Great!

Rating: 7/10 (5 May 2005)

Blow is a movie about how a man named George Jung (played by Johnny Depp) who finds himself involved in major Cocaine trafficking between Colombia and the United States. The movie begins with George as a young boy in Massachusetts, living with his Father (a plumber) and his mother, who constantly complains about the lack of money their family has. George's family becomes faced with poverty and a young George makes a promise to himself to never become poor. George then moves with his best childhood friend, Tuna, to California where they begin to sell pot. When George is sentenced to jail for 3 years for the possession of marijuana and the intent to sell, he meets his future business partner, Diego. Diego and George start trafficking cocaine between Colombia and Cocaine with collaboration from Pablo Escobar. The movie continues with drug trades, until George gets betrayed by Diego and ultimately placed in jail, where he is still today. Latin America is a main part of this story as it is a great supplier of cocaine. Colombia is rich off of drug money and at the same time dependent on the drugs they export. The economy suffers great recessions and is very unpredictable, setting up a perfect climate for drug trades to thrive. Colombia's jungles and mountains are filled with social unrest, as guerilla wars break out. Although Colombia is not a large producer of Coca but it processes whatever comes from other Latin American nations such as Peru, and Ecuador. Billions of dollars are made in thins industry which ironically helped the nation. Sadly though, as is prevalent in the drug industries, killings take place and corruption runs fervid. This movie was right on track with the historical aspect. Blow guided the audience through the life of George, depicting important details such as his best friends, wife, child, business partners, and Pablo Escobar. It might have been helpful to more clearly depict the importance of cocaine on the Colombian economy, but this was not the major theme of the movie. The movie was very accurate, and also emotional. I truly enjoyed this movie. The characters were believable, and showed emotion well. I disliked that there wasn't much emotion shown between George and Kristina during her childhood. It made the fact that his daughter "was the only good thing in his life" much less believable. The movie was entertaining, but not as educational as it could have been. All in all, Blow was an entertaining movie which depicted the life of a Cocaine dealer during the height of drug trafficking between the United States and Colombia. Although the movie did its job in depicting the life of George Jung, it did not do its justice in showing how much the Colombian economy and culture is dependent upon the drug. The movie ties in Pablo Escobar, but for someone who didn't know how influential he was on the drug trades, he might just seem like another character. For these reasons, on the entertainment scale I would give this movie a 7, but as for education I would give it a 4.