I was debating where to put this, because it is more of an opinion and not a discussion about movies and TV in general, so I’ll stick it here.
My wife and I were watching, There’s something about Mary the other night. It’s such a funny flick we always enjoy it. She commented to me that when Mary (Cameron Diaz) and Ted (Ben Stiller) are sitting down on a dock just chatting they were also sharing a joint. They weren’t getting silly, they weren’t acting out they were simply sharing a joint. Something that in our society here in the U.S. is illegal, and even frowned upon by many.
There are other t.v. shows and movies where there are scenes of two people sharing a dube talking about nothing special, just shoot’in the shit. My wife thinks it sends a mixed message to kids watching, saying that smoking pot is ok and that it’s being illegal has little bearing on whether or not people smoke it.
This whole concept of showing pot, an illegal substance, as being a recreational endeavor seems to go against our government law that makes it illegal and somehow bad. Now I understand this could quickly turn into a legalization thread, and we have had many of those, so let’s keep it to popular media.
Why do movies and some tv shows portray the smoking of Pot as being somehow OK, and not illegal? Do you think this is ok to show on TV and Movies?
Personally, I’m as Liberal as they come when talking about smoking Pot. I’m no hypocrit, I smoked more than my fair share in college and even occasionally as a young adult - but I often wonder why popular media/entertainment show people smoking it when it is clearly illegal in this country…The portrayal of it as somehow OK, seems to contradict the law and widely held belief that it isn’t…
Portraying it as ok and not illegal are completely different things, i don’t even know how you’d portray something as “not illegal” other than explicity stating it was not so. Its portrayed as being ok in some circles because basically it is, at least in my age group (high 20s low 30s) it has no negative connotations whatsoever, those who don’t indulge don’t do it because of personal preference, not out of any belief that there is something morally wrong with it.
If it fits the story and the characters. Something like HBO’s John from Cincinnati wouldn’t have been realistic if some of the characters weren’t pot smokers. It’d be like a western without a saloon, or Mad Men without cigarette smoking. It’s what a certain segment of society does. Like DigitalC said, legality doesn’t enter into it.
Same with other illegal stuff – we don’t think about it as being illegal when we see somebody driving too fast (“He’s gonna get a ticket!”), or punching somebody out (“That’s assault and battery!”)
I can’t imagine that the movie-making business is different than any other in how it deals with drug use. The risk of being injured on a movie set is probably the same as at a comparable construction site, so injured workers are subjected to drug-screening when they’re treated. Whether or not they were actually stoned when injured is irrellevant - the test will show THC in the blood for up to six weeks. The insurance company at my workplace expects us to do random testing, and fire anyone who fails this test or the post-injury screening. I doubt the movie business is any more willing to pay higher premiums than the rest of us.
That’s just the technicians, though. Actors and writers must be another story.
Like has already been said, illegal and bad are two different things. Sex with children is illegal. Using hairspray to start your campfire is also illegal. One is morally blameworthy and the other is not.
Because the story has characters in it, and characters do things and feel things that you and I don’t. Diaz and Stiller don’t need to be “acting out” in order to smoke weed. Some of us casually do illegal things. “Scraptastic: The HSHP Story” will feature our hero getting from Queens, NY to Wellesley, MA in two hours and twenty-one minutes. Repeatedly. Casually. So what?
Besides, pot is not exactly considered “bad” by the general public, and so the idea of recreational “hanging out” as portrayed in the movie is not shattered when the two characters share a joint, although it might be if they busted out a mirror and a straw or some needles.
I agree - it’s the grey area between something that illegal and it somehow being bad that I think is where we get hung up. I’ve never considered pot “bad”. I regularly drive 72mph where the posted limit on the highway is clearly 65mph. I don’t see that as inherently bad either.
However, putting pot into a scene to fit the charactors when they are obviously not doing anything out of the ordinary does somehow infer that smoking it is legit. Unless it’s all just 100% charactor development.
Yup. How many times have you seen movie or TV actors buckle their safety belts before starting the car? Hardly ever. And violating seatbelt laws can cause more damage than puffing on a marihuana cigarette.
There are several webites out there that grade movies on inappropriate content. Sex, violence, bad words, drug use, etc. Might be useful for parents who never actually see movies themselves. And never actually talk to their kids.
There is? I don’t remember this scene. IMDB Parent’s guide doesn’t list this. It’s not that I don’t go looking for it, but for a movie that I’ve seen so many times, I just don’t remember it. It must be my early stages of Alzheimer’s.
Especially if you’re a (white and/or famous) writer/actor/producer/director in L.A. It’s basically legal, to you. But it is quite odd to have it be treated so casually in non-stoner movies when people are still going to jail for possession.
Some other examples of TV/movies where it’s basically a non-issue: Sex and the City, Sideways, Knocked Up (well, okay, the girlfriend doesn’t like it), Entourage, Arrested Development, The Breakfast Club…
Also happens in an early scene in Deception–two characters sort of bond over smoking pot. They get silly but not in any dangerous way…it’s more cute/endearing than anything else.
I’m not really sure how your wife wants it to be portrayed. Like something out of Reefer Madness? Are they meant to be arrested and hauled off to jail? I mean, mostly when people smoke pot in real life, they get a bit relaxed, sometimes super giggly (well…that’s me), and…then they stop and move on with life.
Stop letting your kids watch R-rated movies!
(Kidding, but do you see this kind of things in movies that are rated for children? I can’t think of any, but I’m oblivious to that kind of thing- I didn’t even remember that they smoked pot in ˆThere’s Something About Mary)
The portrayal of illegal and/or immoral activities in a positive light in the media is hardly confined to smoking pot.
A couple of weeks ago, i was flicking through the channels and stopped for a while on a channel that was playing Ocean’s 11 (the recent version). That whole movie is about a bunch of guys who steal over $150 million from someone who is, as far as we know from the movie, an honest businessman. Yet, in the film, Andy Garcia’s character is portrayed as though he were somehow the bad guy, and George Clooney et al. are the heroes.
One of my favorite heist movies, The Score, with Robert De Niro and Ed Norton, similarly glamorizes theft and offers little or no moral judgment against stealing other people’s property.
There are literally dozens of cop shows—including my favorite, NYPD Blue—that generally condone police brutality by making it clear that good cops only beat guys they “know” are guilty.
We don’t have kids yet, we’re both in our mid-thirties and enjoyed our college years - I could careless if it is decriminalized or legalized, so I don’t see it as a hazard - but a lot of parents and people do, and I respect that highly. I’m thinking that it’s more acceptable presently, and is in fact getting more acceptable as time goes on. I think popular media is capitalizing on this, I just wanted to know what others thought.
