Smoking in the movies; a new low (1 Viewer)

[Charles J P]

Right, I understand the original poster. He thinks that having a character smoke in a movie is a director or writer's crutch. I dont agree and I dont think other posters here do. We were pointing out the fact that this sort of thing happens in real life and elicits a certain reaction from people who see it, like Carl Johnson, so, the director is using that natural response. I dont think its manipulative, cheap, easy, a crutch, or any other term. Its reality protrayed in a movie.

 

[Matthew_Millheiser]

Walk into almost any major airport in Europe, and you'll be awash in a nicotine haze. Extremely annoying and unhealthy, but that's the reality of the situation.

Smoking is real. It happens. To pretend that it doesn't exist to send a message is just foolish and shortsighted. I don't smoke now but I did for 11 years; the mere presence of cigarette in a movie doesn't make me want to run out and light up.

Now a big Ukranian dinner, on the other hand... :b

 

[Eujin]

I don't know what all the fuss is about over the whole smoking in movies issue. What really bothers me is the amount of guns and gunplay used in movies. I mean, there's just nothing more disappointing than watching a good action/thriller film where the hero and villain pull guns out of the most unlikely hiding places and start blazing away at each other. THIS, more than smoking, drinking or prostitution, is the cheapest, weakest and most unoriginal device ever invented in movies. It's ridiculous. Instead of showcasing the conflicting emotions being experienced by the characters, directors choose to have them use guns as their primary instrument of conflict resolution!
Everywhere you look in action movies these days, it's just guns, shooting, more guns and more shooting. Inevitably, one of the main characters--even if it is the villain--ends up dying. This despite the fact that the character may have otherwise been a very compelling, likable rogue. Take DIE HARD as an example. We love John McClane (Bruce Willis), but Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) is also really cool. Couldn't we have had John and Hans sit down at the end of the movie to discuss their differences and come to a mutually satisfying agreement? But no, director John McTiernan has to have them duke it out in one last dramatic shootout. John could have said, "Hans, you have made me really angry by taking my wife as a human shield. Please let her go and we can try to undo countless generations of social conditioning, and liberate ourselves from a state of stunted emotional growth that will only allow us to communicate with firearms." Now that would have been original.
Show me one law enforcement official who recommends carrying a gun at all times, and advises pulling the trigger whenever and wherever. Action movie directors should know better that guns today are just poor substitutes for proper character and plot development. Shame on them. Now, bazookas on the other hand...

 

[Carl Johnson]

That reminds me of a television interview I saw where Bob Knight was explaining the situation where he was fired from IU for being aggressive with a student who addressed him as 'Knight'. According to Bob the conversation went like this...

"hey Knight"

I tapped him on the shoulder and said "pardon me son, I'd appreciate it if in the future you referred to me a Coach Knight or Mr. Knight. Thank You."

 

[David Rogers]

As a writer, I refuse to let your specific opinions about what is and isn't acceptable imagery and/or (a) device guide how I would go about crafting scenes or animating a character.

Cigarettes, cigars, and other smoking implements are very useful when creating a story. The same as a car peeling out after an argument, someone standing crying in the rain after a loss, or opening a box of ice cream when feeling blue. A character lighting up when nervous, as a habit, or even to show calm resolve, these are useful as well. Likewise, the imagery of smoke (literally, of smoke, not of *smoking*) goes much further back in human storytelling tradition than the modern implemntations (and accompanying political correctness rants) of the act of smoking. Smoke and Fire are primal symbols for humans, and use of them can be extremely useful and quite satisfying when well done.

As a consumer of stories, I encourage you to pursue those stories that fuel the aspects of yourself and your soul that you desire. But to demand storytellers craft only which you want, in the way you want it ... pick up a pencil (or get behind a camera, or grab a paint brush, or ...) and go to work yourself.

Author David Gerrold said it best years ago, I feel. "I write stories that I want to read." So do most writers. I've never asked a published author that question without their ensuing agreement yet. If you don't like the stories coming out, write ones you do like. Show everyone how it should go.

 

[Andrew W]

Sure David...
And another thing, Why do you writers always have to have some stinky pigeons flying around when sombody dies???

 

[Vickie_M]

If you don't like to see smoking in movies.. don't rent Hoffa.

Or The Man Who Wasn't There!!
I can see the day coming where a company, much like that one that "edits" movies for sex and language, will digitally remove all cigarettes and cigarette smoke from films. You know it will happen.

 

[Matthew_Millheiser]

BTW cholesterol is a killer... if I see anyone grilling an omelet in a movie or on TV, I'll be surfing to petitionsonline.com faster than you can say "coronary thrombosis"!!!!

 

[NickSo]

Hey, are there like dummy cigarettes for actors who dont smoke but their character is needed to smoke?

I think i saw on SNL the other night with Robert DeNiro, in the PETER PAN skit, his cig didnt look real...

 

[BarryS]

If you don't like to see smoking in movies.. don't rent Hoffa.

Don't ever rent a Cheech and Chong movie either.

 

[SteveGon]

I can see the day coming where a company, much like that one that "edits" movies for sex and language, will digitally remove all cigarettes and cigarette smoke from films. You know it will happen.

One of the characters in Arthur C. Clarke's novel Ghost from the Grand Banks did this for a living.

 

[ThomasC]

Hey, are there like dummy cigarettes for actors who dont smoke but their character is needed to smoke?

Yep. I'm not sure what they're made out of, but they do exist. Saw something about it on Access Hollywood or whatnot a few years back.

 

[Zane Charron]

I can see all three POV on this topic (too much smoking in films, using smoking as an effective plot/character device and using it as a crutch).

I think what bugs me most about smoking in films is when it IS used as a poor device. A few examples that come to mind are Julia Roberts in 'My Best Friend's Wedding', an episode of X-Files when Gillian Anderson lights up and Jennifer Lopez in 'The Cell'. It seemed completely out of place in these circumstances, and only there to cheaply say 'Look, I'm under stress and am trying to relax'. In those cases it's an easy way out.

But, of course, it can be used effectively, such as in a noir-style film like 'The Man Who Wasn't There'. So I think it comes down to specific usage.

Still, it's amazing how much the culture has changed since about 1970. I was watching the live broadcast of the opening of Disneyland the other night on the Disney 'Treasures' series and was caught off guard when the opening shot was a journaist in a newsroom introducing the opening of Disneyland with a cigarette in hand and others in the room smoking as well. And of course Walt was a heavy smoker himself. That's 1955 for ya.

 

[Bryant Trew]

People smoke - get over it.

 

[JonZ]

"BTW cholesterol is a killer... if I see anyone grilling an omelet in a movie or on TV, I'll be surfing to petitionsonline.com faster than you can say "coronary thrombosis"!!!!"

 

[Patrick Larkin]

the title of this thread is "Smoking in the movies; a new low" which implies that the poster believes that smoking in movies was already at a low.
Militant anti-smokers usually wouldn't have a smoker as a friend and probably aren't exposed to the fact that
a.) smoking is LEGAL
b.) people still smoke
c.) as a result, people portrayed in movies smoke

now, doesnt this scene look fantastic?

 

[Timon Russo]

IIRC the Meet the Parents commentary, Deniro smokes herbal cigarettes.

 

[Rob Gardiner]

William B. Davis who plays "The Cigarette Smoking Man" on X-Files had quit smoking many years earlier. He smokes only herbal cigarettes on the show.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Deniro smokes herbal cigarettes.

I bet.

 

[Charles J P]

Is herbal cigarette an actual type of cigarette, or is it just weed? :frowning: