SmokeScreeners Rating:  

Year of Release: 2011

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Director: Michel Hazanavicius

Distributor: The Weinstein Company

This film was reviewed by Dr. Barry Hummel of QDREF on February 20, 2012.

Additional Comments:

"The Artist, Best Picture Nominee in 2011, is a tribute to the bygone era of black & white, silent movies.  As with most period pieces, the filmmakers relied on all of the conventions of the past, including the use of tobacco and tobacco smoke to create mood.

Ten different characters account for 28 appearances of tobacco.  It starts from the opening scene, which takes place in a theater.  Not only are members of the audience smoking during the screening of a film, but the film’s producer Al Zimmer (John Goodman) is shown smoking backstage.

In another scene, Al Zimmer shows his main star George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) a screen test for a ‘talkie’.  Several other people in the small screening room are smoking, filling the entire room with smoke. It adds nothing to the scene, and in many ways it is an unnecessary distraction.

The worst use of tobacco, however, is its use to document the downfall of George Valentin.  As talkies take over the industry, the has-been silent star is shown slowly drinking and smoking his way into oblivion.

This use of tobacco is a cop-out… a lazy approach on the part of the filmmakers.  It says that they were not clever enough to show Valentin’s downward spiral without using tobacco.  We know this isn’t true, because the same filmmakers cleverly used sound during a dream sequence to show Valentin’s angst regarding the arrival of talkies.  Again, if I can suspend my disbelief that sound can appear in a modern silent movie, I can also suspend my disbelief when tobacco does NOT appear in a movie that takes place during the 1930’s.

Just because something was done in the past, doesn’t mean we need to continue to repeat the same mistakes.

SmokeScreeners Rating:  

Year of Release: 2011

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Director: Bennett Miller

Distributor: Columbia Pictures

This film was reviewed by Dr. Barry Hummel of QDREF on February 21, 2012.

Additional Comments:

"Moneyball caused quite a stir when it opened regarding the depiction of spit tobacco use by Oakland A's General Manager Billy Beane, played by Brad Pitt.

The reality is that the movie in no way glorifies the use of spit tobacco.  In fact, one could argue that the filmmakers actually downplayed the use of spit tobacco by Major League Baseball players, the only privileged class of athletes allowed to display their personal drug addiction on the playing field.

For the sake of argument, I will assume that Billy Beane is a spit tobacco user in real life.  For whatever reason, the director has chosen to portray that fact in the film.  However, we really only see him spit into a cup a handful of times; we never see him actually dip into a pouch or tin and place the material in his mouth.  We never see a bulging cheek.  It is almost as if the director included it for historical accuracy but made the appearance of tobacco use as vague as possible.  In another scene, we see Billy Beane grab a handful of sunflower seeds and spit into a cup, which makes the other scenes of spitting even vaguer.  Plus, Brad Pitt's teeth do not reflect the changes one would expect in a long-term spit tobacco user.

In addition, there are numerous cameos by real Major League Baseball players; this is accomplished by using archival footage of real baseball games.  Guess what?  In none of those clips do we see a real baseball player dipping or spitting. 

Given all of this, I am not even sure why you would bother to include the limited use of spit tobacco by Billy Beane.  The director plays hard and fast with other facts in the movie, even changing the name of Billy Beane's right-hand man from Paul DePodesta to Peter Brand (played by Jonah Hill), and altering the timing of the Carlos Pena trade.  In reality, the audience would not have stormed the box office to complain about the film's accuracy if Billy Beane's character never spit into a cup during the film.

I am actually more concerned about cigar use in the stadium hallway by one of the old time scouts.  The movie takes place in 2002, seven years after California banned smoking in enclosed workplaces. Billy Beane mentions the smell, but why wouldn't he tell him to take it outside?

While I applaud that people have used this movie as a platform to discuss spit tobacco use among baseball players, I think the film took a bigger hit than it deserved.  If nothing else, it helped to drive the conversation, leading to a change in the way Major League Baseball will handle spit tobacco.  For more information, visit the Knock Tobacco Out of the Park campaign."

SmokeScreeners Rating:

Year of Release: 1998

MPAA Rating: R

Director: Richard Donner

Distributor: Warner Bros.

This film was reviewed by Dr. Barry Hummel of QDREF on 9/17/2011.

Additional Comments:  "It appears that Martin Riggs's (Mel Gibson) attempt to quit smoking in Lethal Weapon 3 was successful!  This is the first smoke-free entry in the Lethal Weapon franchise, and it shows how unnecessary onscreen smoking is to plot and characterization."

