° www. comunicacionymedios.uchile.cl 106 Comunicación y Medios N 37 (2018)
Political Visuality of Latin America in Narcos: a te- levision style analysis Visualidad política de América Latina en Narcos: un aná- lisis a través del estilo televisivo
Simone Rocha Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brasil [email protected]
Abstract Resumen From the theoretical approach of the visual stu- Desde la fundamentación teórica ofrecida por dies articulated with television style analysis, I los estudios visuales articulados al análisis del intend to analyze visualities of Latin America estilo televisivo, propongo analizar visualidades and historical events on the contemporary drug de América Latina y de eventos históricos que problem exhibited in the first season of Narcos tratan la problemática contemporánea de las (Netflix, 2015). Based on the primary meaning drogas exhibidas en la primera temporada de established by the producers, it is possible to Narcos (Netflix, 2015). A partir de la identifica- understand the complex relationships between ción del sentido tutor, definido por los realizado- crime, economy, formal politics and corruption. res de la serie, es posible captar las complejas relaciones establecidas entre crimen, economía, Keywords política formal y corrupción. Visuality; Narcos; Latin America; Television Style. Palabras clave Visualidad; Narcos; América Latina; estilo tele- visivo.
Received: 10-03-2018/ Accepted: 08-06-2018 / Published: 30-06-2018 DOI: 10.5354/0719-1529.2018.48572 Political Visuality of Latin America in Narcos: a television style analysis 1. Introduction There were four directors in the first season:107 the Brazilians Jose Padilha (episodes 1 and A little over a decade ago audiovisual produc- 2) and Fernando Coimbra (episodes 7 and 8); tions depicting the global issue of drug traffic- the Mexican Guillermo Navarro (3 and 4) and king began making an appearance. The issues the Colombian Andres Baiz (5, 6, 9 and 10). portrayed in these productions dealt with the The series is narrated in the first person by the politics of international relations and how the North American DEA (Drug Enforcement Ad- trade leads to corruption, violence, crime and ministration) agent Steve Murphy, who moved has an overall effect on local society. In confir- to Colombia to fight the growing cocaine tra- mation of this trend, in August of 2015 the digi- de in the US. “We wanted to create a series tal platform Netflix launched the first season of that would interest two audiences, the North the series Narcos, which primarily deals with the American and Latin viewers. The way we found rise, peak and dismantling of the Medellin drug was through the story of the DEA agent” ex- 1 cartel in Colombia. plains Padilha . In this case the narrator was a strategic choice to reach a greater market Most of the series was filmed in Colombia in (over 50% of the US) of Netflix users, given 2014. Having identified the ‘guiding principal’ that a first person narrative is an approach the study proceeded to audio-visually analyze that brings the viewer closer to the narrative, the subject matter, guided by the principals seen through the eyes of a character involved of visuality, and executed as per the struc- in the conflict. ture of studies of television style. The study briefly and critically outlines the first season The story starts in 1973 when cocaine produc- and how it visually represents Latin America tion was located in Chile, and interrupted by and the events surrounding the contemporary Pinochet’s zero tolerance of drug traffickers. drug problem. It also captures the complex re- Escobar, a smuggler at the time, seeing the lationships between crime, economy, politics wide acceptance of the drug in the US, begins and corruption. exporting it in small amounts and, due to the high demand and high profitability, begins to export the drug by the ton, arriving at a lucra- tive peak of 60 million dollars a day. This was how the Medellin Drug Cartel was born, and its 2. Narcos violent and terrifying Modus Operandi became known. Escobar was also deeply involved in po- Narcos is a Netflix production made in alliance litics, eventually becoming a congressman with with Gaumont International Television, the Ame- intentions of running for president of Colombia. rican branch of the French production company Given all that happened prior to being elected GaumontTelevision. The creative team consists a congressman, he is accused by the Minister of Chris Brancato, Carlo Bernard and Doug Miro. of Justice Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, and, from that The executive producers are Eric Newman, Jose moment on, Escobar declares war on the State, Padilha and Chris Brancato. Although it is an starting a period in Colombian history rife with original production, it is important to note that violence, bomb attacks, murder and kidnapping series like this bear a certain structural similarity that led to the coining of the term, narco-terro- to television narratives (Thompson, 2003). Ac- rism. cording to Françoise Jost’s study (2011) televi- sion is an important reference for productions The drug Capo was imprisoned for a time, then on digital media. Analyzing examples of these violated his agreement to surrender to the au- series the author highlights the fact that these thorities made with the President of Colombia, productions are based on the serial narrative of ran and went into hiding. He remained isolated television productions, extracting the best ele- until his capture by the Search Bloc that inclu- ments they have to offer. ded the dubious collaboration of the Cali drug ° Comunicación y Medios N 37 /2018 e-ISSN 0719-1529 S. Rocha 108cartel, and members of the paramilitary group today, in the same manner as language took Los Pepes (persecuted by Pablo Escobar) who on new meaning in the linguistic turn of the were particularly interested in killing him for sixties, that is to say, not only as a central to- multiple reasons. He was executed on the se- pic of a research paper, but also a cultural cha- cond of December, 1993. racteristic (31-32).
