Blow, by George?

Rating: Null/10 (10 April 2001)

I was looking forward to seeing this movie and I liked it a lot. The acting and directing seemed fine, nothing overwhelming but it didn't get in the way. I thought Jordi Molla, who played George's "partner" Diego(?) created the most interesting character. It was good to see "Pee Wee" back in action, and he did a fine job. I felt a bit disconnected from the main character(s), but I think the scope and time frame of the story they were trying to tell was so broad, maybe they just didn't have time to fill the deep end of the pool. Maybe George Jung was just a shallow kind of guy? I think the value of this movie was mainly historical; I learned a lot about the history of the modern drug trade, told in a straightforward but fascinating, charming, fashionable and often amusing way.
But how true was this story, really? It is based on a book by the main character (George Jung, played with stylish competence by Johnny Depp), and I have to wonder why everything that happened to him seemed to be someone else's fault. If he was basically the father of the modern drug trade in the USA, could he really have been that unsuspecting? It's possible, but it made me wonder. It seemed like the whole movie, and I'm assuming the book it was based on, was written to elicit a certain response from his family (I don't know if it would reveal anything to mention who, so I won't). In other words, did he write the book to paint himself as a sort of hero, and a victim? I'm now online trying to find more information about the story, from other points of view. Director Ted Demme was on the Charlie Rose show just now (for about 5 minutes) and I didn't learn anything new.
In the end, this movie definitely elicited an emotional response from me. I haven't been able to forget it, and it left me wanting to know more.