'Cocaine Cowboys' a solid ride
By Brian Offenther |
August 6, 2012, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE best part of "Cocaine Cowboys" is that it is utterly unflinching, using crime-scene photos, reenactments, quick edits and colorful testimonials to give viewers a sense of the exuberance of the times. The worst part is that, like many of the users and just about all the drug dealers, the film goes overboard, overwhelming the audience for a solid two hours, leading to burnout. What's left, though, is a fairly solid ride.
We begin by following John Roberts, a Mafia hoodlum from New Jersey as he avoids a hairy situation by moving south to tropical Miami in the early 1970s. We're introduced to the scene along with him, as a breezy seaside town full of tourists and old people begins importing Latin immigrants, young business people and drugs.
He starts small, but soon Roberts joins drug smuggling pilot Mickey Munday and the pair begin an extremely lucrative business as middlemen between the Medellin family drug cartel in Columbia and cocaine users in Miami.
By 1979 excess has been a way of life for them and other underground entrepreneurs as they make millions a year, spending lots of it on sex and status symbols. An infamous murder at the Dadeland Mall that year signals a violent turn, with dealers battling it out for territory and over petty jealousies.
The symbol of the times is the amazing Griselda Blanco, a plain-looking woman who ruthlessly orders the killings of anyone she deems to have disrespected her in the slightest actual enemies. The compelling "Godmother" is the film's highlight, overshadowing even her articulate favorite former assassin, Jorge "Ravi" Ayala.
By this time the plot largely stops, even as the relentless sound track by "Miami Vice" TV show theme composer Jan Hammer continues on in its synth glory.
The score represents the faults of the movie. The famous theme is great in a one-minute burst, but stretched out for two hours, it becomes repetitive and loses its force.
If "Cocaine Cowboys" were split up and used artfully, its impact would be much greater. Instead, the same excess that leads to the downfall of the players leads to that of the movie profiling them. But a fine ride, nevertheless.
We begin by following John Roberts, a Mafia hoodlum from New Jersey as he avoids a hairy situation by moving south to tropical Miami in the early 1970s. We're introduced to the scene along with him, as a breezy seaside town full of tourists and old people begins importing Latin immigrants, young business people and drugs.
He starts small, but soon Roberts joins drug smuggling pilot Mickey Munday and the pair begin an extremely lucrative business as middlemen between the Medellin family drug cartel in Columbia and cocaine users in Miami.
By 1979 excess has been a way of life for them and other underground entrepreneurs as they make millions a year, spending lots of it on sex and status symbols. An infamous murder at the Dadeland Mall that year signals a violent turn, with dealers battling it out for territory and over petty jealousies.
The symbol of the times is the amazing Griselda Blanco, a plain-looking woman who ruthlessly orders the killings of anyone she deems to have disrespected her in the slightest actual enemies. The compelling "Godmother" is the film's highlight, overshadowing even her articulate favorite former assassin, Jorge "Ravi" Ayala.
By this time the plot largely stops, even as the relentless sound track by "Miami Vice" TV show theme composer Jan Hammer continues on in its synth glory.
The score represents the faults of the movie. The famous theme is great in a one-minute burst, but stretched out for two hours, it becomes repetitive and loses its force.
If "Cocaine Cowboys" were split up and used artfully, its impact would be much greater. Instead, the same excess that leads to the downfall of the players leads to that of the movie profiling them. But a fine ride, nevertheless.
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