As far as the object is concerned, Mitchell’s pro- porsal clarifies a central point. Visual studies is 3. A Visuality Analysis not a field dedicated to the study of images, ra- ther the visual experience of what we see on a The idea behind visual studies, especially that day-to-day basis. In summary, visuality becomes developed by William J. Thomas Mitchell (2009), a subject worth special attention, as it covers all is a displacement of the story and art to focus on the visual practices of ‘seeing’, of how we see culture and visuality, the latter focusing on histo- what we see, under the influence of socio-cul- ric and cultural depictions different to any other tural issues that are indelibly printed on the ex- visual experience. At the center of the concept perience. Mitchell proposes that: 1) to assimilate what he has dubbed a “pictorial turn”, not in the sense According to Brea (2005: 8-9) in the field of vi- of it being a better option than the “linguistic sual studies, visuality is a topic of research com- turn”, rather as a gesture of putting an image to prised of a set of factores processed between a theory, in other words, instead of ready-made operators (textual, mental, imaginary, technical, discourse to describe a picture, start with the bureaucratic and institutional) and the interests visual representation and how the image leads of each representation (of race, gender, class, to cultural and historical aspects; 2) adopt the cultural difference, beliefs and affinities etc.). concept of visuality; 3) analyze the picture (a pic- That is why the act of seeing and doing are re- ture refers to an image, with its corresponding sults of a cultural construction that is both com- support and medium); 4) study the interaction plex and hybrid. between visual and verbal representation throu- gh a composite of the two. The richness of this perspective is in the need to assume a critical position when faced with For Pablo Servio (2014) culture permeates our the myth of visual hegemony and the natu- visual experience in different ways. According ralization of the act of seeing to understand to the author our brain has limited capacity to visual culture and the rules of visuality, in the process information captured through the eyes, words of Mitchell “in a broad sense the cul- meaning that perception becomes selective and tural determination of a visual experience” in this context, the cultural dimension we per- (Servio, 2014: 199). This is what Brea (2005) ceive is such that, to a large extent, we focus on calls the political epistemology of visuality, in specific things, events or people. According to his view, seeing, and the manner in which a him, while neuroscience deals with the physio- person acts as a result of what they see, arti- logical aspects of vision and forms much of the culates with power relations, domination, pri- empirical basis of the visual experience, visuality vilege and control. deals with our experience based on the matrix of inter-subjectivity and the creation of specific For Mitchell, all media is mixed, cinema, co- ways of seeing based on history and culture. Ac- mics, television are the most evident given the cording to Scholhammer (2002) Mitchell was the way they materialize the heterogeneity of the driving force behind the process with his propo- composition of image and text to reflect on sal of a pictorial turn; his the modality in which semiotic and perceptio- nal elements combine. Observing the point at proposal of the idea of how we percieve an which they meet or join is not just a matter image is as a paradigm within human science of formality, that place also begs the question “what the specific forms of heterogeneity mi- Political Visuality of Latin America in Narcos: a television style analysis ght be. Both formal and functional questions with a formal analysis of television style (Butler,109 require historical questions” (Mitchell, 2009: 2010) to broach audiovisual productions and 85). their contextual entanglements. On this analyti- cal path one must build an interpretation of Analytically Mitchell adopts a form that ensures television narrative in the understanding that a the best place to investigate a representation dense cultural terrain supports and nurtures the is the representation itself, the materiality that true complexity of visual representation, its im- gives structure to the combination of image plications and development. and text, and not a theory or discourse that an- ticipates and models said representation. This According to Jeremy Butler style is any techni- prompts a close look at the articulation of visual cal pattern of image/sound that plays a part wi- and textual codes that figure in the visual expe- thin the text “style is their texture, their surface, rience and problematization. the web that holds together their signifiers and through which their signified