Line #55 Film/Blow


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/71mfsnqitnl.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''[[Music/EricClapton If you wanna get down, down on the ground? Cocaine!]]'']]
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4	''Blow'' is a 2001 {{Biopic}} about the life of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Jung George Jung]], a cocaine dealer from the 1970s. Starring Creator/JohnnyDepp, Creator/FrankaPotente, Creator/PenelopeCruz, and Creator/PaulReubens.
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6	This film portrays the main events in George Jung's life. The film begins in the early 1950s, where George's father goes into bankruptcy, and George vows to himself that he will never be poor like his father. Next we see George move to Southern California, where he and his friend Tuna discover the profitable business of dealing marijuana. George goes on to delve deeper and deeper into the business of drug dealing, which results in great wealth, but disastrous consequences.
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8	This film was written by David [=McKenna=], and directed by the late Ted Demme.
9	----
10	!!This film provides examples of:
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12	* ActorAllusion:
13	** The first time George flies with cocaine, the customs agent finds a pair of satin panties in his suitcase.
14	--> [[Film/EdWood Old habits]] are hard to break.
15	** [[Film/FearAndLoathingInLasVegas Depp speeding in a car loaded with narcotics]].
16	%%* AffablyEvil: George Jung.
17	* AlliterativeName: '''D'''iego '''D'''elgado.
18	* AmicableExes: Discussed. After one of their after school walks, George asks Mirtha if they can be on better terms for the sake of Kristina.
19	* AwfulWeddedLife:
20	** Fred and Ermine didn't have a happy marriage. Ermine would always complain that Fred didn't make enough money for her liking and she would leave every now and then to get away from it all. And no matter what, Fred forgave her.
21	** After getting busted at his birthday and learning that his drug money was seized, George and Mirtha become this. While she didn't leave like Ermine, Mirtha didn't hide her bitterness over not having the money they used to.
22	* BasedOnATrueStory: For the most part.
23	* BeingEvilSucks: Being a drug dealer doesn't bring happiness to George's life. He gets to enjoy wealth for a while...then he's cut off from his suppliers, all his ill-gotten money is seized, he's arrested, his relationship with his parents (at least his mother) falls apart, his marriage crumbles, and in the end, he's sentenced to 60 years in prison just as he begins to bond with his daughter.
24	* BeingPersonalIsntProfessional: Derek Foreal's attitude towards George [[spoiler:while taking part in his betrayal.]]
25	* BigFancyHouse: George and Mirtha live in one of these... for a while.
26	* {{Biopic}}: Of drug dealer, George Jung.
27	* BirdsOfAFeather: George has this with both of Barbara and Mirtha.
28	%%* BookEnds
29	* BreakingTheFellowship: George's first drug team. After Barbara's death, they all broke up and went their separate ways.
30	* BriefcaseFullOfMoney: Briefcases full of money, boxes full of money, bags full of money. There is lots and lots of money.
31	* TheCameo: Creator/BobcatGoldthwait appears in the scene measuring the purity of cocaine.
32	** George's Jung's daughter Kristina appears as a clerk.
33	* CampGay: Paul Ruebens as Derek Foreal.
34	* CharacterNarrator: George narrates the entire story.
35	* ChekhovsGunman: Kevin Dulli, George's and Tuna's friend from Massachusetts. He isn't seen since Barbara's death but appears later and plays a role in George going to prison for the third time.
36	* CoolCar: A fleet of them in George and Mirtha's yard.
37	* CreatorCameo: Director Ted Demme as Arch, George's lawyer that gives him a tape recorder.
38	* DeadlyNosebleed: Barbara, foreshadowing her terminal illness.
39	* DisappearedDad: George becomes this after being busted with cocaine in his car and sentenced to three years in jail. Naturally, when they meet again, Kristina is not all that thrilled to bond with her dad...at first. Unfortunately, he becomes this again after he is betrayed by his team and is sentenced to 60 years in jail.
