Product Details

• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Nat'l Geographic Vid
• DVD Release Date: January 16, 2007
• Run Time: 53 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000J10F82
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #52,684 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

WORLD'S MOST DANGEROUS GANG - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Forget what you know about other gangs and take a serious look at this menace to society, June 22, 2007

By 

Kyle Tolle (Phoenix, Arizona USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: National Geographic - World's Most Dangerous Gang (DVD)

You've probably heard about high profile gangs that make up some of the American landscape and those would include some like the Crips, Bloods, Hell's Angels, Mexican Mafia, The Latin Kings, Chinese Triads, Japanese Yakuza, and Skinheads. These are just a few and they are all notorious in their own right but there is an even more insidious gang that is growing at a frightful rate on a global scale.

In the 1980's in Los Angeles, the gang MS -13 came from humble beginnings but now spreads across 33 different states in America and 6 different countries around the world. The estimated numbers are ten thousand members in the United States and up to one hundred thousand worldwide. It seems like virtually no communities are left untouched by their presence as they expand like a plague through urban and rural settings.

MS -13 is touted as the fastest growing and most violent gang in America at the present time. They have their own culture and abide by a set of rules and rituals that they follow to the letter. Enforcing these measures, protecting their turf, and conducting day to day business oftentimes means using murder, maiming, and other brutalities to accomplish whatever they need to. They are made up of individual cliques inside distinct territories that govern themselves but there is evidence of a top hierarchy that has influences down through the ranks. Organization in criminal activities appears to be well structured also and money is made from drug smuggling and dealing, extorting protection money, gun running, and other illicit affairs.

National Geographic has put together a detailed, informative, and scary documentary that is well supported with interviews from law enforcement officials and past and present members of the MS -13 gang. This program does contain graphic video footage and some disturbing images but it is not excessive in my opinion and I see it as a necessary element in supporting the overall messages here.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive, a bit of everything for everyone, August 29, 2009

By 

Pork Chop (Lisbon, Portugal) - See all my reviews

This review is from: National Geographic - World's Most Dangerous Gang (DVD)

WORLD'S MOST IMPORTANT GANG (2006), referring to MS13 or Mara
Salvatrucha, is a valid documentary, that seems to have been a
maverick project, on a shoe string budget for National Geographic.

It's pleasant to watch, from a wide-screen, sharp filming quality
throughout, and also with the surreal footage of actual
neighborhood gangster driving around their block and giving a tour
to the reporter, and commenting on their protection racket, how
hotdog and fries, Mom and Pop stores have to cough up half of their
profits to them, or how amphetamines are big business and
contribute to a lot of profits.

A fair bit of time is spent dispelling the notion that it is safe
to be a stool pigeon for the FBI, and so on, as it tells the
biography of a former member who tried to leave the movement, but
naively, wrecklessly and clumsily got caught by other gangsters as
being a confidential informant.

It's very comprehensive, and the MS13 aspect to it, doesn't
necessarily dominate, as the extras section discusses the history
behind gangs and goes over a litany of them, such as Al Capone,
Lucy Lucciano, Jesse James, 40 Thieves, 5 Points Gang of NYC,
Bloods, Crips, Latin Kings, Vice Lords, Outlaws (Biker gang in the
Great Lakes area), Hells Angles, Los Reinos, 18 Street, Mexican M,
Skinheads, Asian Triads, Camorra, La Cosa Nostra, Genovese, Black
Hand, Yakuza, Gangster Disciples, People's Nation, Folk Nation,
Bugsy Siegel, Oriental Lazy Boys, and more. It refers to the
National Gang Intelligence Center, and various measures in dealing
with gangs.

It also is admittedly apologetic, about gangs, in terms of their
value in assisting migrants, illegal and legal, in adapting to the
new homeland, for protection against discrimination, identity and
power and social networking. Various examples are given, such as
the Irish, Mexican, Sicilian or Italian, Asian, Blacks, Porto
Rican, and others, for example.

Overall, it's valuable as a school-grade presentation, mostly.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre film backed by poor journalism, December 8, 2010

By 

tony s - See all my reviews

This review is from: National Geographic - World's Most Dangerous Gang (DVD)

I have to agree with some of the comments made by other reviewers that posted negative feedback. I found this film to be an embarrassment to Nat'l Geographic's prestigious reputation. Several claims and ascertains are posed but are supported with absolutely no evidence. I'd describe this film as sensationalized, not a serious piece of journalism. The tone of the film is bogged down by persistent and repetitive fear mongering, which detracts significantly from the potential of the film. A great portion of the filming time was used to repeatedly describe MS 13 as something to fear, a menace, a quickly spreading "virus" that's quickly spreading across the country to your city and your neighborhood. It seems as though the filmmaker's target audience is middle-aged suburban Americans. I feel as though NG could have produced an equally informative film in half the time if they omitted all the noise about being very, very afraid.