are communica- The openness resulting from studies into visual ted” (Butler, 2010:15)2. The inspiration comes culture is significant considering just how broad from David Bordwell, erudite of the history of the range of subjects the field covers. For Bar- style in cinema, and for whom style is “the tan- nard (2001: 1-2), they go from “the fine arts or gible texture of the film, the perceptual surface canonic arts to design, cinema, photography, we encounter as we watch and listen, and that advertising, video, television or the Internet”. surface is our point of departure in moving to Mitchell assures that the television medium, like plot, theme, feeling” (2008:32). cinema and theatrical performance and, I would add, the narrative produced for online platfor- In his endeavor Butler presents four analytical ms, present: dimensions: 1) the descriptive that opens the text for analysis; 2) analytics, based on Noel Ca- Actual conjunctions of words and images rroll’s studies on “functional theory of style in (…). In such forms we encounter an image/ the individual film”; 3) valuation and 4) history. In text structure (or resistance to conventions) this analysis focus is on the association between governing the relation of visual and verbal ex- description and function3 to find the purpose perience (Mitchell, 2009: 85). introduced through technical elements – costu- me, staging, photography, framing, sound track, Mitchell proposes a post-linguistic understan- blocking of actors in scene. ding of image, posits that the relation establi- shed between the researcher and the image is Description is the basic step; in order to disuss essential. Before broaching the question of me- style one must be able to describe it. It requi- aning, the researcher must understand, even if res the analyst fully understand what is style only in a figurative sense, that images must be and how it works on television. Semiotics offer seen as animate beings that want or intend to the widest range of tools to make a detailed say something. To move away from questions of description. It’s necessary therefore to find the meaning and power does not mean to abandon stylistic essence in the details of the transmis- procedure inherent to semiotics, hermeneutics sion of sound and image on television. We must or rhetoric. as of necessity “reverse engineer” the texts for full understanding of its style. In this fashion the attention to detail in the work of the writers, directors, director of photography, editors and other professionals that build a television text 4. Methodology must also be applied in its deconstruction. The description of a program is not intended as a To analyze television production, based on the means to replicate it, but to promote analysis. notion of visuality, I propose joining said analysis ° Comunicación y Medios N 37 /2018 e-ISSN 0719-1529 S. Rocha 110 The second step, based on Noel Carroll’s func- was effectively produced, but it does mean un- tional theory of style in film, is intended as a derstanding how some choices on what to show means to detect the purpose of style and its interfere with the visual experience on offer. function in the text. The work of the scholar in question consists in the deconstruction of For Wagner Moura Narcos “(…) is not a series the function of style. By deconstructing it, the about Pablo. It’s a series about the origin of analyst examines how it works within the textual modern drug trafficking and you just can’t talk system – looking for patters in stylistic elements, about that without mentioning Colombia, wi- and, at a more elevated level, the relationships thout talking about the Medellín Cartel”4. Jose between these patterns. Padhil already defines it as a “series on the his- tory of drug trafficking, of cocaine specifically. In accordance with the functional approach to It starts in Chile, moves through Pablo Esco- film form, the form (or style) of an individual bar and heads on to Cali (Colombia). If we did film is the collection of choices whose inten- more seasons it would move all the way on up tion is to materialize the purpose of the film. to Mexico”5. Several other statements in that This approach to the film form is different to vein make it possible to track the guiding princi- the descriptive approach. The descriptive ple as one that considers the history of cocaine maintains that form is the sum total of all the smuggling a global phenomenon, that crosses relations between the elements of a film. The national borders and revolves around internatio- functional states that the film form barely in- nal policies between international governments, cludes the elements and relations intended to but nonetheless it still has a relationship with lo- serve as a medium for the purpose of the film cal institutions and authorities, mafias and the (2003:141). particular realities in each region.
