Blow

Blow is a movie based on the true story of George Jung, the major American figure in making Cocaine popular in the United States in the 1970's. How faithful it is to the truth, I don't know. Like many stories it's a very simple one, a kid so determined to avoid becoming his father, that he ends up becoming worse.

We start with childhood, George witnesses his mother and father constantly fighting over money. His mother often leaves and returns not happy with the meager living that Fred (Ray Liotta) provides. Although Fred tells his son that money doesn't really mean anything, George only sees how miserable his parents have been for not having it. More than anything else in the world, George doesn't want to be poor.

George and his lifelong friend Tuna (Ethan Suplee) move to California as adults and quickly discover that they can make plenty of money and avoid working real jobs by selling Marijuana. George's girlfriend Barbara (Franka Potente) knows a pot dealer, Derek Foreal (Paul Reubens) and introduces George to him. George, having a good business sense quickly starts making money. When his friend Kevin Dulli (Max Perlich) mentions an enormous demand in the New England college scene, George sees an opportunity and becomes partners with Derek. He arranges for Barbara to use her stewardess job to get the drugs to Kevin in New England. Then, unhappy with what he's paying for the pot, he decides to find a direct source in Mexico. He eventually makes a connection but gets caught trying to bring 660 lbs. of marijuana into the states. George is already more concerned with making money than avoiding legal problems, and shows no respect at all to the court, quoting bob Dylan lyrics as a defense. He gets sentenced to jail time, but skips out on bail and on discovering that Barbara doesn't plan to be alive for two years due to cancer. George spends his time to taking care of her and loses touch with the gang.

George goes to see his parents in Massachusetts and while he talks with his father, who says he isn't mad, but doesn't understand George's choices. George brags. 'i'm really great at what I do." and his father responds "You would've been great at anything." His mother calls the cops who quickly arrive and arrest him. Fred is angry with her for turning in their son, but she is more worried about how people think of her. This time George ends up serving his prison time. He makes connections during his two year sentence, most notably Diego Delgado (Jordi Molla), who knows people growing cocaine in Colombia. As soon as he's paroled, George, meets Diego in Colombia and they start doing business with Cesar Rosa. They build the business substantially, soon adding their own private flights to move larger quantities. Diego gets arrested in Colombia, leaving George on his own to sell 50 kilos in 36 hours and deliver payment. Turning to Derek, his old partner, for help he succeeds, and as a reward, gets taken to Colombia.On arrival, he finds Diego waiting, having been sprung from jail due to "influence." George is taken to meet Pablo Escobar, who takes a liking to him and agrees to go into business with George and Diego. They become a huge success virtually owning the entire West Coast cocaine market.

George ends up marrying a Colombian woman named Mirtha (Penelope Cruz) They buy a nice house and Mirtha gets pregnant and meets George's parents.Diego however, resents that George hasn't revealed his West Coast connection (Derek) Diego uses Derek to set up his own operation, cutting George out. He confronts Diego about it, who confirms the betrayal, has him beaten and sent home. George decides to leave the business. His resolve is strengthened by his daughter Kristina's birth which radically affects his outlook and an overdose which hits him in the delivery room. He stays clean for years but gets arrested at a birthday party Mirtha throws for him, inviting many of his former drug associates. He signs a confession to get his wife and daughter released and post bail, deciding to skip bail again. He discovers that the Panamanian government has taken the millions he keeps in the Panamanian banks, causing a family scene over money similar to the ones he witnessed as a child. Mirtha causes a scene while he's driving which leads to his capture. She then visits him in prison and informs him that she's divorcing him and taking Kristina.

