Constant chain smoking in this film - Hollywoodland (2006) Discussion

[–] f_friendly 17 years ago

Whether or not smoking was more accepted then is inconsequential. I actually got tired of everyone in every scene smoking. It almost was as if it were a subplot.

Did you think that those old cars that people were driving and the clothes people were wearing were also inconsequential??

I just finished watching this movie for the first time on cable and came to IMDB to check a couple of names in the cast.

As I was logging on, I thought to myself: "There's going to be a thread from someone who comments (and is appalled) about the smoking."

Sure enough -- within the first 15 or so threads -- I found THIS one.

Thanks for not disappointing me.

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[–] NikolaiDante 17 years ago

Go and watch the original "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" - they were smoking in a sub!

In fact in one scene, the Admiral is smoking a big fat cigar, the captain a cigarette and a woman (can't remember her role), came in and was offered a smoke by the captain which she accepted.

Back in the 50s and 60s smoking in films and Hollywood was massive - so to eliminate it for a 2006 film wouldn't have been authentic.

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[–] JossIsham 17 years ago

I don't know if I'm the 1st to relay this... ALL tobacco industries use several
manipulative ways to ensure that maximum numbers of humans will buy such product.
One of the most successful was portrayal on the silver screen. Even when I had
to portray a movie character on stage, I was made to smoke. Fortunately, it was
not to become a personal habit. Tobacco was made into a valuable prop. The way
it's shown can make it more valuable than anyone making the movie. To this day
we learn how sexy a cigarette can be... How sexy a car is... A cell phone... We
should'nt concern ourselves with human copulation because these things are better!

Made in America...
by illegal aliens.

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[–] Cleon 17 years ago

If they cut smoking out of period pieces, it would be an obvious whitewash. Trying to alter people's perceptions of history to support today's sensibilities is not a healthy thing.

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[–] JossIsham 17 years ago

Hey Clone,

I'm saying that AT THE TIME of the original 'silver screen'. Movies were USED,
to USE Americans as lame clones to their fashioning. The fashion perpetuated by
Hollywood was of smoking's 'attractive, seductive, and sexy' side. This image
is STILL perpetuated by the children of clones. It's ingrained in society so the
the phallic lie is still accepted as truth. I never said 'Hollywoodland', itself
as an individual film, should revise history. I'm sorry you somehow thought that
was what I was saying. If 'Hollywoodland' is to be viewed as an homage, then I
supposed everyone in it should be shown as smoking exactly as they did in those
classic movies. IF this movie was intended to depict life as it actually WAS, then
a great metaphor for the crime of trying to turn a fantasy life into 'reality' is
to show the ugly damage created by the 'wonderful beauty' of tobacco.

Made in America...
by illegal aliens.

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[–] Cleon 17 years ago

It's Cleon, not Clone. You have an astonishingly derisive opinion concerning Americans' intelligence and individuality. Everyone knows that smoking is bad for their health. It is up to them to decide if whatever perceived benefits of smoking are valid and then if they outweigh the well known consequences. Personally, I can find no benefits, so I don't smoke, but it's not for me or you to decide who does, or cast wild aspersions on why they do or condescend about trivial influences.

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[–] LatigoMeans 17 years ago

You want to see smoking watch The Black Dahlia!
I smoke and it was making me cough!

~LjM
Step on it! And don't spare the atoms!

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[–] tightspotkilo 16 years ago

I think one thing he's trying to say is that when it comes to smoking in movies the tobacco companies led the way in product placement and they were very proactive about it. It's not by accident that smoking found its way into movies and that actors were taught that cigarettes were great props. The tobacco companies knew if they could get the big movie stars smoking onscreen and making it seem glamorous and sexy the public would massively emulate that behavior. It was actually quite a brilliant stroke when you think about it. Cigarettes as a product barely existed in the early 20th century, and the popularity and the tremendous increase in the use and consumption of cigarettes corresponds directly with the advent, growth, and popularity of the movie industry. One thing the tobacco industry has been is masters at marketing their product. Of course it helps to have a product that is addictive.

_________________________________________

Get the facts first - you can distort them later!

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[–] EliotTempleton 10 years ago

I doubt very much that the smoking we see in vintage movies is the result of product placement. The fact is, most people back then smoked. Actors, being people, smoked, and they smoked on-screen, because they could, and because it was effective. Bette Davis always said that she used cigarettes as props, and take a look at what Dietrich could do with one. Folks, it's time to stop whining about what other people do.

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[–] sp21u9rs 16 years ago

i'm watching the movie for the first time right now and i saw the title of your post, looked at the tv, and saw some lady smoking. lol! you're right everyone does smoke in this movie.

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[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] LIcyclist 15 years ago

I was also repulsed by all of the smoking in this movie. I could almost smell the pungent stink of tobacco coming out of my television.

" Don't that picture look dusty?"

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[–] Stuyvesant_Red 15 years ago

I thought the use of smoking was merely a period detail of the era and perhaps to remind the viewer how some of the characters were highly strung.

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[–] adamseven7 15 years ago

go see 'the edge of love'.

you will like that one.

_________
H is pronounced Aitch NOT Haitch !

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[–] poppyviolet 15 years ago

Check out the "I Love Lucy" TV show, there are episodes where they have guests and the 1st thing they do is offer them a cigarette. It was a pretty social thing to do back then.

I know people who are avid smokers and people who are avid non-smokers. The non-smokers say that they don't care if someone smokes because they have a right to smoke, but they have a right to not breathe the smoke too.

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[–] Pixie-Belle 14 years ago

I hate smoking but totally understand it was part of the era. It was weird to watch people smoke indoors, espically at the cinema! I would freak if that happened today. But i think at some point Brody's character said something about 'you shouldn't do that it's not good for you' although he did start smoking again by the end!

'the universe has been waiting for me...' Donna Noble, Doctor Who.

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[–] Enrique-8 13 years ago

Smoking was part of the times, geezzzzzz! GET OVER IT ALREADY! This is not a PC ISSUE or something!

Enrique Sanchez

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