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With his documentary The Old Thieves (AKA Los Ladrones Viejos, 2007), filmmaker Everado Gonzalez creates a sweeping sociological portrait of the organized criminal elements that ruled over Mexico during the 1960s, '70s and '80s. During this onscreen journey, Gonzalez explores such subtopics as the unique ethical codes upheld by Mexican criminals, the specific legal aberrances committed by hardened Mexican law-breakers, the periodic allegiances between crime and corrupt Mexican police operations, and the eventual reprisals doled out by authorities in the 1980s. Gonzalez filters much of the account through the activities and experience of six individual Mexican criminals who lived through this volatile, unpredictable time and place.