Cocaine: One Man's Seduction

You get Dennis Weaver so what can go wrong? Then, a tale of cocaine the one nobody likes to talk about but meets up with eventually once they get started. People don't realize that where coke takes you right away is the high guaranteed and coming off it is uncomfortable and then the addiction and it literally takes from you as it does. How? You will want to return to the land of coke as soon as you leave it. Won't or can't happen to you...you say? Coke begs to differ. I have known people that will lie, cheat, turn irrational and steal to have it until they get it. The Universal law spares no one as follows: Whatever you get into gets into you holds with no exceptions and applies to every subject. It is non-negotiable too. Mind you, getting started its the user that is naive not the drug. It is no respecter of persons. Weaver takes us through the all stages realistically. Make allowances for the generations that handle the addiction stages differently. This film depicts the 80's working class. The Real Estate depictions are hokey (I am a broker) but who is to say that for that time it wasn't the norm? Enjoyable and realistic film worthy of a watch.

Unbelievable this hasn't been released on DVD yet!

Those old enough should remember how controversial 'One Man's Seduction' was, when first broadcast in 1983. Back then, most television viewers could only access about a dozen channels, so these TV movies remained a big deal at that point.

It was considered a brave move on Weaver's part to even take this role, despite the rampant cocaine abuse that peaked in mainstream America during the early 1980s.

And does he make the most of it! You haven't enjoyed Dennis at his best until you see this one. Also, Pamela Bellwood never looked better than she does here, and should have earned an Emmy nomination for her supporting role as Weaver's unwitting enabler.

David Ackroyd tells Dennis Weaver the same thing that John Kapoles would say to James Woods in THE BOOST... that they need a boost... which means cocaine... and while both that movie and this TV-movie (that came out before) both got bad reviews, they're both, well... very addictive pieces of entertainment...

Watching a hippie get high is like watching a fish swim... but seeing an otherwise conservative Willy "Death of a Salesman" Loman type blasting coke up his nose is always fun to watch, and of course quite rare, and Dennis Weaver, known for playing either tough or frantic roles, kind of balances both here...

His good wife's Karen Grassle, his good son's James Spader, his semi-wild buddy's Jeffrey Tambor and the truly wild office flirt, who introduced him to the dealer to gave him a boost, is Pamela Bellwood, so the cast is sublime...

But what makes this work is the realistic arc into his addiction and how the drug is treated here: first helping his fledgling sales (the best part) until the monkey starts showing, aka, he becomes a scene...

The more Dennis does coke the more he strays from McCloud and morphs into the zany motel worker in Touch of Evil, and overall, whether soberly depressed or high as a kite or crashing like one, does a fantastic job, not overacting like he could have... meaning, he really seems high on coke, not some old actor putting us on.

Dennis Weaver showed unusual shrewdness in picking scripts for television movies that he starred in. He consistently picked top-quality projects like The Ordeal Of Doctor Mudd and Bluffing It. This is another example of a quality tv film that rises above the usual fare. "It will kill her if she finds out...it will kill him if she doesn't" was the ad-line for this movie. Weaver plays Eddie a nice, unassuming real estate agent with a wife and teenage son with the typical hang-ups. Its hard to believe that a 47 year old man could be this foolish, but somehow Eddie gets hooked on cocaine. It starts innocently enough, a kooky acquaintence gets him to try a little. He is basically insecure about himself and cocaine makes him feel like he is on top of the world. He hides his coke in his shaving kit. Its like a snowball rolling down a hill and it just gets worse and worse. You feel like screaming at this man "WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU DOING YOU IDIOT!!!"His wife finds his coke stash and blames his son and in the most pathetic scene in the entire film, Weaver has to "explain" himself to his son. (Oh I was under so much pressure, thats why I used it!). It reminds me of Going For Broke with Delta Burke. Finally it all comes crashing down on Eddie as his heart flips out, and this scene is really frightning when they rush him to the emergency room. His son finally tells his mother the truth that its his father who is the addict. The most pitiful part of the whole film is when they wheel him down the corridor and he cries to his wife and son "OH PLEASE DONT EVEN LOOK AT ME IM SO ASHAMED!!!" As well you should be!

I'm not going to go into details about this film other than to say that some people (myself included) find this film very funny in places...however you will find it *very* hard to find! Its never going to be on TV I would have thought because of the title etc...I'm hoping for a DVD special edition but that's just being silly! To sum up..a couple of people I know who know a fair bit about the subject matter didn't like the film - they seemed uncomfortable, maybe the truth hurts?. Other people I know found it boring. However a select few found it hilarious in places...yes it is a "back from the pub/club film" - if you see it, buy/beg/borrow/steal it! It will interest you to know that this film is endorsed by Nancy Reagan..not my words, the words on the video cover!