Personal:
I chose the movie “Blow” because it’s a great movie and I like the way it depicts the life of cocaine-trafficking pioneer George Jung. The film illustrates the life of a drug trafficker as lively, exciting, and interesting. Watching “Blow” sort of makes you wish you lived during the cocaine-trafficking prime of the 70’s and early 80’s and that it was your brilliant idea to make large amounts of money by smuggling cocaine into the U.S. and making the 70’s known in American history for its massive amounts of drug usage. However, then it makes me wonder, why it is that after watching “Blow” anyone would wish they were the genius behind the operation and that it was them living the high life even if it meant breaking the law?And now, I realize it’s because the movie portrays George Jung and his crew as the “good guys” and the “police” or the “law” as being “the other.” When I’m sure if the exact same thing were to happen to someone now during my lifetime and viewing it in real life and not the way a movie portrays it I would definitely view the police and the law as the good guys and the drug dealer as “The other.” I also think it’s funny how while watching I even viewed Jung’s mother as the bad guy when she calls the police on Jung when I know something like that takes courage and some may even say is the right thing to do.
Historical:
According to wikipedia.org, In search of even greater profits, Jung expanded his operation to flying the drugs in from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico using planes stolen from private airports on Cape Cod and professional pilots. At the height of this enterprise, Jung and his associates were reportedly making $250,000 a month. This soon ended when Jung was arrested in Chicago for marijuana smuggling in 1974. He had been staying at the Playboy Club where he was to meet a connection that would pick up the marijuana; however, the connection was arrested for heroin smuggling and reported on Jung. Jung was sent to a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut. Jung’s cellmate was Carlos Lehder, a young German-Colombian man who introduced Jung to the Colombian Cartel and Jung taught Lehder how to smuggle. The day that Jung was released he was to contact Lehder in Florida, in order to begin preparation. Their plan was to fly hundreds of kilos of cocaine from Pablo Escobar’s Colombian ranch to the U.S., where Jung’s California connection, Richard Barile, took it from there. George never had a problem with exchanging the smuggled cocaine for his transportation fee. Initially, it was $10,000 per kilo but later it went down to $5,000 per kilo as supply grew. He had a security man that would accompany him to the exchanges where George would give the keys to a car and half the cocaine to his connection and leave. A day or two later they would meet up again and exchange keys to cars. Jung was hesitant to allow Lehder, or any other cartel member to know Barile’s identity, as his “California connection” was what gave Jung his edge in the smuggling game and kept others from simply cutting him out. However, in what turned out to be an error in judgment, Jung introduced Lehder to Barile. By the late 1970s, Lehder took his plans to the next level. As Jung had initially feared, by going straight through Richard Barile, Lehder no longer needed Jung in his operation. However, Jung recovered from the betrayal and found other schemes that made him more than $100 million. Jung was later arrested in Massachusetts in 1987 at his mansion on Nauset Beach. With his family, he skipped bail, but very quickly became involved in another deal. He was eventually betrayed by a pilot of his acquaintance.
Technical:
The movie cover for “Blow” definitely consists of high-key lighting and displays an upbeat mood. The key light seems to be coming from the upper left corner aiming down and the fill light from the right. The fill isn’t very intense creating fast fall-off on their faces and lower part of their body. There also appears to be a background light present. The white substance where it says “smart,sexy and dangerous” is a denotation because it’s the most basic or literal meaning of a sign and it is obviously cocaine and represents cocaine. The Money laying on top of them seems to be connotation of Power and Success.
Ethical, cultural, and critical:
