Cocaine: One Man's Seduction

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!

It could be that the anti-drug movie is one of the hardest to pull off. Even with great setups and decent performances, they can come off as bathos-drenched soap-opera hell ("The Boost" always comes to mind, and it doesn't help when the lead actor acts like he's on crack when he's sober).

"Cocaine: One Man's Addiction," while possibly having one of the most ridiculous titles in TV-Movie history, actually works due to the ordinariness and realism of the characters and plots. There isn't anything here that's going to shock or amaze you: just an ordinary guy sending himself down the toilet and wondering how he got there. But it gets to you, simply because it's so low-key. Dick Van Dyke did something similar with "The Morning After," but it never seemed as life-threatening or desperate as it does here.

Weaver portrays an aging real estate agent who's finding himself edged out of the company he helped build. While he gives his usual competent performance, the real sparks fly from some of the supporting actors, notably Jeffrey Tambor, as a friend of Weaver's whose binge with coke nearly drove him to suicide, and a teenage James Spader, who brings an easy realism (and pain) to the role of Weaver's disaffected son.

With Pamela Bellwood, nicely playing a poignantly injured casual user who initially lures Weaver toward his doom and a mis-cast Karen Grassle, who looks simply uncomfortable throughout.

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.

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.

one of the best and most "hitting you in the face" movies of all time.

on one hand,it is a sad story of a drug user(weaver) who gets so messed up he stoops to blaming his own kid for coke when his wife finds it.

on the other hand..its unintentionally hilarious. there's one scene when weavers walking on the beach on a boardwalk and he drops his keys..he flips out. another great part is when he blows a big presentation because hes so paranoid. a must see. is this thing in print??? it should be. anyone thinking they can do cocaine without having a bad time needs to see this. as said..both serious and funny at once.

when it was first shown as a typical "movie of the week' it was a bit silly..because we were seeing mcloud on dope! i think Dennis gives one of his all time best performances here.. he doesn't overact as he often was known to. hes very cool and realistic. this is what anyone could and does experience with that nasty drug. but what about Dennis? would that people could remember him for more than just duel and mcloud..and gunsmoke. because his rolls(including the infamous terror on the beach) for movies of the week were gems!