(08/23/00)

WARNING: VERY MINOR SPOILERS!

This story could be described as GOODFELLAS with a little Colombian flavor. BLOW is about the infiltration and proliferation of cocaine into America during the 1970s and 1980s, as told by one of the supposedly main players involved in bringing major quantities of coke to the gringo masses. The story deals mainly with the 1970s. I also found that this story reminded me of Tarantinos JACKIE BROWN some as well.

The 1970s, I dont think there has been a decade -- lately -- that has been examined more by movies. Before I get too deep into this review I want to recommend a book to those of you who love movies, and might be interested in a scholarly view of them in American history. For to be sure, film has had a revolutionary effect on American culture and society. The book I am speaking of is Robert Sklars Movie-Made America: A Cultural History of American Movies.

Movies are not just a form of entertainment, they have also become a kind of social institution for storing and interpreting the past, and guessing at the future. How one era looks back at another says something about both eras. How we view our country, our society, how we view each other, can be influenced by the movies we watch.

BLOW deals with the true story of George Jung (Johnny Depp), who almost by accident gets involved in drug dealing. First pot, then cocaine. Not only that, he becomes addicted to the high that is associated with power, greed, and lust. His character is someone you will at times loath, kinda feel sorry for, and then give up on as he makes the dumbest of dumb mistakes.

The 1970s saw the weed smoking hippies give way to the hard core appeal of cocaine. Virtually overnight cocaine became the drug of choice. It was sexy, elegant, and produced a much different high than weed. It was a status symbol, as not everyone could afford it. From Hollywood to Miami, and New York, it spread like a virus.

According to George Jung, we have him (among others) to thank for it. I don't know how accurate is his account of how the drug trade crossed the border and infiltrated our Country, but if what he says is true, he is indeed a major reason why the use of cocaine spread so quickly. According to Jung, there was a time in the late 70s, early 80s, where "if you used cocaine, there was an eighty five percent chance it came from me."

Not maybe there was a chance, or possibly, what he is saying is that almost for sure the cocaine most of America was consuming came from him. George amassed over 50 million dollars in just a couple of years. Remember, this a true story based on the novel Blow: How a Small-Town Boy Made $100 Million with the Medellin Cocaine Cartel and Lost it All, by Bruce Porter.

The story opens with George and some very poignant scenes between his mother, and father. George loved his father, Fred, very much. Fred owned a business, had a fleet of trucks and a whole bunch of employees. But he couldnt manage money and eventually lost everything. Georges mother Ermine was pretty much a cold-hearted bitch, as a matter of fact most of the female roles in this story are very unflattering.

I got the feeling that George not only wanted more out of life, but just had no clue as to how to go about doing it.

When George is still a teenage he moves to LA. There he meets up with guys named Tuna and Pinhead. Now remember, it was the seventies. Anyway, George really starts to like it in LA. He liked the "liberated" view on life everyone had out there. See little George was from Weymouth, Massachusetts, and LA was like nothing he had ever seen before.

The screenwriters, McKenna and Cassavetes, use a couple of stratagies that have become very popular with real life dramas in particular, Voice Overs (V.O.) and Flashbacks (Flash Forward as well). Much like GOODFELLAS, as I said, the script reminded me a lot of GOODFELLAS, all you have to do is replace the Italians with Colombians. In the December 1, 1998 draft of BLOW, GOODFELLAS is even referenced in the writing on page 86, during a wedding sequence.

But the writers do not make the mistake of telling us the story, they show us as well. Voice overs are used as action is taking place within the development of each scene.

So one day George comes home from work to his apartment, which he shares with Tuna, and he is knocked to the sofa as he enters. Before him stand some scary looking dudes who are negotiating with Tuna over some weed. Tuna is clearly rattled, so the calm and cool George gets involved and helps Tuna out of his jam. Tuna then gets George to work with him, and thats how it starts. George was aggressive, he liked being a drug dealer, and had the desire. He would soon start to meet all of the right people, or in hindsight all of the wrong ones.

For me this brought the curtain down on Act One, as the story starts to pick up pace and the mood slowly changes. By Act Three though it was hard to read this script as poor George just makes blunder after blunder.

George gets to be a pretty big dope dealer. He meets Annette the stewardess (remember JACKIE BROWN) and she starts carrying for him. Annette is the only female character with any redeemable qualities in the story.

But she doesnt last.

George gets busted in Chicago with six hundred and sixty pounds of pot, Ill say that again, six hundred and sixty

While in the joint, no pun intended, George meets up with Carlos, who educates George about the possibilities brewing south of the border, cocaine.

Within a couple of years Carlos and George would open the flood gates to American. They would make hundreds of millions of dollars. Ill repeat that, hundreds of millions

The mood of the story changes dramatically as we approach Act Three, when George finds himself in over his head as he didnt have the "cut off your balls" mentality. He only wanted to kill when it was too late, and when he had no choice. But, he was smooth, calm, and collect. He always had his shit together, even if he didnt know how to run a business; much like his father.

Compared to the Colombians George was a small fish, swimming a small pond of bigger fish.

However, by the end of the story I really could care less about what happened to him. He did some dumb things, he didnt know when to quit, and when he did try to quit he still got busted. George is in and out of prison throughout the story. I respected him, there were defiantly redeemable qualities about him, but ultimately I was annoyed by him. At times he just seemed to stupid for his own good.

Want proof? Remember that $50 million he amassed, well he loses it -- all of it! Ill repeat that, he loses it.. ah, never mind. He puts the $50 mill in a bank which isnt the dumb part, but then he consults with the Colombians about it -- uh, okay -- and they tell him to put all of his fucking money in a bank in Panama City, do you remember Noriega?

(Im still holding out hope that the poor bastard has a few million hidden away somewhere.)

I dont know, maybe its just me, but I dont think I would listen to Colombian drug lords, I dont care if I worked with em or not.

The writing was solid, no major complaints. Real life stories do not leave much for critiquing as I cant say "this is bullshit," though I found myself uttering those words a few times.

Ultimately, the story of George is one that youve already seen, but not quite like this. Real life stories tend to lend themselves to a certain formula, especially gangster stories. You just know everyone is going to die or get busted. Still, I think BLOW will turn out to be a pretty good flick.

Filming wrapped up about mid-May, 2000. The release date was to be this fall, but was pushed back to March, 2001. It also stars Penelope Cruz, Rachel Griffiths, Ray Liotta, Franka Potente (RUN LOLA RUN), and will be directed by Ted Demme (LIFE, BEAUTIFUL GIRLS, THE REF, WHOS THE MAN?).

I like the casting, other than Johnny Depp, not that he isnt perfect for the role. Its just that his face is too recognizable. I think part of GOODFELLAS allure for me was Ray Liotta (who is also in this film), who was then kind of an unknown, it was perfect casting.

As for BLOW, I think they should have went strong on the supporting roles, and got a no-name to play George. The audience needs to forget its Johnny Depp, and thats going to be hard in my opinion. The audience needs to enter Georges world, and accept him. Watching Depp means Ill have Joe Pistone (Depps character in DONNIE BRASCO) on my mind instead. But what the hell do I know.

Cheers!