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'Blow' illustrates drug trafficking's personal side
By Ray Huffaker
Movies, like Hostess Snoballs and menage a trois partners, always come in
twos.
1997 brought "Dante's Peak" and the creatively-titled "Volcano," both of
which hurt more to watch than swimming the 100m butterfly through hot
lava. In 1998, the threat of asteroids was not as great as the threat of bad
movies, including "Armageddon" and "Deep Impact." Last year's "Mission to
Mars" and "Red Planet" proved crappy movies set on Mars are still crappy
movies.
Even old Hollywood fell into this trap, with the classic 1971 film "A Clockwork
Orange" and its critically acclaimed doppelganger "A Clockwork Orgy" (this is
an actual movie title).
Following in this tradition, 2001 is the year of drug trafficking.
Hot on the heels of best picture nominee "Traffic" comes "Blow," starring
Johnny Depp. These two movies combined have more cocaine than a
George W. Bush presidential dinner catered by Robert Downey Jr. at Darryl
Strawberry's house.
"Blow" is based on the book "Blow: How a Smalltown Boy Made $100 Million
With the Medellin Cocaine Cartel and Lost It All," by Bruce Porter.
The book tells the true story of George Jung, a smalltown boy who made
$100 million with the Medellin cocaine cartel and lost it all.
Porter based the book on extensive interviews with Jung, who is currently
serving a very long prison term for making $100 million with the Medellin
cocaine cartel (losing it all and being a smalltown boy are perfectly legal).
Jung's life can be broken down into three basic steps:
1) Sell lots of drugs and make lots of money ($100 million, to be exact).
2) Get caught selling drugs and get sent to prison.
3) Repeat steps (1) and (2) about six thousand times.
Jung's brushes with the law are not surprising, though. He should know better
than to hang out with Paul Reubens, who plays one of Jung's drug dealing
buddies and has faced his own legal problems.
Reubens (best known as Pee Wee Herman) was arrested for masturbating in a
movie theater, an activity generally discouraged by theaters in the
Moscow-Pullman area, although it would probably be the only way to get
any enjoyment out of the movie "Tomcats."
If the guy cannot even masturbate without getting arrested, how can you trust
him to sell cocaine for you?
"Blow" is commendable, not only for having the most obscene title since
"Snatch," but also for presenting sincere and touching depictions of Jung's
family life. The scenes between Jung and his family (especially his father,
played by Ray Liotta) are the real meat of "Blow," showing the devastating
affect of Jung's illegal activities on his relationships with those he loves.
As Jung's story shows, all the money and cocaine in the world is not worth as
much as those you love. Don't blow it like he did.
Audian Theatre
Grade: B+
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