Butler indicates several of the functions of tele- Capturing the underlying subject matter or vision style. Some of these styles are inherited purpose contributed to mapping the historical from film, others he developed for the medium: facts covered in the series, and to choose which denote, express, symbolize, decorate, persua- should be analyzed. In that manner, the corpus de, call or question, differentiate and the mea- consists of the visual representation of two his- ning of “live”. Television style can fulfill several torical facts. of these functions at the same time. Given all the above, Butler maintains that to question, for The first fact relates to the beginnings of the co- the purpose of waking the viewer and capturing caine trade in Colombia as perceived by the US, their attention, is fundamental in any circum- and how this became a domestic problem for stance. the country. To analyze this particular historical fact two sequences from the first episode Des- censo were chosen:
5. Analysis 1)The sequence covering Pablo’s first arrest in 1976, in the city of Medellin which culmi- One of the big challenges of working with te- nates in the photograph of the head of the levision content is in the significant amount cartel when taken in for a drug trafficking of material that one product can yield (Rocha charge. The choice of this particular sequen- & Pucci, 2016: 10). In order to choose what to ce is justified taking into consideration the analyze the guiding principle, or what in the crucial importance the photo will have in the opinion of the production team and cast defines course of the series’ narrative. the series and its subject matter, must be identi- fied. To capture that principle means looking at 2) The sequence covering the first actions Narcos without trying to find a corresponding taken by the US Government when faced by aspect between what was intended and what the advance of cocaine abuse in their coun- Political Visuality of Latin America in Narcos: a television style analysis try, launching a new phase in the war against Gustavo Gaviria, increase production, open 111 drugs. Choosing this sequence is justified in laboratories in the Colombian jungle and be- its importance to the manner in which the gin trafficking through the fleet of an expert Colombian government will drive its own po- marihuana smuggler, Carlos Lehder, as well as licy on drugs, based on its relationship with associating with other Colombian drug traffic- the US Government. kers. On this occasion agent Murphy states: “Pablo’s coke flooded in. It didn’t take long The second historical fact, with scenes and se- for Miami to get addicted”. In these sequen- quences from the chapter The Men of Always, ces the image/text relationship is essentially is the murder of the Colombian Minister of Jus- redundant. tice Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, the person reponsible for publicly revealing Pablo Escobar’s mug shot In this episode we have the first sequence de- to the public after his arrest in Medellin. This picting a historical fact analyzed in the present choice is justified given the Minister’s relevance study; the launch of the cocaine bsiness in Co- in the narrative, for being the one person who lombia. The audience is shown the extent of the shed light on Escobar’s persona as a drug tra- corruption in Colombian institutions; after the fficker, who revealed the acts of the US Govern- police impound 390 kilos of cocaine Pablo goes ment and exposed their political agenda in the to the police station and demands an explana- war on drugs, and who ultimately became one tion from his accomplice the colonel. The poli- of the first victims of assasination at the order of ceman says they need to renegotiate because, Pablo Escobar. with the increase in shipments the value of resa- le increases, and his commission should increase accordingly. Pablo refuses and the colonel incar- cerates Pablo for the first time, in Medellin, in 6. The launch of the business 1976. To give the scene more validity and rele- vance to the narrative (Juagaribe, 2007) the first showing of the picture is the real mug shot from Escobar in the first episode Descenso comes Pablo’s file (Fig. 1). across as an intimidating and overbearing man. When trying to smuggle in a shipment of con- The picture is a closeup of Escobar looking into traband to Colombia, and subsequently sto- the camera with a cynical and derogatory smile, pped by a police squad, he simply states that as though he is utterly unconcerned with what is he controls the entire department in Antoquia happening. On the other hand, in verbal com- and that he is the future president of the Re- munication, the narrator warns “this mug shot public. Escobar gives the police officers two was gonna cause him a lot of grief down the choices: either accept his proposal or assume line”, preparing the viewer for the events that the consequences, phrased as Silver or lead. would come in later episodes. The officers give in to the pressure and Pablo continues on with his shipment. In other words, The articulation between image and text, be- in their first appearance, the Colombian police tween visuality and television style are relevant are portrayed as a fragile and corruptible ins- to the modality of the scene. By considering the titution. picture from a completed situation in which an image, or rather image, support and medium, Descenso also describes the start of the bu- the options available for the construcition of siness as an informal production process that a particular television style have an important will change Medellin for ever. The series de- function, in this case: the choice of a closeup picts the details behind cocaine production that fills the frame that aims to express the per- in laboratories, illegal transport of coca pas- sonality of Pablo Escobar; a overbearing, cynical te from Peru to Colombia and the first stra- and intimidating individual. tegies employed in Cocaine shipments. With the increase in demand Pablo and his partner, ° Comunicación y Medios N 37 /2018 e-ISSN 0719-1529 S. Rocha 112 Figure1: Real picture of Pablo Escobar at his first arrest.
