It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning Since President Nixon announced a crackdown in the early 1970s, the 'War on Drugs' has been probably the main source of arrests in the United States, caused families across the country to fragment and fall apart, and made America the country with the highest jail population in the developed world and beyond. This hard line stance, that serves to illuminate a particular section of society and make them scapegoats, is designed to act as a moral standpoint that appears to be acted on, but is actually doing more harm than good, creating criminals out of otherwise law-abiding, non violent people, and targeting America's black population more than any other. Eugene Jarecki delves headfirst into the front line of those affected by this war, from the low level dealers and their families, academics, those involved in treatment, but more startlingly even those on the other side of the fence, such as a host of disillusioned lawmen, judges and penal workers, whose opinions have also shifted to the more liberal way of thinking.Independent film is easily the best way to express an opinion artistically that mainstream cinema would not comfortably touch with a bargepole. While usually in America it comes from expressing an opinion that others would consider unpatriotic, here Eugene Jarecki has created an in-depth, thorough assault on a moral standpoint that has been the word of law for several decades now, and that other countries soon followed suit with, such as Britain with the Misuse of Drugs Act. The most high profile contribution comes from David Simon, the creator of highly successful cop show The Wire, and it's most startling that we hear from a series of cops who question the validity of what they're doing.It plays almost in the manner of a prosecution barrister acting against the War on drugs in court. We hear evidence that it has racist origins from the last century, that play into its racist nature today, which disproportionately targets black communities more than any other, that judges are not free to use their own discretion and judgement when sentencing, but are instead saddled with guidelines that they must obey without fail, that unscrupulous cops can use it to boost their arrest rate and even steal property through civil asset seizure, and that it's all just basically an excuse to do away with those who those in power don't see as having any use to society, beginning with the black community in the 80s with crack cocaine, before progressing to white trailer parks in more recent times with crystal meth.Jarecki has studied the evidence, and knows which cards he's chosen, and what has to be admired is the sheer thoroughness and depth with which he's presented his case. If people who are meant to be on the front line can have their opinions swayed after years of bitter experience, surely a casual viewer who maybe has an unsympathetic view to drug addicts can. The only ones who surely never will (in public, anyway) are the self serving, hollow politicians who would never risk their careers by saying what they truly think. ****

I recommend that you watch the documentary The House I Live In, all of you. If you have never critically analyzed our "War On Drugs" or the policies our nation enforces where drug use and drug trafficking are concerned or if you disbelieve that there is a problem in our nation where systemic and institutionalized racism comes into play, then you absolutely need to take the time required to watch this film.I am not a fan of drugs or drug use. I've had my experiences, numerous as they have been, and I opted to sober up of my own volition without treatment or incarceration. That needs to be said, because I wanted to establish my own perspective before I go any further.Narrated by a man who's family immigrated to the United States in order to escape persecution in Europe during the spread of fascism, this ends up being an oftentimes chilling exploration of the problems with our legal attitudes toward drugs as a whole as well as the serious and severe issues in our society that contribute to the seemingly endless cycle of disenfranchisement that produces these crimes.We have interviews with judges, police officers of all sorts, community leaders, prison guards, as well as numerous drug users and dealers (both on the street and incarcerated)...and it all paints a horrifying portrait of just how bad our government and legal system have failed massive segments of our population, most notably minorities and those who live in poverty.If you can watch this documentary without feeling like there is something terribly wrong with the way we approach these things, you lack in basic reasoning capacity and human compassion.The "War On Drugs" has been nothing but a costly, losing battle against an abstract, which is something a lot of us have known for a long time...and the problems have only gotten worse over the years as it devolved from the progressive and strangely human policy Nixon originally implemented.Drugs are a problem. No one will dispute that fact. I certainly wouldn't deny that drugs destroy lives...but the drugs themselves aren't destroying lives at anywhere near the rate that our draconian policies happen to be. Those policies need to change, and we need to change the way we perceive the things we accept so readily without critical analysis from our government officials, law enforcement officers, and courts.Watch the documentary, really think about what you're seeing, and try to find a better way...because we can't keep doing things the way we have been.

This needs to be seen by every law officer, every judge, every college student and beyond. This is a VERY powerful documentary that doesn't just paint a black and white picture telling us that drugs are acceptable or that drugs are bad, it talks about the HUNDREDS of elements which make up the complex drug and prison system we know of today. Some of the top minds in the industry on both sides give the best and most insightful talks, this has really been an eye opening film for me.I wish I could mass produce this DVD for free and mail it to every citizen of the US. We need to change this system, it's broken and heading down a very scary path. Most people think that drugs and prisons don't affect them so why bother with the issue, you couldn't be any more wrong. Thousands of times a day the authorities are searching people and seizing property without due process, many times never finding anything. A man was killed after a raid and nothing was found. This IS RELEVANT TO ALL CITIZENS OF America. The Constitution is our savings grace, don't let it burn to ash along with your freedom. Please watch this, even if you don't agree with everything, I feel like you can still learn something and apply it to your community and the ballet box to make a positive change in the right direction.

The House I Live In takes the complex issue of the failed war on drugs and breaks it down to a level that is both digestible and striking nonetheless. The film provides substantial historical evidence to make a powerful argument against the American war on drugs. The House I Live In exposes the many flaws of current anti-drug policies and strategies from a multitude of perspectives, drawing from historians and academics to front- of-the-line law enforcement and correctional officers alike. The film brilliantly ties these perspectives in a way that can effectively inspire viewers from all backgrounds to take a stand in confronting this largely unrecognized national issue.The film provides an impressively broad set of data and evidence that cohesively screams one message—the war on drugs is a failure to the American public. As the first film focused solely on the subject, The House I Live In is undoubtedly one of the decade's most important films.