Cocaine Cowboys (2006)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Billy Corben

Release Date:

23 November 2007 (UK)

Genre:

Documentary | Crime

Tagline:

The incredible true story that inspired "Scarface" and "Miami Vice".

Plot:

In the 1980s, ruthless Colombian cocaine barons invaded Miami with a brand of violence unseen in this country since Prohibition-era Chicago...

Plot Keywords:

Cocaine | 1980s | Violence | Drugs | Murder

Cast

Jon Roberts	...	Himself
Al Sunshine	...	Himself
Sam Burstyn	...	Himself
Mickey Munday	...	Himself
Bob Palumbo	...	Himself
Toni Mooney	...	Herself
Edna Buchanan	...	Herself
Joseph Davis	...	Himself (as Dr. Joseph Davis)
Al Singleton	...	Himself
Louis Caruso	...	Himself
Raul Diaz	...	Himself
Jorge Ayala	...	Himself (as Jorge 'Rivi' Ayala)
Nelson Andreu	...	Himself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Griselda Blanco	...	Herself (archive footage)
Kelly Hughes	...	Girl in apt
Jenna Reeves	...	Girl In Ocean
Monica Rooker	...	Grizel Lorenzo
Alfred Spellman	...	Chucho Castro

Directed by
Billy Corben

Produced by
Billy Corben	....	producer
David Cypkin	....	associate producer
Bruno del Granado	....	executive producer
Alfred Spellman	....	producer

Original Music by
Jan Hammer

Cinematography by
Armando Salas

Film Editing by
Billy Corben
David Cypkin

Makeup Department
Robin Ryant	....	hair stylist
Robin Ryant	....	makeup artist

Sound Department
Juan Dieguez	....	sound designer
Paul Michael	....	sound re-recording mixer (5.1 version)
Lenny Rabinowitz	....	sound re-recording mixer

Special Effects by
Kevin Harris	....	special effects
John Patteson	....	special effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Mariah Diehl	....	assistant camera (as Mariah T. Diehl)
Josh Ellis	....	grip
Mike Gioulakis	....	grip
Brett Jacobsen	....	grip
Evan Rosenfeld	....	grip
Zachary Sieffert	....	assistant camera
Robert Villanueva	....	grip
Erika Waddey	....	grip
Kara Yeatts	....	grip

Editorial Department
Bradley Greer	....	on-line editor
Matt Perrin	....	colorist
Jeffrey Spiegelman	....	post-production assistant
Shawn Wines	....	apprentice editor

Music Department
Eric Ransom	....	composer: additional music

Other crew
Benton L. Becker	....	researcher
David A. Carter	....	legal services
Michael V. Finuccio	....	accountant
Wesley Marquet	....	researcher
Dario Moreno	....	researcher
Edward Mullins	....	legal services
Edward Shohat	....	researcher
Robert Villanueva	....	production assistant
Matthew Weiner	....	logo designer

Thanks
Mariauxy Castillo	....	special thanks

Production Companies

• Rakontur

Distributors

• Surreal Films (2009) (France) (theatrical)
• Madman Entertainment (2007) (Australia) (DVD)
• Magnolia Pictures (2006) (USA) (all media)
• Punto Zero (2008) (Italy) (DVD) (as Enjoy Movies)

Other Companies

• Cineworks Digital Studios  post-production
• Jeremy Walker + Associates  publicity
• Manhattan Transfer  adr facility
• Manhattan Transfer  sound re-recording
• RPM Group  publicity

MPAA:

Rated R for pervasive drug content, gruesome violent images, and language.

Runtime:

118 min | USA:116 min (short version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:R | Australia:M (2007) | Germany:16 | Norway:10 (TV rating) | Norway:15 (TV rating)

Filming Locations:

Miami, Florida, USA

Company:

Rakontur

Movie Connections:

References The Godfather (1972)

Documentary Film-making as Tabloid Journalism

Cocaine Cowboys is narrowly focused on how Miami became the drug capital and the most dangerous city in the United States during the late 1970s and the early 1980s. The film is lasciviously fascinated with the lavish lifestyle and the grotesque violence generated by the drug trade. Many obviously find such material quite fascinating. There's no denying that several anecdotes shared by dealers, smugglers, cops and veteran reporter Edna Buchanan are very amusing. Fans of TV's Miami Vice and Brian de Palma's Scarface are advised to rush to a theatre playing this film. They'll find that the real-life models of the fictional villains are even more flamboyant and vicious (the life of Griselda "the godmother" Blanco could be turned into a nifty fiction film). CocaineCowboys combines talking-head interviews with old TV footage in rat-tat-tat editing style. Shots of piles of cash and large stashes of cocaine are used as would-be punctuation marks; and there are more snapshots of bloody, perforated bodies than you've ever seen in your life.

Cocaine Cowboys is documentary film-making as tabloid journalism. Its cheap thrills provide a measure of entertainment but its reportage is devoid of context and thoughtful commentary. Director Billy Corben is a native, but as one born in 1979 his view of the material is decidedly second-hand. Towards the latter stages, Cocaine Cowboys strains to present Miami as "the city that cocaine built" by hyperbolically describing late-70s Miami as a "sleepy hamlet". There is some truth to the argument but it is a self-serving and simplistic one. Moreover, the content as presented here is likely to perpetuate certain ethnic stereotypes about the Colombian community and Cuban "marielitos" (Cubans who arrived when Castro allowed migration to the US through the port of Mariel in 1980).