 He gets out after three years and tries to rebuild his relationship with his daughter, who is angry with him for leaving. He takes up the practice of walking with her to and from school. He talks with Mirtha about seeing more of Kristina, but she won't consider anything unless he starts paying child support, although she does start to relent. He decides to do another job to make enough money to bring Kristina to California with him (the place she would most like to go in the world) He's surprised to find his old friend Dulli in the crew. After they pull off the job, he announces it's his last time, only to discover that the job was a set up involving the FBI, DEA, with his old friends Dulli and Derek cooperating.He gets sentenced to 60 years in prison and leaves his daughter waiting for him to pick her up for their trip. He hears his father is dying and although he can't see him, he makes a tape recording telling his Dad that he finally understands what he meant by "money isn't real."

George, now an old man,  imagines that his daughter, now an adult has come to visit him an prison. He starts to have a conversation with her when a guard calls and realizes that she isn't really there.


*

Blow is an interesting movie, in that we watch Jung's bad decisions happen as the character narrates events as sympathetically as possible. While it deals with George's rise and fall through the drug trade, it's a very different movie than say Scarface or Goodfellas. George doesn't see himself as a gangster but as a businessman, betrayed and threatened with force, he doesn't retaliate but bows out. We see only the most basic facts, such as his mother and father bickering over money, but not anything so dramatic that would explain his drive. We see bickering but we don't see poverty. Even when his father is broke, they don't appear to go without anything. George worships his father, pities him and only understands his message that money isn't everything when he land himself in a situation, prison, where money really doesn't mean anything. Ted Demme plays everything very understated, as if intentionally making this world more mundane than any druglord movie before it.

Johnny Depp gives a great performance here, playing George perfectly suited to the narration as a man who only shows the surface. He tells us about his losses and his accomplishments but he typically shows the same face throughout, not being too moved by either end of the spectrum. The major actions happen off screen, whether selling 50 kilograms of cocaine in 36 hours or taking care of his terminally ill girlfriend. There's a depth to the character that's implied but never shown, as if the whole film is his carefully constructed public face. Ray Liotta is perhaps the most complex character here as his father Fred, overlooking the lifestyle that he's aware of and doesn't approve of because he loves his son and realizes he makes his own decisions anyway. He seems to know he can't reach George, but never stops trying. The bond between the two is undeniably strong. Penelope Cruz gives a great portrayal of Mirtha, the woman he marries out of excitement, only to turn into a mirror of his mother. She puts him (or he does) in the same seat that his father was in, despising him when he can't deliver the life he promised. Of all the characters, Mirtha is the only one who shows the most development, trading in a life of excess and excitement for the life of a responsible single mother. We understand why she limits George's time with his daughter, and his behavior confirms her reasons.

While he never directly avoids taking personal responsibility for his crimes, his matter of fact presentation of them, treats being the largest American cocaine dealer in the country as an alternative career. rather than a criminal enterprise. By George's reasoning, he only seized a logical opportunity. While he understands that prison time is a job hazard, he also sees fleeing while on bail a reasonable solution.  We end up with a self portrait of a man who believes life doesn't have to treat you fairly, starting with his early money concerns, knowing that his father is a hard worker who simply can't seem to make money, continuing to the loss of his girlfriend Barbara, whom he loses to cancer, his betrayal by his trusted partners Diego and Derrick, to the loss of his daughter's affection.

George has no desire to be a gangster, he really wants to be a businessman. The one instance where he attempts to be intimidating is almost laughable, putting an empty gun to Diego's head, which doesn't faze Diego in the slightest. The drugs sold in the movie are treated as almost incidental, and if not for the fact that they earn him his prison time, they may as well be plumbing supplies. "Blow" is not an in depth look at the cost of the drug problem, just a cursory look at the life of one of the key players. If it hadn't been him, it could have been someone else. George just happened to have the drive to make it happen when he ran into the right people. The message seems to be that this is something that could almost happen to anyone who had the motivation. He didn't have to kill anyone, or pass an initiation, he just had to keep selling coke. He wasn't special, when Diego cuts him out, no one bats an eye, because ultimately the only concern is profit.

