The Pablo Escobar story – or aspects of it – has been told many times over the years in feature dramas, documentaries and television series, especially in the hit Netflix series Narcos which reignited interest in the Colombian drug baron. But Killing Escobar takes a fascinating spin on the legend, focussing on the story of a group of mercenaries, led by Scottish ex-SAS man Peter McAleese, and their heavily-armed plot to kill the cartel leader back in the 1980s.
Spoiler alert….they don’t succeed. But then anyone who knows about Escobar (or who has seen any of those numerous programmes) knows that he met his end at the hand of the Colombian National Police in Medellin in late 1993. But that fact takes nothing away from this fascinating film which works both as a careful analysis of the team’s attempt to kill Escobar and also (and perhaps more interestingly) as a story about a fighting Scot whose embrace of violence put him into a situation when he finally had to face up to the demons that had faced all his life.
It is McAleese’s recollections of his upbringing, military past and account of the plot to kill Escobar that is very much at the heart of the film. Other interviews help flesh out the plot, but it is the measured and reflective words from the 78 year-old former SAS operative that provides a real sense of insight about what is was like to be a mercenary.
The film opens with the first of a series of reconstructions of the incident, and while initially these feel a little poorly staged, as the film develops they start to mesh better with the interviews and the fascinating never-seen-before film and photographic footage from the planning of the mission itself.
As the film opens we see an injured McAleese (in reconstruction) crawling through the Colombian jungle as Escobar’s men hunt for him.
This scene sets the story. McAleese recalls his violent upbringing in Glasgow, where his father was a notorious ‘hard man’ and where he followed his example. He finds an outlet for his propensity towards violence by joining the military, training with the SAS and eventually becoming a mercenary in Africa. In 1989 he was approached to train and lead a small team of ex-special forces by the bosses of the Cali Cartel who wanted to take out their dangerous and notorious rival, Pablo Escobar.
Also added to the story are recollections from former soldier Dave Tomkins, who was part of the team and the one who brought McAleese on board; Jorge Salcedo Cabrera, the Cali security chief who acted as liaison; DEA agents Javier Pena and Steve Murphy, and an appropriately terrifying Escobar enforcer named El Nangas. They provide insight into the power Escobar wielded and why the rival cartel wanted him out, though most extraordinary is the footage that Tomkins and his mercenaries shot as they trained for their mission.
The attempted attack on Escobar’s heavily-guarded luxury retreat Hacienda Napoles close to Medellin acts as the natural closing chapter of the film – the entire doc is staged in pretty linear fashion – but at heart the story is how the mission would change McAleese’s life forever. Elderly, infirm and having re-embraced his Catholic faith, he is a man full of regret for past violent episodes and is finally at peace with himself.
UK, 2021, 88mins
Dir: David Whitney
Production: Two Rivers Media, Salon, Millhouse Films
Producers: Mick McAvoy, Nick Taussig, Alan Clements, David Whitney
International sales: Abacus Media Rights
Cinematography: Julian Schwanitz
Editor: Berny McGurk
Music: Charlie Jefferson
