I just watched the movie “Thank You For Smoking” again last night and I thought it was still funny the second time.
However, the Wikipedia article mentions differences between the book and the movie, particularly with respect to the kidnapping plot (which is a side note in the movie) and the ending.
Can anyone who has read the book and seen the movie summarize the differences? Who was behind the kidnapping? And how did the book end?
The movie was an excellent adaptation of the first half of the book; I have no evidence the writer or director of the movie ever read the second half. One change the movie made that improved on the book was making Nick’s son a more important character, necessitating in Nick explaining things to him (and the viewer) that weren’t covered so well in the book. A weakness of the movie was combining two female characters (a reporter and a treacherous woman at the tobacco lobby) into Katie Holmes’s character.
Open spoilers for the book:
Nick’s immediate supervisor arranged the kidnapping, and his whorish assistant set Nick up to look like he’d arranged his own fake kidnapping. In a marathon sexual encounter, she got him to open the condom wrappers, which were actually wrappers for nicotine patches. These now had Nick’s fingerprint all over them, and were stashed in his apartment for the FBI to find. Nick, lacking the funds to defend himself in the subsequent criminal trial, went away to jail for a while and upon his release made a career of using the same PR tactics he’d used for the tobacco industry against them.
Thanks!
Did Nick’s boss stage the kidnapping to discredit the anti-smoking lobby or something? And why did he frame Nick for it – just to cover his own ass?
I also read that the book was harsher on the anti-smoking lobby as well. Is that true?
It’s been a while (20+ years) since I read the book and some details are fuzzy, but taking Nick out of the picture was going to save the lobby a lot of money, or make a lot of money for the supervisor. Nick’s flashy successes don’t sit well with everyone at the firm.
The book was pretty harsh on both lobbyists and industry critics; this is one of the purest satires written in my lifetime. OTOH, the book–unlike the movie–actually depicted people smoking and enjoying cigarettes. I really recommend reading the book. It tells a different and better story than the film.
And another great satirical novel about Washington in much the same vein is Agent of Influence by David Aaron. It was never made into a movie, but had the distinction of being released just when the Iron Curtain collapsed. It’s about a KGB colonel who wants to obtain The Washington Post via an LBO, from the vantage point of the mergers and acquisitions broker he hires to help him do it. It’s great!
I’ll put those books on my “to read” list, thanks!