Okay, here's where I spout off some political opinion:
SPOILERS! (Click to view)
Okay, I officially dub the ban smoking from movies movement the dumbest, most infuriating grab-for-headlines political movement I've seen in a good long while. My questions for the leader of the movement in congress, Rep. Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, are the following.
1. Have you read the first amendment? Filmmakers have license to put anything they want in their movies, and there is no constitutional restriction on what can be produced or distributed, MPAA be damned. MPAA be very much damned, to hell!
2. Aren't you worried that children will have a warped sense of reality? Children, like it or not, take as many cues on how to behave from popular culture as from their parents and schools. While seeing someone cool smoking may lead to more teens smoking, not seeing anyone smoking will lead children to believe that smoking is, well, forbidden, which will likely have the same effect.
2a. Who the hell looks cool smoking in movies anymore? The days of James Dean and other heartthrobs smoking are long gone. Hollywood has been brow-beaten into "responsibility" for decades to the point where most movies involving teens and that are marketed towards teens are squeaky clean. That isn't the problem: the problem is that movies that aren't marketed towards teens have smokers in them, and teens often want to see movies with "adult themes." Which, if the MPAA and the movie theaters were doing their jobs (which, in the case of the MPAA, no one asked them to do) these teens and pre-teens wouldn't be seeing these movies anyway.
3. Don't you realize that, in the age of the internet, these ratings mean nothing? Teens and pre-teens can see anything they want to see with relative ease.
4. Isn't your problem more with cigarette advertising in movies? And wouldn't that be an indictment of movies as large-scale endorsements in the first place? Laws have been passed to forbid cigarette advertising on bilboards and in magazines "targeted at youngsters." While I think these laws are a First Amendment violation, their supporters claim that public safety issues supercede free speech. I couldn't make a movie in which I tell kids to drink bleach (which really ruins my plans as a screen-writer.) But...
4a. Where the hell are the Republicans on this one? For once I actually agree with them. The government has no right to tell me how to raise my kids, and by supporting bans such as this, they are essentially parenting our nation's young people for us. Thanks but no thanks, Congress, you guys have never seemed that impartial, smart, or interested in my and my family's welfare.
and most importantly:
5. Why don't you take your whiny, loud-ass mouth and try and ban the use of GUNS, in movies, you fucking idiot? Do you know how many gun fatalities there are in America each year? If you think kids act on what they see in movies SO completely, then surely we must get rid of the HUGE portion of American made movies that are aggressively, arrogantly violent. If our government is going to be babysitting us on a grand-scale, why not get rid of guns? Because politicians love to make a big deal out of fighting the easy battles of public opinion, while they quietly brush the big battles under a carpet marked "somebody else's problem."
Sorry to vent, but this just pisses me off. It's backwards thinking, big time. American parents: teach your children about cigarettes. And guns. And attempt to monitor (not to control, but to monitor) what kind of movies and other media your children are being exposed to.
The end.
Okay, I officially dub the ban smoking from movies movement the dumbest, most infuriating grab-for-headlines political movement I've seen in a good long while. My questions for the leader of the movement in congress, Rep. Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, are the following.
1. Have you read the first amendment? Filmmakers have license to put anything they want in their movies, and there is no constitutional restriction on what can be produced or distributed, MPAA be damned. MPAA be very much damned, to hell!
2. Aren't you worried that children will have a warped sense of reality? Children, like it or not, take as many cues on how to behave from popular culture as from their parents and schools. While seeing someone cool smoking may lead to more teens smoking, not seeing anyone smoking will lead children to believe that smoking is, well, forbidden, which will likely have the same effect.
2a. Who the hell looks cool smoking in movies anymore? The days of James Dean and other heartthrobs smoking are long gone. Hollywood has been brow-beaten into "responsibility" for decades to the point where most movies involving teens and that are marketed towards teens are squeaky clean. That isn't the problem: the problem is that movies that aren't marketed towards teens have smokers in them, and teens often want to see movies with "adult themes." Which, if the MPAA and the movie theaters were doing their jobs (which, in the case of the MPAA, no one asked them to do) these teens and pre-teens wouldn't be seeing these movies anyway.
3. Don't you realize that, in the age of the internet, these ratings mean nothing? Teens and pre-teens can see anything they want to see with relative ease.
4. Isn't your problem more with cigarette advertising in movies? And wouldn't that be an indictment of movies as large-scale endorsements in the first place? Laws have been passed to forbid cigarette advertising on bilboards and in magazines "targeted at youngsters." While I think these laws are a First Amendment violation, their supporters claim that public safety issues supercede free speech. I couldn't make a movie in which I tell kids to drink bleach (which really ruins my plans as a screen-writer.) But...
4a. Where the hell are the Republicans on this one? For once I actually agree with them. The government has no right to tell me how to raise my kids, and by supporting bans such as this, they are essentially parenting our nation's young people for us. Thanks but no thanks, Congress, you guys have never seemed that impartial, smart, or interested in my and my family's welfare.
and most importantly:
5. Why don't you take your whiny, loud-ass mouth and try and ban the use of GUNS, in movies, you fucking idiot? Do you know how many gun fatalities there are in America each year? If you think kids act on what they see in movies SO completely, then surely we must get rid of the HUGE portion of American made movies that are aggressively, arrogantly violent. If our government is going to be babysitting us on a grand-scale, why not get rid of guns? Because politicians love to make a big deal out of fighting the easy battles of public opinion, while they quietly brush the big battles under a carpet marked "somebody else's problem."
Sorry to vent, but this just pisses me off. It's backwards thinking, big time. American parents: teach your children about cigarettes. And guns. And attempt to monitor (not to control, but to monitor) what kind of movies and other media your children are being exposed to.
The end.
VIEW 5 of 5 COMMENTS
what do you teach?