Product: Blow [VHS] (2001)
Rating: 3.0
Nice work, but no "Traffic"
The folks that put this together did a nice job. They captured an era and a lifestyle very well while telling their story. They signed a terrific lead actor, and a great supporting cast that reminded me dead-on of several people I knew in college. Very watchable, and a good biography.What keeps it from a higher rating is partially the bad luck of it being released around the time of the far superior "Traffic". But besides telling you that one man was more responsible than others for the explosion of cocaine in this country 25 years ago, there's not much else. While the movie certainly doesn't portray George Jung as a hero, it is asking for sympathy when things important to him are finally taken away.However, here is a person who did NOTHING but deal drugs for a living all his adult life. Now I can buy the arguement that he was just supplying what the people wanted, and the purchasers are just as guilty as the supplier. But there are two problems I have with this. First, the movie goes to great pains to show that he wasn't necessarily a violent man, although he did carry a gun and threatened people with it. But his close association with Pablo Escobar, who was a merciless killer, puts Jung big time in guilt by association. For this I have no sympathy for the man.Second, this guy did his second swing in prison because he was under surveillance for his first pinch. He knew very well the cops were watching him, yet practically sets himself up for the bust. With all that, and knowing that the government was REALLY observing him after his second visit to prison, what does he do? Goes out and becomes part of another big deal. Like Henry Hill in "Goodfellas", it never occurs to him that there are other ways to get money, albeit not as quickly. I think society sometimes has to lock up stupid people to protect them from themselves.Overall, I did like the movie, and recommend it. But for someone who has lived totally for himself all his life, and in his forties all of a sudden has a child, this doesn't make you a nice person. Yes, prison is bad when it takes away the things you like, but then that's the point.