40	* DomesticAbuse: Diego slapped his girlfriend/future wife during an argument.
41	* DownerEnding: George loses everything over the course of his journey: his wealth, his family, his wife, and he's sentenced to 60 years in prison just as he was beginning to bond with Kristina. Although in RealLife, he was paroled after serving 20 years.
42	* DrugsAreBad: The {{Aesop}} that people should take from the film. By the same token, despite George's having to ultimately pay for his sins, it makes the [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanDream ritzy lifestyle]] look awfully [[MisaimedFandom tempting]].
43	* DysfunctionalFamily: Drug dealers aren't noted for being great parents.
44	** George's family is pretty bad, between his occasionally MissingMom and his dad being a HenpeckedHusband.
45	* FirstLove: George's first girlfriend, Barbara, was this for him and her death took a toll on him.
46	* FlippingTheBird: George does this in his mugshot.
47	* FollowTheLeader: InUniverse and Discussed. George points out that if musicians and actors start doing cocaine, everyone else will follow.
48	* FreudianExcuse: The main reason behind George's desire to make money was because his mother would always complain of not having enough of it and walk out on the family. Plus, his father went bankrupt at some point as well.
49	* FreezeFrameIntroduction: The movie starts with an OpeningMonologue in which the hero and his best bud are introduced via a still frame.
50	* GenerationXerox: Unfortunately, George continues the pattern of his parents' dysfunctional marriage after marrying Mirtha, mirroring the scene where the mother is mad over money problems at the dinner table.
51	* GettingHighOnTheirOwnSupply: George makes this mistake after dealing cocaine.
52	* GonnaNeedMoreX:
53	-->'''George''': (looking for place to put their money) Where do I put it?\
54	'''Diego''': Uh.. Try the back bedroom.\
55	'''George''': No room.\
56	'''Diego''': Try the closet.\
57	'''George''': Uhh... [[{{Film/Jaws}} We're gonna need a bigger boat]].
58	* GoodParents: Deconstructed. While Fred was a loving and caring father for George during his childhood, it didn't change the dysfunctional environment his son grew up in.
59	* GoodTimesMontage: Twice. Each one after George's success in dealing first weed then cocaine, in the form of pictures.
60	* {{Greed}}: George's desire to not live a poor life comes to hurt him later on.
61	* HadToComeToPrisonToBeACrook: PlayedWith, as George was obviously quite happy with smuggling and dealing marijuana in California and New England... but it was only after he was sent to prison for it that he learned about cocaine and just how lucrative dealing ''that'' would be.
62	* HistoricalBeautyUpdate: The incredibly attractive Johnny Depp as [[http://vz.cnwimg.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/George-Jung.jpg George Jung]] (The makeup people do uglify Depp for his final scene.)
63	* HonorAmongThieves: George is a criminal, but takes care of his friends. He brings more money than promised to the pot farmer, and he says to Escobar that he won't do anything without Diego.
64	* HowWeGotHere: The film begin's with George's final drug deal before the story going back to his childhood and following his drug career at the start proper.
65	* {{Hypocrite}}:
66	** George tells Mirtha to stop snorting cocaine since she's pregnant even though he does the same thing. Mirtha even calls him out on it.
67	** When Mirtha visits George in prison and informing him that she plans to divorce him and ask for alimony, she wants some kind of response from him. He replies that he has none since he's in prison. Mirtha then calls him selfish and always thinking about himself...even though she is more selfish than he.
68	* IHaveNoSon: George's mom is not happy about the way he makes a living.
69	* IronicEcho: "It was perfect."
70	* ItsAllAboutMe: Ermine has a ''huge'' case of this. She would always complain about Fred not making enough money for ''her'' (not for the family). And the main reason she called the cops on her son was because of how embarrassing it was for ''her'' to have a drug-dealing son.
71	* JerkassHasAPoint: Despite her selfish motive for calling the police to arrest her son, Ermine wasn't wrong on that George had to change his life.
72	* KubrickStare: A less menacing version, when George is busted for the last time.