George's main defect is that he never takes a stand on anything, always choosing the path of least resistance. That's the attitude which starts his drug career. The marijuana dealing practically falls into his lap and it's an easier way to make money than working a regular job. The move up to cocaine, similarly is practically given to him by his cellmate at the time, Diego, and when it's taken away he barely struggles with the decision. For all his talk about how drastically his life was changed by his daughter's birth, we don't see any evidence of this, just a continuation of the same pattern he's always followed. He wants his daughter to love him in the way that his father loved him, unconditionally, but she only knows what she learned from her own parents, which is to always be skeptical and expect a promise to be broken.

The real story is a man on a quest to be better, and end up better off than his father, only to prove that he wasn't capable of either. What he admired in his father, (hard work, and reliance on his own judgement) are the things he sacrifices to make his money, substituting risk taking and creativity. For his father money was never the goal, happiness was, he realized that having the money wasn't as important as where he got it, even though it made his life miserable at times he took the high lows in stride. George succeeded only in having higher highs and lower lows, ultimately low enough that he couldn't come back from them. He claims to have learned this lesson, once stuck with over 60 years in prison, but you have to wonder, did he really learn or is it just that he had no choice?

Bullitt

Frank Bullitt isn't a typical cop. While most around him work "by the book"  Bullitt does things his own way. He's a loner who despises the system and makes no attempt to hide his disdain. He's also very good at what he does. The newspapers love him, which makes aspiring politician Walter Chalmers(Robert Vaughan,) hand selects Bullitt, to guard Johnny Ross, a mafia member and key witness in a huge case against the Mafia. To give the invitation he has Bullitt called to his huge house where he's having an extravagant party. He promises Bullitt that the Senate SubCommittee hearings will propel those involved into better positions, and tells him that he wants to "take him along"

The assignment is to watch Ross for the weekend until he can testify on Monday. Bullitt has two partners team to cover the watch, Sergeant Delgetti (Don Gordon) and Detective Carl Stanton (Carl Reindel). Chalmers tells him the hotel room where Ross is staying and Bullitt is given the authority to do anything he needs to to keep Ross safe by Captain Bennett (Simon Oakland)


Ross seems surprised at the arrangement and asks a lot of questions, but Bullitt doesn't bother coddling him, telling Ross that the only concern he should have is staying away from the windows. Ross does inform them that Chalmers picked the hotel. They divide up the watch into shifts and Bullitt goes out to a club to meet his girlfriend Cathy (Jacqueline Bisset). Delgetti calls Bullitt to let him know they're changing shifts and Cathy gets annoyed because he won't tell her anything about the call.

Stanton is now watching Ross, and the front desk annouces two visitors at 1:00 in the morning, claiming to be "Mr. Chalmers and a friend." This makes Ross noticeably uneasy. Stanton calls Bullitt, who tells him not to let them in and he'll be there in five minutes. The visitors don't wait at the front desk however, busting into the hotel room shooting, leaving Ross and Stanton unconscious and bleeding. Bullitt arrives at the hotel with police and ambulances already at the scene. Stanton was shot in the leg but has some bleeding problems, while Ross is in worse shape. Bullitt questions Stanton in the ambulance, getting a description of one of the men and his gun. He also reveals that Ross had taken the chain off the door, which helped the men get in. The hospital informs them that Stanton will be alright, but Ross is in critical condition. Captain Bennett meets Bullitt at the hospital to inform him that Chalmers is upset and likely to make up political points by blaming the Police Department for his lack of the promised witness. Bullitt answers the  Captain, "Does Chalmers run this case or do I?" The Captain gives him authority saying  "Do what you think is best, and I'll try to back you up."

Chalmers and some associates soon vist the hospital themselves. Chalmers attempts to put Bullitt on the spot asking what went wrong, but Bullitt counters by asking "Who else knew where he was?" He pushes further, asking what deal Chalmers had with Ross. Chalmers won't answer and claims that the only problem is that the officer's didn't handle their responsibility. Chalmers clearly intends to be intimidating, but Bullitt isn't bothered, dismissing Chalmers, by saying
"You believe what you want. You work your side of the street, I'll work mine."

