Ted Demme
Blow

From Stars to Stables (assuming they were ever stars..).

This, ultimately, can be the key to understanding Ted Demme's film, released in 2001, in which a stunning Johnny Depp plays George Jung, a real-life drug trafficker and the first to start cocaine trafficking between Colombia and the U.S.A. during the '70s and '80s.

Born into a normal and humble family in Massachusetts, young Jung grows up with the example of a father (Ray Liotta) who, despite immense efforts, fails to provide an adequate standard of living (absurd for the demands) to his wife (Rachel Griffiths) and with his childhood friend, the memorable "big man" Tuna (Ethan Suplee).

The mother repeatedly leaves them, only to return every time with open arms, but when the father's business fails, George promises himself that he would never end up like his parents and, together with his inseparable Tuna, heads to California, rents a small place, and begins frequenting the beaches and the crowd of misfits.

At first, everything is O.K.: beach parties, marijuana as if it were raining, girls... Lots of girls.

George falls in love with Barbara (Franka Potente), a flight attendant (they all actually do that job), and the girl guides him onto the path of "weed," introducing him to a bisexual dealer, Dereck (Paul Reubens), who agrees to start a weed business with the two that makes them rich in a short time, apparently without "risks."

The business goes on and expands, thanks to the entry of an old friend of the two, even on the West Coast, and soon Jung becomes one of the most established and powerful marijuana traffickers in the United States. Luxury comes, but he, not satisfied, wants more and departs with the group of friends for Mexico, looking for a stable supplier of weed, without intermediaries compromising his earnings.

The operation succeeds, and with some daring aerial shipments, the trade expands rapidly, he acquires a luxurious villa in Acapulco, but shortly after the police arrest him with 440 kg of the stuff and sentences him to two years of incarceration. Meanwhile, Barbara dies of cancer, which profoundly affects George, who decides not to show up at the trial and lives as a fugitive. One day he appears to his parents and it's precisely his mother who turns him in, leading to his capture.

In prison, he meets what would later become his downfall, Diego Delgado (the surprising Jordi Molla) and the two plan to launch a major cocaine trafficking operation. The memorable phrase (thought) by Jung in prison "I entered with a degree in marijuana and graduated with a doctorate in cocaine" (prison, therefore, can also "teach").

Released from prison, George immediately contacts his friend Diego and the two start smuggling cocaine, initially in small quantities (a few dozen Kg.) then gradually more heavily and, due to a "lightness" committed by Diego (resolved by his Yankee friend), the two are summoned by "Mr. Macho" himself, the drug lord Pablo Escobar (Cliff Curtis), who takes George under his protective wing, making him "his number 1 man" on the Medellin-U.S.A. axis.

Meanwhile, George meets what would become his wife, Mirtha (Penelope Cruz) at a Colombian bosses' party (Mirtha herself is engaged to a big shot in the clan) and falls madly in love with her, oblivious to the risks he is taking. A beautiful scene is when he, among the numerous participants, spots the girl and is mesmerized: everything slows down, George makes his way through the crowd, hypnotized by such a vision, reaches her, speaks to her and soon after the two end up swept away by a passionate love.

Remember what George thought when his father went bankrupt? Well, Jung's life more or less followed his parents' path.. Despite the lavish luxury in which the two lived, Mirtha turned out to be as greedy as Jung's mother, a cocaine-addict out of her mind, even while pregnant with their beautiful daughter, and first backstabbed by his friend Diego, then by "friend" traffickers, the protagonist also gets framed by his wife, who has him arrested for cocaine possession.

From this point, the decline is relentless: jail, divorce, and the failed attempt to recover the relationship with his daughter, which collapses in an FBI raid while he was trying to get back into the only thing he "knew how to do well", smuggling cocaine.

The movie closes with an old Jung, now forced to rot in jail, who one day, while doing cleaning duties in the penitentiary, has a vision of his daughter's visit, now grown and quite a beautiful young woman I must say, who has a little heart-wrenching conversation with him and then vanishes into thin air..

Special mention for the film's soundtrack, which boasts names of the caliber of the Rolling Stones ("Can't You Hear Me Knocking"), Bob Dylan ("All The Tired Horses"), Cream ("Strange Brew"), Ram Jam ("Black Betty"), Lynyrd Skynyrd ("That smell"), certainly selected by Deep himself, being a musician in various bands: "Flame", "The Kids", then "Rock City Angels", who opened for icons like Iggy Pop (his idol), Talking Heads, and Billy Idol. 

If you're looking for a non-demanding film, with a good underlying moral, and to spend two hours relaxing between marijuana, in the "fast" first half and cocaine in the "slower" second half (what a paradox, eh?), this is the movie for you.

However, don't expect a masterpiece..

Enjoy the movie.