game you are not special, you are a small piece of the game and you can be removed easily. For the counsellor this is all - his live, the live of his wife, everything, for the cartel it is a 5 minute conversation on the phone, that even was not needed. They have hundreds of these calls every month probably. I hope now you get the picture.