Escobar’s closeup invades the screen, his cy- happened to all of Colombian society who wit- nism causes discomfort and his arrogance is nessed the horror and violance of his actions. such that the capo seems to not care at all Looking at visuality, when discussing how the about the fact the picture is for a police file. brain processes the visual experience Pablo Ser- However, there are cracks and fissures be- vio (2014: 198-199) points out selective percep- tween the narration and the image: both seem tion that, although has its physiological expla- to be directly in opposition of each other. The nation, can be understood in the “perception of first presents a subject that exudes tranqui- a cultural, historical and contextual dimension” lity and calm and a certain distain (laughing that, in large part predisposes the audience to for your mug shot isn’t typical behavior), whi- focus their attention on certain things, people le the narrator warns us that “it wouldn’t be or events. like that” because, the calm and indifference would exact a price: future suffering. Revisiting Brea’s statement, for those who the act of seeing and doing are a result of a It is as if through that crack we can see all cultural constuction that is both complex and the senses inherent to visuality escape, with hybrid, I consider the stylistic options ano- visuality itself dealing with forms of seeing ther layer to the hybridization. In that sense, and showing that fall within the framework of I argue that the articulation between visuality, phenomenological sensoriality, “which never selective perception and television style acts happens in its pure form, only in the conditio- as a truly revealing moment for the storyline, ning and construction of a specific symbolic because it is with this photo in hand that the mold” (Brea, 2005: 6). Minister of Justice moves to unmask Pablo Es- cobar, to denounce him as a drug trafficker, To think of visuality within the context of a te- expel him from congress (and public life), pro- levision series means taking into account said voke the capo to rage and trigger the war on mold. Television has its own forms of hand- the Colombian state, giving rise to narcote- ling resources in favor of configuring a specific rrorism. message. When considering style the use of the closeup interferes and directs the viewers The second sequence analyzed herein, and attention to a determined point: Escobar’s per- which also forms part of the historical facts of sonality. In the end, the suffering mentioned in the beginnings of cocaine trafficking in Colom- the text didn’t happen to just the druglord, it bia, depicts the American war on drugs driven Political Visuality of Latin America in Narcos: a television style analysis by the American government who in turn are family values, and the subsequent corruption 113 driven by influential businessmen that, as Mur- of the young. According to the president phy explains “were terrified the narco economy drugs, “are threating our values and under- would sink the real economy of Miami. Or ma- cutting our institutions”. From here Nancy, ybe they were pissed off that they weren’t get- now in a close up, with a soft and sweet voi- ting a cut”, considering that millions of dollars ce, looks straight into young viewer’s eyes a year were flowing out of the US into Colom- and makes an appeal for life “open your eyes bia. The domestic demand for cocaine drove to life; to see it in the vivid colors that God its foreign production. The relevance of this gave us as a precious gift to His children (…) act also led the producers to include archived when it comes to drugs and alcohol just say images of businessmen meeting with Ronal Re- no” (episode Descenso). agan as well as the president giving a speech on television networks, confirming its veracity Once again in my opinion I think it necessary (Figs. 2 and 3). to recall the articulation between visuality and television style mentioned earlier, to unders- Figure 2: Businessmen in Miami meeting with Reagan. tand the choices made concerning archived footage. In the case of men dressed in tradi- tional suits and ties, contextualized by a narra- tor that presents them as Miami businessmen, followed by the announcements made by the President seated next to his wife; they all evoke a sense of gravity and urgency in the dealing with a certain act. In the television universe it is common consensus that presidential state- ments are made regarding subjects of urgency and relevance, that they are carefully prepared Figure 3: Ronald and Nancy Reagen alert the popula- and configured to convey the true meaning as tion to the threat of drugs. intended by the speaker.