Chalmers informs Bullitt that he'll come back in the morning with his own people to watch Ross. On his way out he demands to have his own surgeon replace the one who had been treating Ross. After he leaves, one of the killers from the hotel shows up at the hospital, claiming to be looking for a relative with a gunshot wound. Bullitt is alerted to the killer's presence by a call from a hospital employee. He informs Delgetti that one of the killers is in the building and they start searching the hospital. The killer escapes, but they keep him from Ross. Bullitt is in the operating room shortly afterwards when Ross dies during surgery. Bullitt asks the surgeon to keep the file open, not telling anyone (particularly Chalmers) about the death, hoping this will help catch the killers. The surgeon agrees to "misplace" the file. The body is then sent to the morgue as a John Doe.

Chalmers arrives the next morning at the hospital with a large entourage. When he finds Ross is not in the same room, he gets frantic and starts throwing his name around to get results.Captain Baker (Norman Fell) accompanies Chalmers, lending the authority of an official police request to his demands. He then calls Bullitt and asks where the witness is. Bullitt says "I've got him." He refuses to tell Chalmers where Ross is, hanging up when Chalmers puts Capt. Baker on the phone. He then order Baker to write him up, and Baker quickly agrees.

Bullitt goes back to the hotel room for a look around. Degetti and Bullitt question the hotel clerk who says they knocked him out before he saw anything. Bullitt starts intimidating the man which jogs his memory, and he soon remembers seeing them arrive and what cab company they used. Bullitt starts checking out Sunshine Cabs and finds the driver, Weissberg (Robert Duval) who dropped the men off.  He has Weissberg show him where they went and calls an informant, Eddie,  for information on Johnny Ross. The killers meanwhile, are parked nearby watching Bullitt.

Chalmers pays a visit to Captain Bennett at church, promising him career advancement and vague financial reward. The Captain tells him that it's Bullitt's case and if he's hiding the witness, he's doing so for a reason, Chalmers, frustrated,  hands the Captain a "writ of habeas corpus" telling him he's now responsible for delivering the witness. Eddie reveals that Johnny Ross was stealing money, and they tried and failed to have him killed and the mob is now watching the airports and ports so he can't go anywhere.

Bullitt gets back to his own car, a 1968 Ford Mustang GT 390 CID Fastback, and notices the killers car close by following him in a 1968 Dodge Charger R/T 440 Magnum. Bullitt quickly turns the tables and ends up behind them. When they panic, this leads to the most famous chase scene in movie history as Bullitt chases them through the streets of San Francisco for nearly ten minutes.The killers get blown up when they lose control of the car and drive into gas pumps.


Bullitt now has to answer to both Chiefs. Baker, as we know is deep in Chalmer's pocket, and Bennett, who has run out of options after the car chase. Bennett has no choice but to insist that he turn over Ross.  Bullitt reveals when ordered, that Ross is dead, which causes Baker to berate him. Bullitt reveals he has a lead to follow up, a girl's number that Ross had called.The Chief agrees to hold the writ for Ross until Monday morning (upsetting Baker) Bullitt takes the opportunity to follow up his lead. He gets to the girl's apartment to find her strangled to death. Cathy, who drove him to the scene, gets bored and concerned and goes inside to check on him.

She's severely disturbed by seeing the dead woman and Bullitt has to make her stop looking at the body. His callous attitude when dealing with such a horrific scene makes her question if she knows him at all and if anything can ever reach him. Reasoning that his living with violence and death will make him grow more distant from her.
"What will happen to us in time?" she asks
"Time starts now" Bullitt answers.

The dead woman's luggage is sent to the police department from the airport. They discover men's things in one of her luggage trunks along with travel arrangements to Rome minus passport and tickets, as well as a lot of money and evidence with the name of Albert Rennick. He orders a copy of Rennick's passport photo and fingerprints on file for Ross. Chalmers shows up during his investigating and demands a signed admission that Ross died in his care. Bullitt says "when I'm ready" and finally when Chalmers insists just says "excuse me" and leaves Chalmer's standing there. Bullitt reveals that Rennick is actually a used car salesman, Ross set up to pose as him, and the dead woman was his his wife, killed to keep her quiet about the arrangement so Ross can leave the country using Rennick's identity.

