Blow (film)

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Blow
Directed by Ted Demme
Produced by Ted Demme
Denis Leary
Joel Stillerman
Written by Nick Cassavetes
David McKenna
Starring Johnny Depp
Jordi Mollà
Penélope Cruz
Ray Liotta
Paul Reubens
Franka Potente
Ethan Suplee
Distributed by New Line Cinema
Release date(s) 6 April 2001
Running time 124 min
Country USA USA
Language English
Budget $30,000,000 (estimated)
IMDb profile

Blow is a 2001 drama film about the American cocaine smuggler George Jung, directed by Ted Demme (who later died of a cocaine-related heart attack). David McKenna and Nick Cassavetes adapted Bruce Porter's 1993 book Blow: How a Small-Town Boy Made $100 Million With the Medellin Cocaine Cartel and Lost It All for the screenplay. It is based on the real-life story of George Jung, Pablo Escobar, Carlos Lehder and the Medellín Cartel. The film's title comes from a slang term for cocaine.

Tagline: Based on a True Story.

[edit] Story

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The film opens to a young George Jung and his parents Fred (Ray Liotta) and Ermine (Rachel Griffiths). His mother is constantly complaining that the family has no money and badgers her husband, asking him what they are going to do. A young George decides then that he will not let the same fate befall him.

A grown-up George (Johnny Depp) moves to southern California with his friend "Tuna" (Ethan Suplee) and they get a beachside apartment and make friends with all the locals. They don't want to get real jobs so Tuna comes up with the idea of selling pot.

They meet Derek Foreal (Paul Reubens) and discover he is the main dealer in the area. With Derek's help, George makes a lot of money selling to all the kids in the area. Their other friend who goes to college back in Boston tells them that there is a great shortage of quality pot in his area so with the help of George's stewardess girlfriend, they start bringing the drugs to Boston.

The demand is very high now and they decide to start buying the drugs directly from Mexico. They meet a few Mexican druglords and set up a system for importing the drugs via small airplanes. Things are going well, and they buy a mansion in Acapulco. Everyone, including Tuna and Derek, are enjoying the wealthy lifestyle.

George brings his girlfriend Barbara Buckley (Franka Potente) to meet his parents but she gets a nosebleed in the middle of dinner and has to leave.

George does business in Chicago, but eventually gets arrested, and will be sentenced for two years. Barbara tells him she can't wait that long since she is dying of cancer. George skips bail to care for her but she eventually dies. After her death, the group breaks apart.

While hiding from the authorities George visits his parents back in Boston. He is having a heart to heart with his father when suddenly the police show up. His mother has turned him in.

George is now sentenced to 3 years in a federal prison. While in prison he meets Diego (Jordi Molla) who is involved in the cocaine trade in Colombia. This caused George to change from pot to cocaine and when he gets out of prison he heads down to Colombia to meet up with Diego who in turn sets him up with Pablo Escobar (Cliff Curtis).

George, with the help of main middleman Derek, becomes Pablo's #1 importer. He narrates that at one point, 85% of the cocaine going into the US came through him. He then sets up an account with a bank in Panama where he hides all his wealth.

George is living higher on the hog than ever and even marries a Colombian beauty named Mirtha (Penelope Cruz). He brings his parents to his southern California mansion and while his father is impressed, his mother isn't.

George eventually meets up with Diego in order to finish a drug deal at a motel. While at the motel, Diego starts a fight with George concerning the identity of his "California Connection" Derek. During the course of the fight, the drug buyers are watching them and asking what is wrong. While George tries to calm them, Diego's erratic behavior makes them believe something is wrong and shoot George in the shoulder. At this point, George calms the situation by saying everything is okay and he's not hurt. George and Diego finish the deal at which time George finally reveals his connection. Diego then double crosses him and deals directly with Derek, keeping George out of the loop.

George decides to quits the business. When he tries to get his money out of the bank in Panama he learns that the government has taken all of it.

A year or two later, George and Mirtha now have a beautiful daughter whom they named Kristina. However, things don't go so well as George has a hard time breaking the coke habit and their life starts crumbling. Mirtha argues with George about money in front of their daughter, just like his mother did with his father 30 years earlier.

Mirtha throws George a birthday party and invites many of his old drug friends. Derek is there and tells George that Diego eventually double crossed him and kept him out of the loop too.

Mirtha, never being able to break the coke habit breaks out a huge dish of cocaine and suddenly the FBI shows up and busts everyone.

George cuts a deal and goes to prison in return for his wife and daughter to remain free. His daughter means everything to him and his only regret is that he can't be with her. He gets out of prison later, but finds out that his wife has divorced him and has custody of his daughter. He slowly starts getting to know his daughter and walks her to and from school but that's about it. She tells him that her one dream is to go to California.

Having no money anymore, George makes a few calls and sets up one last big score. He tells his daughter to wait for him after school in a few days and he will take her to California. But when he thinks he just had a big payday, he is once again double crossed, and gets busted one more time. Now he's serving time in prison, and will be released on 2015.

Meanwhile, Kristina waits for her dad to arrive and take her to California.

In prison George slowly goes crazy thinking about how he let his daughter down. While tending to the prison garden, a guard calls him over to see a visitor. There standing in front of him is his now grown up, very beautiful daughter (played by Jaime King). They talk a little and then have a long tearful hug. Suddenly the guard calls again, indicating that George is just imagining this. The film ends as the guard walks George, now a crazy old man, out of the garden.

The final image is a photo of the real George Jung and that his daughter has never visited her father. (Two years after the release of the film, however, Kristina Sunshine Jung did in fact visit her father.)

Kristina also later filmed clips of herself to be put in the movie, but the clips never made it into the final production.

[edit] Cast

[edit] External links

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