However, in terms of interaction between vi- sual and verbal images I understand that, in this case, the crack is not between two di- mensions of the same picture, but between pictures presented in sequence. In Narcos, in the event that depicts the US government’s actions in the war on drugs, visuality is bet- ter fulfilled in the friction between pictures. This happens because the series evidently presents a darker theory as to why Reagan’s war comes about, especially in the following sequence: 1) what might be considered the Seated next to his wife, on a couch and hol- real reason for the war, in other words, the ding hands, Reagan offers a conservative and economic interests at stake and corporate alarmist speech when he declares, “they are power (an American shot of an oval table su- killing our children”, describing cocaine as “a rrounded by a group of men in ties pressu- threat to our national security”. He demons- ring the president to declare war on drug tra- trates the efforts toward a return to more tra- fficking); and 2) a publicly defendable motive ditional values; his republican discourse rela- for US society where the president and his tes the spread of drug use with deteriorating ° Comunicación y Medios N 37 /2018 e-ISSN 0719-1529 S. Rocha 114 wife appeal to the American public to watch you going to believe all of that American Im- out for their children, drugs are a threat to perialist Propaganda?”. Meanwhile the Minis- their families and will break up their families ter looks over the documents affirming all the and the bonds between parents and children. properties Pablo owns in Colombia and the US, the narrator concludes “and just like that, The archived footage of the speech on natio- an honest man blinked”. nal television, squarely placed in the middle of the frame in a medium shot, Mr. and Mrs. Re- At that moment we discover the concern agan ask the American people to shoulder the over this fact at the American embassy in responsibility of not letting drugs come be- Bogota. The ambassador affirms to the DEA tween them and break down the family unit. agents: “We cannot have Colombia become By appealing straight to camera and stating a narco state. We need to find someone who “our values” and “our institutions” the presi- can prove this guy is a drug dealer”. And in dent looks to include and share the mission this manner, the US defines the drug problem with his fellow Americans. There is no mention as an external problem, to be stopped by of any other geo-economical or political fac- preventing other countries from producing tors that may have led to the issue at hand. it. The agents leave to find the evidence and It is through visuality that we capture certain manage to get a copy of Escobar’s mug shot patterns and shared values that support the from Medellin. imagining of the problem of drugs and how they are presented in this sequence, demons- At a meeting with the North American ambas- trating that “the tension between visual and sador and the DEA agents, Lara Bonilla appears verbal representations cannot be separated with the picture in his hands (fig. 4). from the struggles in cultural policy and politi- cal culture” (Mitchell, 2009: 11). Figure 4: the Minister Lara Bonilla discovers Escobar’s arrest for drug trafficking.
7. The first assassination
The historical facts of the assassination of Minister Lara Bonilla were for the most part narrated in the third episode The Men of Always. Escobar maintained a policy of clien- telism and paternalism and believed that, when he formally entered politics, he could The meeting takes place in a room at the do much more for the poor of Colombia. He American embassy and is depicted in a long placed himself on the side of the poor in the shot to help position the viewer. Agents Mur- struggle against the oligarchs or “the men of phy and Javier Peña are next to the door. Sit- always”. ting across from each are the ambassador and the minister. She seems to be in a comfortable After accepting a deal in the millions Fernan- position as if holding information, and he is le- do Duque acts as Escobar’s representative aning forward as if anxious to know something and seeks out the Minister to present Pablo as important (fig. 5). a good, solid person and philanthropist. Lara Bonilla resists the notion as he has already read in Forbes magazine that he was a druglord. He is then provoked by Duque who says, “are Political Visuality of Latin America in Narcos: a television style analysis Figure 5: meeting between the Minister of Justice and visuality becomes a focus of special attention 115 the American Ambassador in Bogota. which according to Mitchell (2005; 2009), co- rresponds to world view practices that process the way we see what we see, under the agency of sociocultural issues that are in a manner of speaking also imprinted on the experience. Te- levision style clearly maintains a dialogue with form of seeing and these sociocultural issues. By calling Lara Bonilla in for a meeting on Ame- rican soil its feasible to perceive that the pictu- re is a depiction of how the US wants Colombia Americans are on one side, the