Bullitt, Delgatti, and Chalmers head to the airport to catch the real Ross. Chalmers attempts a conversation with Bullitt, reminding him that Ross is still his witness. Bullitt is clear with his response, snarling:
Bullitt: "Look, let's get something clear. I don't like you."
 Chalmers: "Come on, now. Don't be naive, Lieutenant. We both know how careers are made. Integrity is something you sell the public."
Bullitt: You sell whatever you want, but don't sell it here tonight.
Chalmers: Frank, we must all compromise.
Bullitt: Bullshit!...Get the hell out of here, Now.
Chalmers has the sense to comply. Bullit gets an escort to the plane and makes his way to Ross, who jumps out an emergency exit and takes off down the runway leading to an extended foot chase which ends with Bullitt shooting Ross dead. Chalmer's drives away in his chauffered car, while Bullitt stays at the scene. He heads home to find his girlfriend and he takes a long look in the mirror, before the camera moves to his gun, which he'd set aside to wash up.

Bullitt is one of the most influential action movies ever made. Peter Yates has an interesting style, keeping the story moving at a fast pace and trusting the audience to keep up. The various chase scenes are worthy of praise in their own right, yet most of the movie is watching Steve Mcqueen glower, keeping everything to himself. While Bullitt is no Dirty Harry, there could have been no Dirty Harry without him. Bullitt is the ultimate loner, and when Cathy worries about him growing more callous, no one can doubt she's right to be concerned. While everyone else in the movie is bound by clear rules and agendas, Bullitt is impossible to figure out. He obviously despises the system he works in, yet for reasons of his own he continues.  He thinks no more of a enacting a possibly career ending deception, than he would of brushing his teeth.

McQueen's acting is great to watch. He plays the role with several convincing facial expressions, which he has down to perfection. Vaughan is also fantastic, playing sleaze to the hilt. You wonder how anyone can bear to talk to him. Their scenes together are wonderful, each representing an alien world to the other. The supporting roles are all solid if slight. It's also very cool to see a young Robert Duvall, if only for a moment.

Bullitt is not bothered by anything; his character, the epitome of cool and detached.  He does what he feels he should do, unnaffected by anyone else's thoughts. He doesn't care about status or success, he just does what he has to, because for some reason he's good at being a cop. Chalmers is Bullitt's opposite number, completely driven by what others think, and the prospect of obtaining more money and influence. The crime is strictly an excuse to put Bullitt and Chalmers against each other. The fact that there are two police chiefs is also significant. Chief Baker is happy to play Chalmer's flunky, while Bennett sympathizes with Bullitt but ends up unable to back him because of the system they work in. His partners may sympathize, but they simply follow the rules while Bullitt is making moves.  We're to understand that he doesn't have a real ally anywhere. McQueen's demeanor only changes radically once in the movie, when Chalmers suggest he should compromise. "Bullshit!" he says, and we believe him. He won't compromise and that's what leaves him outside the system, not only at work, but in his relationship with Cathy, and presumably in his own life. To me, the ending scene suggests that he knows Cathy is right.

Bullitt is a story about one man at odds with the system, who also knows he's powerless to change it. The Chalmers of the world just drive away when things go badly, and chauffered at that. Even his supporters eye him cautiously, not comfortable with an intensity they can't understand. Bullitt looks good in the headlines, but he doesn't really care about how he looks. He keeps a steady romantic relationship, but lives like a single man. He won't compromise his self sufficiency, any more than he would compromise his own sense of integrity. While some may find it admirable, for Bullitt it looks like steady torture, fortunately for the length of the film, it's torture he can manage. But watching the last scene you wonder how long he can tolerate being surrounded by compromises, and what he'll do when he can't anymore.