[yasr_overall_rating]
The real life of Colombian drug lord, Griselda Blanco, who reportedly masterminded more than 200 murders. This film presents her life story from the time she was a young girl to the end of her life.
Griselda Blanco Restrepo was known as the “Cocaine Godmother” and the “Queen of Narco-Trafficking.” She came to the United States in the early ’70s from Colombia where she was a small-time crook, with a history of theft and even murder, at the age of 11. Once here in the U.S., she and her husband began trafficking cocaine within the country and also to Colombia. After having been indicted for federal drug conspiracy charges, she fled back to Colombia before the government could arrest her, and then returned to Miami in the late ’70s.
In a time before the internet, mobile devices, and cameras on every street corner, she was able to maneuver around the state of Florida undetected, every time the feds got close to her. In the early 1980s, Florida saw the beginning of the “Miami Drug War,” also known as the “Cocaine Cowboy Wars,” as cocaine had become the number one drug in the United States, surpassing marijuana. During this time, Griselda enforced such brutality and bloodshed against her competitors, not even their families were exempt, including women and children, no one was spared.
She was eventually caught and put in prison for 10 years and continued to run her business from behind bars. When she was eventually released, she was deported back to Colombia and in 2012, she was gunned down by members of her opposition.
I had some trepidation about “Cocaine Godmother: The Griselda Blanco Story,” after all, it was a Lifetime movie and they tend to permeate an overabundance of sentimentality but the amount of violence and language throughout, made it all the more believable. Catherine Zeta-Jones is absolutely riveting as Griselda Blanco, she is unflinching in her performance as a woman who wants complete control of every aspect of her business and will stop at nothing to get the job done. Throughout the film, she constantly likened herself to that of Michael Corleone, the character Al Pacino played in “The Godfather” movies and a lot of her life had parallels to that of Michael. She became the most powerful female drug dealer in the country and had no hesitation in killing family members if they betrayed her, and like the ending of “The Godfather: Part III,” where Michael dies alone, after she was deported back to Colombia, now 69 years of age, and with no family left, including her three sons who had all been murdered, she was leaving a butcher shop when a gunman approached her and shot her twice in the head. You live by the gun, you die by the gun.
The film gives a great insight into Griselda Blanco’s life and shows just how ruthless she was. As a young girl living in Colombia, constantly being sexually assaulted by her mother’s boyfriend, with her knowledge, she never really stood a chance. She grew up surrounded by bad people and criminals and began her own life much the same way. Pretty sad but in no way did it give her a pass for the amount of violence she committed later in her life, that was solely on her, and her family. In the end, she reaped what she sowed.
Now available on DVD
