Blow (film)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Blow
Original title Blow
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2001
length 124 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
JMK 16
Rod
Director Ted Demme
script David McKenna
Nick Cassavetes
production Denis Leary
Ted Demme
Joel Stillerman
music Money Mark
Graeme Revell
camera Ellen Kuras
cut Kevin Tent
occupation

Blow is an American fiction film from 2001. The literary adaptation, directed by Ted Demme , is based on the book Blow: How a Small Town Boy Made $ 100 Million with the Medellín Cocaine Cartel and Lost It All by Bruce Porter , which tells the life story of George Jung tells, who was considered the largest cocaine dealer in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s .

The main roles are played by Johnny Depp and Penélope Cruz .

Origin of name

The title Blow is derived from the slang meaning of the English word "blow" for cocaine.

action

George Jung grew up in a medium-sized family. His beloved father, Fred, works as a heating installer, but cannot satisfy the narcissistic mother financially. George soon realizes that he never wants to live like this. After finishing school, he moves to California with his friend Tuna .

It's the time of the hippies. On the beach, he meets marijuana and the stewardess Barbara. Through her, he meets the barber Derek Foreal, the local marijuana dealer. George gets into the dealer business and can soon build up a large customer base on the east coast with the help of Barbara, who commutes between the coasts as a stewardess. Since demand is growing rapidly and he is not satisfied with the middleman profits, he travels to Mexico to buy large quantities directly from a marijuana producer. He transports these across the border in a stolen Cessna .

One day, George is caught with over 300 pounds of marijuana and sentenced to prison. However, he does not go to prison, but goes into hiding to stay with the cancer-stricken Barbara until her death. When he visits his parents, still on the run from the law, his mother alerts the police because she does not tolerate his business and has an extremely tense relationship with him. So he is still imprisoned.

In prison, George met the Colombian Diego Delgado. This makes him aware of cocaine and helps him to meet with Colombian dealers after they are released. After a few smaller deals, they finally get to know Pablo Escobar , also known as: El Padrino . You do business with him and start importing cocaine from Colombia to the States. He is again organizing sales through Derek, his secret “California Connection”. In California, the demand of customers from the music and show business is so great that George becomes the largest cocaine dealer in the United States. In a short period of time he earns millions of dollars, which he deposited in a bank in Panama .

George meets Mirtha, a young Colombian woman and fiancee of one of his business partners. They fall in love and celebrate life with alcohol and illegal drugs, especially cocaine. George becomes heavily addicted and sometimes loses touch with reality. His business partners - especially Diego Delgado - seize the opportunity and begin to drive him out of business. They succeed after George reveals the identity of Derek Foreal after an argument with Diego. Soon after, he learns that Diego is working behind his back with Derek and that he has been driven out of business.

When his daughter Kristina is born, George collapses in the delivery room . The attending doctor later draws his attention to the effects of his addiction, and George gets his life under control enough to get clean. On his 38th birthday, George is arrested again during an excessive party that includes drugs again. To relieve his family, he signs a deal with the prosecutor, takes all the guilt and is released on bail. When he tries to withdraw his money in Panama, he is told that the bank that managed the money has now been nationalized by Noriega's regime.

However, Mirtha does not want to restrict her previous standard of living and leaves George because suddenly there is no more money. Then George tries another cocaine deal. While driving, he gets into such an argument with Mirtha that the car drifts off the road. A police car that happens to drive behind them stops the car and the police try to calm Mirtha down. This accuses George that he wanted to rape her and also to have cocaine in the trunk. As a result, he is arrested. While George is in prison, Mirtha separates from him, and his daughter Kristina is also disappointed.

After her release, however, George can slowly rebuild a relationship with her (now around nine years old). George tries to reconcile with Mirtha so that he can see his daughter more often. Mirtha, however, demands an additional payment of maintenance for the last few years. So in 1994 George plans a final deal with old friends and new partners to pay off his wife and start a new life in California with his daughter. However, the deal turns out to be a drug and FBI trap , and George is sentenced to 60 years imprisonment (20 years of which he is a repeat offender). What remains are Kristina and George's unfulfilled promise to be there for them.

While in prison, he imagines being visited by his daughter. In the credits, however, the viewer learns that Kristina has never visited her father before. Then you can see a photo of the real George Jung.

Awards

The film won the Prism Award for best feature film, Penélope Cruz was nominated for an MTV Movie Award in the “Breakthrough Female Performance” category for her acting performance , but also for a Golden Raspberry for “worst actress”.

Reviews

The lexicon of international film criticized the fact that the film avoided taking a position: “Instead of problematizing, it takes refuge in the stereotypes of biopic , which it uses professionally without interpreting them individually. The film draws its effect from the presence of the main actor Johnny Depp, who does not see the dealer as a hardened money shark, but as an insecure child who is searching his way and cannot be denied sympathy. This makes it all the more dangerous: seduction does not have the face of evil. "

Soundtrack

  1. "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" - The Rolling Stones
  2. "Rumble" - Link Wray
  3. "Glad and Sorry" faces
  4. "Strange Brew" cream
  5. " Black Betty " - Ram Jam
  6. "Blinded by the Light" - Manfred Mann
  7. "Let's Boogaloo" - Willie Rosario
  8. "Keep it Comin '" - KC and the Sunshine Band
  9. "Yellow World" - J Giles
  10. "That Smell" - Lynyrd Skynyrd
  11. "All the Tired Horses" - Bob Dylan
  12. "Can't You See" - Marshall Tucker Band
  13. "Push & Pull" - Nikka Costa
  14. "El Drogón" - Pala Ancha

background

  • The character Diego Delgado (Jordi Mollà) from the film is based on the drug dealer Carlos Lehder Rivas .
  • Kristina Jung played a small supporting role in the film, but these scenes fell victim to the editing and were not used in the final version. Nevertheless, she is mentioned in the credits.
  • Kristina Jung visited her father in the spring of 2002, about a year after the film appeared.
  • George Jung was released on July 3, 2017.
  • The film was coordinated with George Jung before the script was written and discussed on an ongoing basis. Jung agrees with the script by and large, and he also got to know Johnny Depp personally. The director set himself the task of creating the film as Jung told it himself.

Quote

The following quote from George Jung gained notoriety and approval beyond the film.

“Was it all worth it in the end? Damn it. How irrevocably I've wasted my life. It's always the last day of summer, I'm outside in the cold and nobody opens the door for me. Granted, there have been more than enough moving moments in my life. Most people pass life by while they are busy making grandiose plans. Everywhere, all these years, I've left pieces of my heart here and there and now there's barely enough of it left to go on living. But I force myself to smile because I know that my ambition far exceeded my talent. There are no longer any beautiful white horses or beautiful women in front of my door. "

The last sentence of the quote is an allusion to the song " Lucky Man " by Emerson, Lake & Palmer :

“He had white horses / And ladies by the score / All dressed in satin / And waiting by the door [...] A bullet had found him / His blood ran as he cried / No money could save him / So he laid down and he died. "

Web links

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Blow in the Lexicon of International FilmsTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used , accessed on January 17, 2009