Colombian is on to adopt their war as their own and unilaterally the other; the solution to the problem on one impose an agenda far removed from the reality side; the cause on the other. The American flag and internal conditions of the country. appears in the background behind Lara Boni- lla who asks how long the Americans have had After announcing their choice, at Pablo’s home the picture in their possession. Immediately fo- Jairo Ortega resigns his seat at Congress to llowing the minister leans back in the high-bac- allow Escobar to step in. The following sequen- ked chair and the following dialogue ensues: ces alternate between Pablo walking through his home with a triumphant expression, and his -Lara Bonilla: and what am I doing here? arrival at Congress at Bogota’s central plaza. -US Ambassador: It’s not America’s role to get involved in other countries’ elections Escobar enters Congress and is greeted by tho- -Lara Bonilla: once again the hand of the United se present, at which the prologue music chimes States remains invisible in at a light and lively pace. As soon as he takes -US Ambassador: your party took money from his seat the music changes to more suspense- Escobar. I should think you’d want to get ahead ful chords. Session is open and the Minister is of this given the floor, who is sitting at the center seat -Lara Bonilla: everyone took money. By the way, at the rostrum. Without preamble he immedia- it’s all American money, so why don’t you take tely addresses the issue of monies flowing from this to the press? drug trafficking and confesses himself guilty of -US Ambassador: it should come from you. turning a blind eye to the donations made to You’re the Minister of Justice (episode The Men his campaign coming from that very source. The of Always) suspenseful music continues and the feeling of tension returns, there are close ups of Escobar Of the image/text relationship in this picture looking visibly uncomfortable with Lara Bonilla’s we note the manner in which the US intends to statements and the scene continues with a me- act in every decision the Colombian authorities dium shot with Escobar looking firm and deci- make regarding the drug trade. The Americans ded (fig. 6). come across as rational agents, efficient, capa- ble of providing information to the Colombian Immediately following the initial statements government and apply pressure when necessary Lara Bonilla accuses everyone by saying: “we to influence what measures should be taken. are a nation of the blind, and in our blindness, we have sold our country to the highest bid- The choices behind this visual construct are der”. While he affirms that: “it’s time for us to relevant given they provide evidence of a open our eyes and to see the light”, he gestures complex network involving technical produc- to a security guard next to him asking him to tion and reproduction instruments, social ins- pull off a red veil hanging over a frame on an titutions, ways of imagining the world and the aisle. The picture is of Pablo’s first arrest – who- presence of an observer/spectator. This is how se importance was already pointed out through ° Comunicación y Medios N 37 /2018 e-ISSN 0719-1529 S. Rocha 116 he stylistic operations of its first appearance in the Minister (fig. 9) and gives him a bulletproof the series – in augmented size, the very same vest and advises him to use it from now on. picture given to him by the North American Am- bassador (fig. 7). -Murphy: I think it might be a good idea for you to wear this until you leave Figures 6 and 7: the minister confronts Escobar and -Lara Bonilla: you feel responsible, is that it? reveals the blown up picture at the house chamber, in -Murphy: Somewhat, yes, sir front of all the congress men and women. - Lara Bonilla: Are you so arrogant to think you had any influence over my actions? That I put my life and the life of my family at risk for American policy objectives? Let me assure you Agent Murphy, outside of providing me with the picture, you did nothing. The deci- sion to speak out was solely mine.
Almost ignoring what was said, Murphy only says:
-Murphy: and I highly advise you to wear this vest, sir -Lara Bonilla: I will accept this vest out of respect for your concern with my we- ll-being. But I would advise you one thing while you remain in Colombia. -Murphy: and what is that? General ruckus explodes while Lara Bonilla -Lara Bonilla: we accept your help, but approaches Escobar to tell him he is not wel- never your condescension. When all this is come at the house, he does not belong there. over, Colombians will be the heroes, and the Escobar says nothing, he gets up, walks to the victims. John Wayne only exists in Hollywood door, turns to the room, and in a frontal me- - Murphy: just wear the vest dium shot stares straight at the Minister. The
soundtrack comes back to suggest a moment Again the Minister reacts in the face of North of tension that is sustained for as long as Esco- American intervention and it is important to bar remains standing and staring at the Minis- note the image/text relationship in which this ter full of hate (fig. 8). reaction takes place.
