LAURA JOHNSON
A&E Assistant Editor
Smoking is sexy. Tell everyone you know. Clearly, Hollywood has been aware of this fact for some time. When the god-like creatures Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp light up on screen, with those opaque puffs of smoke secreting from their mouths, it’s as if the world has stopped.
Maybe scenes like these were just too hot to handle because now the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has deemed that any smoking depicted in a film automatically smacks the movie with at least a PG rating.
Where will the line be drawn? Are they going to take out scenes of people driving in cars because it’s dangerous and could potentially lead to a car accident? Or how about those pesky scenes of intense cooking? A small child may think that they want to one-up their culinary art skills and instead burn a hand in the process. We live in a world where danger lurks around every corner.
In no way am I saying that every G-rated film should feature Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck lighting up, but cigarettes are part of the real world. According to the MPAA, a PG film is one with material that parents may consider unsuitable for their children, but parents should make that decision. As cigarettes are perfectly legal (for now), normal parents should not have a problem with their children seeing something in a movie that they would be exposed to by simply walking down the street.
In the genius film, “Thank You for Smoking,” the same concept is explored. A big tobacco lobbyist agency is working to get more smoking into movies. In one scene, one actor quips, “These days, when someone smokes in the movies, they’re either a psychopath, or a European.” And this line definitely has a whiff of truth. Unless the character is an evil drug dealer or is in an independent movie, a person who smokes in a film will either be made fun of by the other characters, have cancer or be coughing up a lung in every scene.
Whatever happened to the glory days when it was perfectly acceptable for Audrey Hepburn to pull out her suave, long-stemmed cigarette holder, or for a young James Dean to be a rebel with a cause for smoking? They were never made fun of — they just looked too good.
Today, smokers are shunned, told they are horrible awful freaks of nature and that they are contributing to the threat of Global Warming. Some cities (including Calabasas, Santa Monica and, as of this weekend, Beverly Hills) have even passed laws not allowing these fellow human beings to smoke in most outdoor areas or they could be fined.
Now for the shocker: not that anyone cares, but it must be known that I do not smoke. It’s a good thing, too, because I would be that gross chain smoker who never did anything but light up off the end of my last cigarette.
Everybody knows that smoking is bad for the body. We’ have been pelted with this information since preschool. Our teachers would say, “Here are the ABCs, this is how you tie your shoe, oh, and remember, smoking is bad.” We know.
Still, anti-cigarette non-profit organizations, such as the Foundation for a Smokefree America, have been trying to figure out why people, especially young women, are still starting to smoke in the first place. And, the easiest target is the film industry.
There will always be that mystery surrounding smoking, and when really good-looking people do it on screen, it will always look mighty captivating. However, parents, children and college students alike should be strong enough to not be influenced by the addictive stimulus that it is.
If you feel the need to smoke, you should be able to, and if you want to watch a G-rated movie featuring fabulous smoking people, then that too should be permitted.
10-04-2007
