BLOW
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This movie really creeped me out. It's essentially "The Rise and Fall George Jung," who went from a working-class childhood to supplying most of the cocaine for the western half of the US from the 70's into the 80's. George isn't a stereotypical drug dealer. He's loyal to his friends, loves his family, and doesn't randomly kill people. Yet he earns millions of dollars through drug trafficking. George learns what readers of my other regular column know: People who sell illegal drugs are not nice people. His drug-trafficker friends betray him. George's life crumbles. Then things get worse. About this time I started feeling edgy. It took me a while to figure out why, then I realized that the events were being presented as if George didn't deserve what was happening to him. Are we to feel sorry for him?
It's one thing to humanitize George, to show that he's a real, feeling person, not just a cinematic drug-dealer stereotype. Sure, he wants to be successful, and have a better life than his parents had. Sure, he wants his family to love him back. But he isn't a modern Jean Valjean, suffering excessive oppression. He's a drug dealer! "Blow" conveniently glosses over the effect that those tons of cocaine had on real people's lives. George facilitated a lot of suffering, and if the karmic backlash starts in this lifetime, so be it. Still, this is not to say that "Blow" is a bad movie. It's not cheerful, but it is a compelling tale of the arc of George's star. Just keep in mind that as touching and human as George's desires are, he sells illegal drugs (see above). Decide for yourself how sympathetic you wish to be when bad things happen to bad people.
If you liked the movies below, you'll probably like this one (and vice versa):
Eight-Facet Info Rating, rated on a scale of 0 (None) to 4 (Lots!)): |