Figure 8: frontal medium shot of Escobar staring in the If in the previous sequence he is on American Minister’s direction. soil, receiving secret information, here he is inside a Colombian institution receiving advi- ce and protection. Lara Bonilla is in his cabi- net office decorated with important symbols in Colombian history: the flag, and a picture of Simon Bolivar. In this environment Bonilla tries to display a little pizzaz, courage and au- tonomy in relation to certain attitudes and the possible consequences. He tries to impose li- mits on American political action in the war on drugs. The staging and scenario symbolize For his safety Lara Bonilla is appointed the Co- the tension between the politician’s arrogance lombian Ambassador to Czechoslovakia. Two and the policies of the United States, as well weeks out from departure Murphy seeks out as the uncomfortable yet weak reaction from Political Visuality of Latin America in Narcos: a television style analysis the Colombian authorities regarding US inter- emerge from representation and the visual 117 ference. proposal. In a way, the series was capable of narrating the war on drugs, of providing the However, as is the case the colonel’s corruption viewer with a perspective on the political con- Murphy’s performance once again denotes a flicts and disputes surrounding depictions of certain fragility of the Colombian state and, in Latin America, especially Colombia, and its this case the need for American institutions and place in the transnational circumstances brou- agents to step in and offer protection. Otherwi- ght about by the drug trade. se, why couldn’t the bulletproof vest have been offered by an agent with the Colombian Natio- nal Police? Notes 1.http://www.diariodepernambuco.com.br/app/ noticia/viver/2015/08/20/internas_viver,593522/nar- cos-cinco-curiosidades-da-serie-de-jose-padilha-so- 8. Conclusions bre-cartel-de-pablo-escobar.shtml
Although Narcos is not a production created 2. From the original: “style is their texture, their surface, the web that holds together their signifiers for the conventional television audience, the and through which their signifieds are communica- similarities it has with narrative models insti- ted. tuted by television make it possible to subject this fictional narrative to an analysis of televi- 3. Only when a historical analysis requires taking up sion style. Communication media, in particu- all the programs of the same genre to identify pat- lar fictional television, decisively contribute to terns, a critical appraisal is still problematic, as Butler setting the configuration of visuality regimes. acknowledges, due to a lack of specific evaluation pa- The do so paying attention and remaining con- tterns in televistion aesthetics. nected to broader contextual and socio-politi- 4. Available at http://www.adorocinema.com/noti- cal affairs as required by their own objective: cias/series/noticia-114168/ to promote interaction, find commonalities and communicate. 5. Available at http://oglobo.globo.com/cultura/re- vista-da-tv/jose-padilha-diretor-de-tropa-de-elite-ex- In Narcos the context of the 1980s and the plica-trafico-de-cocaina-em-narcos-serie-sobre-pa- political and economic tension of the time blo-escobar-17266382
Bibliographic References.
Barnard, M. (2003) Approaches to understanding visual culture. New York: Palgrave, 2001. Bordwell, D. (2008) Figuras traçadas na luz: a encenação no cinema. Campinas: Papirus. Brea, J. L. (2005) Visual Studies: The epistemology of visuality in the era of globalization. Madrid: Akal EstudiosVisuales. Butler, J.(2010) Television Style. New York: Routledge. Carrol, N. (2003) “Film Form: An Argument for a Functional Theory of Style in the Indi- vidual Film.” En Engaging the Moving Image. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003. Jaguaribe, B. (2007) O choque do real. Rio de Janeiro: Rocco, 2007. Jost, F. (2011) No- vos comportamentos para antigas mídias ou antigos comportamentos para ° Comunicación y Medios N 37 /2018 e-ISSN 0719-1529 S. Rocha 118 novas mídias. Revista Matrizes. São Paulo, 4 (2), jan. – jun, 93-109. Recu- pe- rado de:
About the author
Simone Rocha is an associate proffessor at the Department of Social Communication of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, where she completed her post-doctoral studies (2005). Obtained her Doctorate degree in Communication and Culture at the Federal Uni- versity of Rio de Janeiro (2003). Head of the Research Group Communication and Culture in Televisualities (COMCULT) of the Post-graduate Program in Social Communication/ UFMG.
¿How to quote?
Rocha, S. (2018). El Visualidad política latinoamericana en Narcos: un análisis a tra- vés del estilo televisivo. Comunicación y Medios, 27(37), 106-118. doi:10.5354/0719- 1529.2018.48572
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