SmokeScreeners Rating:  

Year of Release:  2011

MPAA Rating:  PG-13

Director: Tate Taylor

Distributor:  Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

This film was reviewed by Dr. Barry Hummel of QDREF on February 24, 2012.

Additional Comments:

"The Help tells the story of racial and economic inequality in the south through the eyes of several black maids.  Unfortunately, it also tells the story of smoking inequality.

There are 12 different characters, all white, who smoke throughout the film.  The characters range from the receptionist at the newspaper office to an editor of a New York publishing house (Mary Steenburgen).  However, it is multiple scenes of smoking by the Skeeter Phelan (Emma Stone) that are the most important and disturbing.

Skeeter is a beautiful, forward-thinking young woman.  She is the perfect role model for young girls watching the film.  The use of tobacco by such a character is exactly what the tobacco industry hopes for; if role model such as Skeeter smokes, it must be okay.

Skeeter is not the only young, beautiful woman that smokes in the film.  Several of the worst scenes in the film take place at afternoon Bridge Clubs, during which many of the white socialites smoke while playing cards.

Almost every major white cast members smokes at least once, including Stone, Steenburgen, Alison Janney, Sissy Spacek, Bryce Dallas Howard, Anna Camp, and Wes Chatham.  Again, none of the black cast members smoke.

I understand that this is a period piece, and that people smoked more in the 1960s.  In fact, 42% of Americans smoked in 1960, compared to 20% when the film was released.  Do you think that makes any difference to teenagers?  Teens do not think about the era of the movie; they simply see the smoking and respond to it emotionally.  Remember, movies are make-believe.  If you chose not to show the smoking, no one would miss it.

One other point:  In 2007, the Motion Picture Association of America adopted a highly subjective policy that calls for the Film Ratings Board to 'consider smoking' when rating movies and states that movies 'may' receive a higher rating because of pervasive and glamorized smoking.  If ever a movie qualified under these criteria, it would be The Help.  It looks like the MPAA dropped the ball however, as the film was rated 'PG-13, Some Material May Be Inappropriate For Children Under 13'.  How much worse does movie smoking have to be in order to qualify for a smoking designation?

On the other hand, kudos to Dreamworks and Touchstone Pictures (Disney) for including an anti-tobacco public service announcement on the DVD release.  Studies have shown that these types of anti-tobacco messages reduce the impact of onscreen smoking images."

SmokeScreeners Rating:  

Year of Release: 1994

MPAA Rating: R

Director: James Cameron

Distributor: 20th Century Fox

In this film 7 smoking incidents occured, 4 of which were inside and 3 of which were outside.

The film was reviewed by Dr. Barry Hummel of QDREF on 3/15/2009.

Dr. Hummel posted the following additional comments: "True Lies is a fun-filled action picture that makes you wonder what the great James Cameron could do if he was ever given the keys to the James Bond franchise.  Unfortunately, like the Bond films, the super-spy played by Arnold Schwarzenegger was seen using tobacco in a couple of key scenes.

The first occurs early in the film, when Schwarzenegger uses a silver cigarette case to detonate explosives to create a diversion:

Later, Schwarzenegger's partner (played by Tom Arnold) tests a piece of equipment on Schwarzenegger's unsuspecting daughter.  Note the clever product placement for Lucky Strike cigarettes:  

But, the highlight of smoking scenes occurs while Schwarzenegger and Arnold are being tailed by several terrorists.  Schwarzenegger whips out the Lucky Strike pack to keep an eye on the terrorists, puffing away as he enters a mall. 

Meanwhile, the head terrorist (Art Malik) clouds up his car with tobacco smoke:

In all of these scenes, attention is drawn to the tobacco because it has become an integral part of each of these scenes.  I suspect a director as creative as James Cameron could have come up with an alternative, instead of taking the easy way out.

By the way, I would like to thank 2oth Century Fox for not acknowledging my right to use clips from this film for educational purposes under current Fair Use Laws, forcing me to remove the clips from YouTube and using still frames from the film."

SmokeScreeners Rating:  

SmokeScreeners Rating:  

Year of Release: 1963

MPAA Rating: G

Director: Wolfgang Reitherman

Distributor: Buena Vista

In this film 3 smoking incidents occured, all of which were inside.

The film was reviewed by Zachary H. from Westglades Middle School on 3/7/2009.

