Product Description

Dramatization of the life of George Jung, the man who established the cocaine market in the United States.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 14-SEP-2004
Media Type: DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #928 in DVD
• Brand: DEPP,JOHNNY
• Released on: 2001-09-11
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 124 minutes

Amazon.com
A briskly paced hybrid of Boogie Nights and Goodfellas, Blow chronicles the three-decade rise and fall of George Jung (Johnny Depp), a normal American kid who makes a personal vow against poverty, builds a marijuana empire in the '60s, multiplies his fortune with the Colombian Medellín cocaine cartel, and blows it all with a series of police busts culminating in one final, long-term jail sentence. "Your dad's a loser," says this absentee father to his estranged but beloved daughter, and he's right: Blow is the story of a nice guy who made wrong choices all his life, almost single-handedly created the American cocaine trade, and got exactly what he deserved. As directed by Ted Demme, the film is vibrantly entertaining, painstakingly authentic... and utterly aimless in terms of overall purpose.

We can't sympathize with Jung's meteoric rise to wealth and the wild life, and Demme isn't suggesting that we should idolize a drug dealer. So what, exactly, is the point of Blow? Simply, it seems, to present Jung's story as the epitome of the coke-driven glory days, and to suggest, ever so subtly, that Jung isn't such a bad guy, after all. Anyone curious about his lifestyle will find this film amazing, and there's plenty of humor mixed with the constant threat of violence and paranoid anxiety. Demme has also populated the film with a fantastic supporting cast (although Penélope Cruz grows tiresome as Jung's hedonistic wife), and this is certainly a compelling look at the other side of Traffic. Still, one wishes that Blow had a more viable reason for being; like a wild party, it leaves you with a hangover and a vague feeling of regret. --Jeff Shannon

DVD features
The third Infinifilm finds another rich topic to showcase the fully loaded DVD line. Foremost is director Ted Demme's captivating interview with the real George Jung (the director also shares his commentary track with his subject). In addition Demme gives us a flippant, behind-the-scenes "Production Diary" and more than a half-hour of better-than-average deleted scenes (a few of which reveal the fate of a major character). The extemporaneous "Character Outtakes" are so good, more filmmakers should give it a try. One well-researched documentary segment traces the intertwined history of Colombia and cocaine; another relates the scientific explanation of getting high. With the Infinifilm feature, a viewer can access these materials separately or during the movie with seamless "jumps" to selected extras. A DVD-ROM feature incorporating the movie and printed script is an excellent finishing touch. --Doug Thomas

From The New Yorker
This story of the real-life cocaine dealer George Jung-a Massachusetts man who sold the Medellín cartel's dope to mainstream America in the seventies-would seem to offer a perfect star vehicle for Johnny Depp, but the unconvincing narrative doesn't allow him to shape a performance. The director, Ted Demme, and the screenwriters, David McKenna and Nick Cassavetes, tell the story of George's rise as a series of semi-comic riffs on his unwittingness-how casually he operated, how oblivious he was to risk and treachery on all sides. Apart from one scary episode with Pablo Escobar, the scenes are flimsily staged-thin and underdone. Now and then Demme throws in the towel and resorts to a rapid montage of shots meant to convey the giddy drug life, but this isn't directing, and it isn't evocation, either; it's more like flinging a loosely pasted scrapbook onto the floor and asking the audience to sort it out. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

One of my favorites
The movie is one of my favorites but in the bonus features I would have liked to hear more of George Jung's thoughts and stories.

a glossy snow story
THe acting on this movie is great. But as with any biography
the truth often gets far behind. A large number of people around the REAL
coke dealer met unfortunate ends probably at the dope dealers orders or his accomplishes. You can't be in the hard drug dealing world without
deadly violence.
But we don't see any of this. In fact a early character is said just to vanish. Yes. well most likely jung had him killed. When the late coke addict director of this movie ( he died overdosing on coke) wanted to tell Jungs story he presented a much kinder version of reality than existed. A true bloody tale would have been more accurate and entertaining but director instead tells us a version of drug dealing that is like a fairy tale in some ways. That's nothing new for hollywood.
Many biographies are so whitewashed that the real person would be amazed that this person on screen is supposed to be him!. The reality though is that coke and it's children have laid waste to millions of lives and to make a movie that doesn't show this destruction is rather strange. But then the director was a coke addict. he's dead and long after the real jung is dead the damage he did to the world will be with us.

Blow - Blu-ray Info
Version: U.S.A / Region A, B, C
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
VC-1 BD-50
Running time: 2:03:26
Movie size: 25,12 GB
Disc size: 46,01 GB
Average video bit rate: 22.07 Mbps

Dolby TrueHD Audio English 1474 kbps 5.1 / 48kHz / 16-bit / 1474kbps (AC3 Core: 5.1 / 48kHz / 640kbps)
Dolby Digital Audio English 640 kbps 5.1 / 48kHz / 640kbps
Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48kHz / 192kbps

Subtitles: English / English SDH

Number of chapters: 25

#Focus points
#Commentary by director
#Deleted scenes
#Character Outtakes
#Ted Demme's Production Diary
#Nikki Costa Push and Pull Music Video
#George Jung Interviews by director
#Lost Paradise: Cocaine's impact on Colombia addiction: Body and Soul
#Fact Track: Trivia subtitle track with direct access to additional features
#Theatrical trailers