Documentary - Cocaine Cowboys

[Flashy]

Holy crap...has anyone seen this absolutely phenomenal documentary?

i am watching it for the second time tonight...it is just beyond belief and i highly recommend it.

It traces the rise of the Cocaine economy in Miami in the 70s, and the attendant wealth, violence, smuggling and eventual downfall through the 80s.

It is unbelievable...it is traced through the experiences of two major smugglers, several law enforcement officials, and convicted enforcer for Griselda Blanco, known as LaMAdrina "The Godmother" who in 3 years had at least 150 people killed

I just don't know what to say about it...one of the best docs i have ever seen.

From how small time it was when it began, to the first efforts at smuggling, to the corruption, to the involvement with NOriega, Escobar, Ochoa...you name it, it is here

the violence is staggering, the money outrageous, and the stories are just unreal.

I highly recommend it

it will be on the showtime channels in the next two weeks

or however you usually rent or view it on demand

 

[faceking]

I've had it on DVD, and have yet to watch in the 6 months or so I've had it. Shame on me.

 

[Flashy]

I've had it on DVD, and have yet to watch in the 6 months or so I've had it. Shame on me.

dude.

watch it tonight


sick

trust me

 

[HyperHulk]

Holy crap...has anyone seen this absolutely phenomenal documentary?

When I saw the title I thought this thread was going to be about Michael Moore's next movie about George Bush and I thought, sweet.

 

[Flashy]

When I saw the title I thought this thread was going to be about Michael Moore's next movie about George Bush and I thought, sweet.

Wah Wah Wah


I guess if Obama was Bush's trusty sidekick it would have been the pefect duo of coke users.

:smile:

 

[TurkeyWithaSunburn]

The movie Blow with Johnny Depp is a good movie too all about the same era, excitement, and loads of money. The History Channel did a doc on the real life guy in the movie. There is also Killing Pablo, all about pablo escobar's life and death.

 

[Qua]

hmm I should see this. I did a report on the cocaine economy as an example of the free black market for my International Trade and Finance class. Very interesting stuff.

 

[faceking]

dude.

watch it tonight


sick

trust me

Went out last night...

Watching this AM... it's like the non-Hollywood version of Blow. This guy is a George Young. So far, this critic is giving it a B.

 

[mista geechee]

Holy crap...has anyone seen this absolutely phenomenal documentary?

i am watching it for the second time tonight...it is just beyond belief and i highly recommend it.

It traces the rise of the Cocaine economy in Miami in the 70s, and the attendant wealth, violence, smuggling and eventual downfall through the 80s.

It is unbelievable...it is traced through the experiences of two major smugglers, several law enforcement officials, and convicted enforcer for Griselda Blanco, known as LaMAdrina "The Godmother" who in 3 years had at least 150 people killed

I just don't know what to say about it...one of the best docs i have ever seen.

From how small time it was when it began, to the first efforts at smuggling, to the corruption, to the involvement with NOriega, Escobar, Ochoa...you name it, it is here

the violence is staggering, the money outrageous, and the stories are just unreal.

I highly recommend it

it will be on the showtime channels in the next two weeks

or however you usually rent or view it on demand

yea i saw this a long time ago. pretty good even thought here's a million like it.

but i did like the part where the guy was talking about how he owned a pume and it slept in his bed with him and how he flew his helicopter to the horse racing track

 

[faceking]

yea i saw this a long time ago. pretty good even thought here's a million like it.

but i did like the part where the guy was talking about how he owned a pume and it slept in his bed with him and how he flew his helicopter to the horse racing track

One of the better parts.. is the guy with 300 kilos of coke in his boat.. with the Coast Goard and DEA coming up upon him, and his "lookout hottie" in the hotel freaking out that the guy is done for... then the authorities blow a piston rod... and the dude offers and pulls them back into the harbor, with the coke in his hull. Untouched. Classic.

 

[B_becominghorse]

NYPL has this, I just put a hold on the DVD, will get back to you in a few weeks--I usually have about 25 dvd's and cd's out at a time. Agree Blow was a good picture, and only thing I've liked Depp in. There's also a late 80s James Mills book, Flashy, which you should read, even though that long ago. That's where I got familiar with the violence of the sudden and purely whimsical nature that goes on with cocaine kingpins, who are also almost always heads. There's a very sad episode about a Florida girl who got involved with one of the big guys and she herself went out freebasing.

Will go and fetch the title. Mills is a fine write and, I believe, wrote the original of 'Panic in Needle Park', which was made into a fine film by Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne, and was an early Al Pacino starring role: he's excellent in it, and the girl, Kitty Winn, though never heard from again, was nominated for an Oscar. I went to a number of Didion readings in the last few years, and she talked about how she and her husband did their field research on the Upper West Side and saw lots of junkies shooting up.

Yes, it's 'the Underground Empire' and very hard to find by now. It's superbly written and should be a classic IMO. I only could find it at Alibris: Used Books, Used Textbooks, Rare & Out-of-Print Books , but you would definitely find it fascinating in conjunction with this documentary. And Mills seems to have been forgotten in general, doesn't even have a wiki listing, although he wrote the original novel for 'Panic...'

 

[mista geechee]

One of the better parts.. is the guy with 300 kilos of coke in his boat.. with the Coast Goard and DEA coming up upon him, and his "lookout hottie" in the hotel freaking out that the guy is done for... then the authorities blow a piston rod... and the dude offers and pulls them back into the harbor, with the coke in his hull. Untouched. Classic.

i forgot about that part. what about the pilots that would fly to and from south america with highly flammable ehter, millions of dollars, and of course cocaine. but if they crashed while in south america they would be killed if found. talk about ballsy. or the part where the guy went in the warehouse and described it as having walls made of 100 dollar bills