 

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SmokeScreeners Rating:  

Year of Release: 1953

MPAA Rating: G

Director: Byron Haskin

Distributor: Paramount

In this film 17 smoking incidents occured, 7 of which were inside and 10 of which were outside.

The film was reviewed by Dr. Barry Hummel on 3/2/2009

Dr. Hummel posted the following additional comments:  "The original War of the Worlds is an old-school, 1950s sci-fi film.  It is part melodrama and part disaster movie, and, to be honest with you, neither part works very well.

As with most films from the era, there is a ton of tobacco use.  There are 17 different smoking incidents by 16 different characters.  All but one of these occur in the first 24 minutes of the movie; after the Martians attack, nobody seems to have time to smoke anymore.

Here is the opening scene of the movie:
 

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In that brief 30 seconds, three characters were smoking... the sheriff playing cards at the station, and two adults in the crowd outside the theater.  Also note that the two adults smoking in the crowd are smoking aorund children!

After the ship lands, the sheriff locates a group of scientists that just happen to be camping in the area:

 

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Look at the focus on tobacco in this scene.  One of the scientists is smoking a pipe.  One of the other scientists grabs a cigarette from a pack in his pocket.  And the sheriff?  He simply takes one to smoke later.

And what about the other scientist?  Turns out he is not a smoker, as he explains in this scene in which he meets his love interest:

 
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Shortly after this, the Martians reveal themselves and begin their attack, giving the locals little opportunity to smoke as they run and dodge laser beams and crumbling buildings.

Steven Spielberg remade War of the Worlds in 2005, and he told the story much more effectively... and without the appearance of tobacco!"

SmokeScreeners Rating:  

Year of Release: 1951

MPAA Rating: Unrated

Director: Robert Wise

Distributor: 20th Century Fox

In this film 17 smoking incidents occured, 14 of which were inside and 3 of which were outside.

The film was reviewed by Dr. Barry Hummel on 3/1/2009.

Dr. Hummel posted the following additional comments:  "The original sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still is an efficiently told story about man's violent nature.  The film begins with the arrival of an alien space-craft that lands in the middle of Washington, DC.  A humanoid alien emerges bearing a gift for the President, and he is immediately shot.  The alien's robot protector responds by melting the weapons of the local police and military until the alien stops him.

Realizing their mistake, the humans rush the alien to a nearby hospital.  Meanwhile the silent robot stands guard over the ship.  Of course, the humans cannot resist the chance to peek inside the ship:

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At the hospital, the doctors are amazed at the recuperative powers of the alien:

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It turns out the alien's life expectancy is 130.  'How does he explain that?" asks one of the perplexed doctors.  'Says their medicine is that much more advanced,' replies the other doctor as he shares a cigarette with his colleague. 'He was very nice about it,' continued the tobacco-loving doctor, 'but he made me feel lie a third class witch doctor.'  Neither of these students of modern medicine recognizes the irony; they are fascinated by the alien's longevity even as they smoke a drug that is shortens human life expectancy by an average of 15 years!

The alien quietly slips out of the hospital to hide among humans as a way of studying their behavior.  He ends up renting a room in a boarding house here he befriends a widow and her young son.  Here, the alien (reading the newspaper) shares a meal, and a little secondhand smoke, with the other boarders:

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At least the young boy isn't sitting at the table while that lone boarder shares his smoke with the rest of the group.

This great sci-fi drama was made in an era when smoking was more socially acceptable.  I understand that.  But timeless classics like The Day The Earth Stood Still are still being watched, and we should at least point out how time has changed our understanding of the dangers of tobacco... especially to children and teenagers.

SmokeScreeners Rating:  

Year of Release: 1953

MPAA Rating: G

Director: Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson

Distributor:  RKO/Buena Vista

In this film 4 smoking incidents occured, all of which were outside.

The smoking related message from the film was balanced.

The film was reviewed by Dr. Barry Hummel on 2/25/2009.

Dr. Hummel posted the following additional comments:  "The Disney classic Peter Pan is one of those animated features that actually shows youth tobacco use.

Early in the movie, Captain Hook is seen smoking not one but two cigars at the same time!

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The majority of the tobacco use, however, is in this classic scene when Peter Pan shares a peace pipe with Tiger Lily's father:

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One the one hand, this scene shows a balanced depiction of tobacco; Wendy makes a face because of the smell, and John turns green after smoking the pipe.  However, the scene also depicts peer pressure!  Both John and Michael are willing to try the pipe because they watched Peter Pan smoking with such ease.  This is the type of movie message that is particularly dangerous to young people."