Poor old Arnie doesn't appear to be having much luck with his post-political acting career revival. After the mediocrity of The Last Stand, in which he took on a bunch of drug smugglers on the Mexican border, he's returning to the screens again this month in Sabotage, another mid-budget action movie in which he takes on Mexican drug cartels. To be fair to Schwarzenegger, the Mexican cartels have become something of a staple for movie villains, no doubt partly on account of the incredible popularity of Breaking Bad. Of course, the real life violence meted out by these drug barons is significantly more brutal and disturbing than anything depicted in movies, reflecting the consequences of illegal drugs - and also the prohibitionist policies which allow the black market to thrive - in a horrific way which films rarely capture. But there are movies out there which take a look at the ins and outs of the drug trade with a level of authenticity and accuracy, and while few of them quite match the same probing depths of TV's The Wire, the following ten films from around the world not only illuminate the brutal nature of the trade but also the often devastating consequences it can have on society at large.
