When I was at Sundance in 2001, one of the films I saw on my Best Day Of Festival Viewing Ever was a documentary called RAW DEAL: A QUESTION OF CONSENT. Co-directed by Billy Corben, that was a brutal and difficult film about a rape case in Florida where the accused rapists had actually videotaped the entire encounter. I’m not sure why the film never made it into general release or onto home video, but I’m guessing it’s because of legal issues regarding the use of the video footage in the film. Corben obviously is drawn to the extremes of human behavior, though, because his new film is practically a love letter to the cocaine trade in and around Miami during the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.

You think SCARFACE is crazy? Or that it’s an exaggeration? My co-writer recently told me that he views the film as a cartoon, obviously not connected to reality in any way. However, by the end of Corben’s documentary, you’ll realize that, if anything, screenwriter Oliver Stone and director Brian De Palma had to tone down the truth in order to make it palatable.

Corben’s film starts when cocaine was still relatively small time as a business, and it was mainly brought into the country by pot smugglers who thought of it as a specialty product. Listening to the interviews with guys like Jon Roberts or Mickey Munday, they’re completely unrepentant about starting the landslide of cocaine into the country. They still look at themselves as nothing more than transportation. And, truth be told, they’re the most harmless guys in the film.

If you want to see how vicious the Miami drug trade really got, then you’ve got to check out the section of the film that deals with Griselda Blanco and her main enforcer, a terrifyingly cold-blooded killer named Ravi. Blanco was born in Colombia, and in the early ‘70s, she was a pioneer, one of the first major wholesalers for Medillin product. And, as the business ramped up and became more competitive, she became one of the most ruthless criminals in US drug history. She bought into the whole criminal image so completely that her final of four sons was actually named Michael Corleone Blanco. She was willing to kill anyone to advance her agenda, including children.

And yet, somehow, Corben and his editor David Cypkin make this sordid saga wildly entertaining. For one thing, Corben got Jan Hammer to score the film, so it’s got the authentic sound that we associate with Miami in the ‘80s. The film is a barrage of footage, much of it vintage news material from the era complemented by new interview footage with the survivors of the scene. The story of the drug trade in the era is also the story of how Miami became such a wealthy city. Even today, much of the money that built that town came from the drug trade, and there’s no way the city would be what it is now if not for that business. The mayhem described in this film goes far past anything we’ve seen on MIAMI VICE or in SCARFACE, and it makes you wonder if there’s still a definitive film about this era to be made by the right filmmaker. If so, Corben’s laid the groundwork with this adrenaline-charged documentary that serves as a reminder of just how much promise he has as a filmmaker. Here’s hoping it’s not five more years until his next film is released.

You can check out the official site for the film right here, which includes a trailer, release dates for the film as it rolls out across the country, and detailed timelines for the criminal careers of all the major players in the movie. It's open in NY right now, and it'll be in LA this coming weekend. Whereever you are, keep your eyes peeled. It's worth it.

Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles