I am happy to report I’ve made progress in my effort to corral my runaway Netflix queue. It is now down to 383 items from its peak of over 400. I credit the almost endless rain we experienced down here in Hell the Ohio Valley area over the last month.
There are many things I enjoy about the Netflix service, and one of the top ones is it gives me an opportunity to watch more documentaries. Since I have no cable or satellite service at all these days, it is about the only chance I have to see them since they rarely play in commercial movie theatres, and when they do it’s usually a short run. It’s a shame because a well-made documentary can come in just as many forms as fictional films, and often have an even greater emotional impact since it’s discussing actual events. Some are political, some just follow interesting people and others are investigative (one of the best falls into the latter category, a harrowing film entitled "The Thin Blue Line” that tore apart a murder conviction in Texas that included a virtual recorded confession from the real killer).
As a sports fan, HBO has aired some wonderful documentaries over the years, and recently ESPN put together an outstanding series called “30 for 30.” One of the ESPN entries, “The Two Escobars,” a feature about the Columbian national soccer team and its relationship to the cocaine cartels was as good as any I’ve seen about any subject. In fact, it even relates to my first recommendation coming up.
I have seen good ones that span all varieties of documentaries lately and I wanted to single out a few you should see when you get a chance.
Cocaine Cowboys: This is the most mainstream one as it’s been airing on Showtime lately, and it deserves the exposure. It’s a riveting look at cocaine trafficking in Miami during the 70s and 80s. It is very well researched and has some terrific sources as many of the main dealers from that time are just getting out of prison and are willing to talk. There’s even a prison interview with a cartel enforcer who shares frightening stories of just how far the Columbian cartels were willing to go to get there hands on the billions and billions of drug dollars flowing through Miami. The sheer volume of money and drugs that moved through the ports by land, air and sea will astound you, and several stories will amuse you as well (my favorite being a guy with such a cavalier attitude he towed a broken-down police boat back to shore while in the process of smuggling kilos of coke into the country from a water drop).
It also talks about Griselda Blanco, a high level drug kingpin (queenpin?) from the Medellin cartel who made Scarface look like someone you’d want to take to a church picnic. If anything, Miami Vice may have been an toned-down version of the city in those days.
Crazy Love: This was a strange one. The first 15 minutes or so is devoted a New York attorney who was in love with a girl and how he pursued her. In fact, for a couple of minutes I thought to myself, “This guy is a good storyteller and all, but why exactly are we making a movie out of this?” Well, I certainly found out. The story takes a weird turn and becomes a bit darker as he’s not the sweet lovelorn guy we thought at first.
So the movie changes direction and rolls along for a while before it takes an even more ridiculous turn. I won’t spoil it for you but I will tell you I began to see where it was all headed. “No way,” I said to myself. “There’s no way…” But it was. In fact, the foreshadowing actually added to it, since the development was so bizarre it kept me glued to see how it could have happened. It’s easily one of the strangest real-people stories I’m come across.
Edgeplay: This one falls into the retrospective area, and its subject is the late 70’s all-female punk band, The Runaways. Vicki Blue, a bassist for the band directed this and conducted most of the interviews.
Everything about the band is strange. It was put together pretty much out of thin air by a record producer named Kim Fowley, whose grand plan for forming an all-girl punk band (a market he thought was being under-represented apparently), was to basically walk around clubs, find girls he thought would look good in a punk band and ask them if they can play any instruments. Incredibly, during this process the guy managed to run into Joan Jett and Lita Ford, two women who could in fact play instruments and play them quite well. Jett of course later formed Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and had monster hits such as “I Love Rock-n-Roll” and a cover of “Wild Thing.” Ford had a huge hit in a duet with Ozzy Osborn called “If I Close My Eyes Forever.” Still, when Fowley found them they were barely old enough to have a learner’s permit.
The strangeness doesn’t end there. Fowley’s “training” of the band for the rigors of the road and the wild punk audiences they would encounter didn’t just toe the line, it leapt across it into abuse, especially when most band members were only about 15 or 16 when they joined. They were kept broke and demoralized, and really only experienced the trappings of success when they became huge stars in Japan out of nowhere just as they were beginning to disintegrate.
To say there was drama is a severe understatement, but it makes for an interesting tale. There are drawbacks to the film. Jett did not participate, and Blue could not get the rights to play any of the Runaways original material, most of which were written by Jett. That list includes their biggest song, “Cherry Bomb,” which was written on the spot as an audition piece for singer Cherie Currie. There are some clips of the band performing on youtube. They left me with mixed feelings, the first being they aren't a bad punk band at all considering their age and inexperience. The second is due to that same age and inexperience, I wondered how the hell all this was allowed to happen, but I guess the idea of stardom can seduce parents as well as kids.
Even without Jett, the rest of the band combines for an interesting snapshot of one of rock-n-roll’s stranger chapters. It’s worth a look.
No comments:
Post a Comment