73	* LivingEmotionalCrutch: Deconstructed. Kristina becomes George's "heart" and the main reason he stops drug dealing. But after being released from prison the second time, he has to make enough money so he can make alimony and child support for her. Thus, leads him back to drug dealing...leading to being arrested again.
74	* TheMasochismTango: George and Mirtha do spend an awful lot of time fighting. And there's ''very'' brief flashes of S&M stuff.
75	* AMinorKidroduction: Besides the small moment of HowWeGotHere, the film opens up with a young George and why he never wanted to be poor.
76	* NiceGirl: Barbara, Maria, and the other California girls.
77	* PapaWolf: Deconstructed. George loves Kristina so much he was willing to quit his drug business ''and'' go back to it if it meant he could spend time with her even more.
78	* ParentsAsPeople: Not one of the Jung parents are perfect people. George's parents are dysfunctional (mom is selfish and leaves from time to time, father always forgives her). Mirtha is a selfish woman like her (ex) mother-in-law. And George may be trying to go straight after the birth of Kristina, but that doesn't erase his mistakes.
79	* PetTheDog: With all the selfish attitude she exhibits, Mirtha genuinely asks George if he's okay after he drops off their daughter.
80	* PoolScene: When George buys his first house in Mexico.
81	* RagsToRiches: George goes for a poor kid to a wealthy drug dealer. [[RichesToRags Up until his birthday party...]]
82	* RichesToRags: After getting busted for the second time at his birthday party, all of the money George got from his drug dealing days were appropriated by the Panamanian government.
83	* RiseAndFallGangsterArc: The first half of the movie shows George graduate from smuggling marijuana to coke, his lavish lifestyle, and run-ins with flamboyant drug figures including Pablo Escobar himself. Later, we see George lose all of his money after another prison stint, his betrayal by his best friends, and eventual estrangement from his daughter.
84	* RuleOfThree: George is sentenced to jail three times in the film.
85	* SecondLove: Mirtha is this to George, but it didn't work out since his second bust so she divorced him while he was in prison.
86	* ShoutOut: Johnny Depp driving realllyyy fast through the [[Literature/FearAndLoathingInLasVegas desert with a vehicle full of dope]].
87	* TeamPowerWalk: Creator/JohnnyDepp in a white turtleneck and trench coat, rockin' 70s sideburns, to "Black Betty." [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj22LOCN6FM Ram-a-lam]].
88	* TimeSkip: ''A lot'' of them during the movie, ranging from days to years.
89	* UptownGirl: In the intro, it was mentioned that Ermine came from a higher social status than Fred. This is deconstructed since the lack of her husband making a lot of money was the main reason their marriage and family life was dysfunctional.
90	* VillainProtagonist: While George is a friendly, honorable, and loyal guy, he's still a drug dealer whose actions accelerated the cocaine trade in the United States.
91	* WaxingLyrical:
92	** When George is in the courtroom the first night before he finds out that Barbara's sick, the words that he is reciting to convince the judge that he is innocent are lines from "It Ain't Me Babe" by Music/BobDylan and "Pretty Boy Floyd" by Music/WoodyGuthrie.
93	** George's last line, "There are no more white horses or pretty ladies at my door" is a reference to "Lucky Man" by Music/EmersonLakeAndPalmer. Of course, "white horses" and "pretty ladies" are often used as euphemisms for cocaine and cannabis, respectively.
94	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: George's childhood friend and former weed partner, Tuna, is never seen again. It was mentioned by George he stayed in Mexico after Barbara's death, but his life afterwards is a mystery.
95	* WouldHitAGirl:
96	** Diego slaps his girlfriend/future wife during an argument.
97	** Pablo Escobar tells George that had an untrustworthy informant not accepted execution, the man's wife (and children)would've been killed instead.
98	* WouldHurtAChild: Pablo Escobar tells George that had an untrustworthy informant not accepted execution, the man's children (and wife) would've been killed instead.

Context Film / Blow