Blow is the story of one man’s conquest of the drug world. It is the true story of George Jung, the one man who created the cocaine drug ring in California and most of the US. Alone, this man created the importation of the illegal substance from Cuba and Mexico. As he claims if u were smoking coke in 70’s in US (who wasnt?) 70% chances were it was thanx to him.
The film is great at showing the rise and fall of this brilliant man. And I don’t think that the casting could have possibly been better. Depp as Jung impersonates the man like no one else would have. And all the supporting performances are also very solid. Ray Liotta, who plays Jung’s honest father, delivers a very touching and affecting performance. And Franka Potente (of the Run Lola Run fame) is good enuff in her brief appearance as Jung’s first girlfriend to discard the 1 film wonder tag which usually gets attached if someones first film becomes an unexpected success. Cruz is hardly in the film, but that’s a good thing because she just annoyed me.
The cinematography is good. Blow is full of 70s devices such as freeze frame montages and random, shaky zooms. The same sort of goofy disco-era filmmaking used in the Austin Powers films.
In Blow, director Ted Demme makes no judgements. He doesn’t condemn George for his way of life, or glorify it & thats what takes this movie to higher levels. Depp’s character gets sympathy simply ’coz he was basically a good guy. Yes he sells drugs, but he isn’t greedy or violent. He’s a loyal friend and he loves his daughter. And he himself was doing coke so one cannot blame him for bringing misery to people , instead for him he was giving happiness & joy to people. Throughout the film, one roots for Depp’s character Jung as he takes us through the highs and lows of a person who is both blessed and ultimately cursed in his life.
But for me wthe best part of the film was the potrayal of father-son relationship between Jung & his father. As George later says all he wanted to be in life was a good father to his kid ’’just like my old man’’.
If georges’s daughter is reading this review , please go & visit ur daddy. Daddy loves U.