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.
I didn't even notice.
Bimbo Boy
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Too bad, that's the way it was. You people aren't satisfied with getting rid of smoking in the present, but now you want to erase it from history.
This will be the high point of my day; it's all downhill from here.
It's a Neo Noir, really, deep down, so smoking just happens.
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Thinking of George Clooney's film,Good Night, and Good Luck, that's a prime example of this, they're constantly smoking and it is pretty distracting. Just heavier trying times, the adoloescence & teenage fast paced growth phase post WWII. The US had pressures of playing on a world stage, of competiton, people heavy into cocktail parties, drinking in bars & lounge/hotel milieu it was accepted thing to do.
Smoke , smoke, smoke that cigarette, they had ash trays everywhere, in Hotels, restaurants, parks in the city, trainstations and even on airplanes/jets. And everyone was doing it from Walt Disney to Wall Street.
Think of the context of the times preceding,a great depression of the 1930s into a world War where cigarettes were always part of the care packages sent abroad. It was a time of the hard charging American dream & the admission of the human race into the rat race of modern industrial revolution. Smoking was thought to be sophistication, sign of rebellion and looking cool.
Even the ad campaigns in LIFE mag had smart doctors endorsing ciggies, lit coffin nail in their hands, smiling and some smart looking guy like "Father Knows Best". They had only so many studies then of the relationship of smoking to cancer an all the men (and women) that were affected by the War, And afterwords racing after the successes of the American dream, which for the common man itself was a thinly veiled euphamism for the great rat race.
And everyone was doing it back then, it came out of a climate of post WWII and the pressures & progressive liberalness of the times. There many characters from actors, politicians, writers, interview hosts & journalists like Edward R. Murrow that were veteran chain smokers setting the gold standard
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.
I have no problem with the smoking in period films or TV. However, most of them depict almost every character as a smoker. That was never true. At no time did everyone smoke. And all people that smoked didn't smoke ALL the time. The treatment in these period pieces is much the same as a show on one of the premium channels (HBO, Showtime, etc.) and their use of profanity. They use it and plenty of it because.....they can. It distinguishes them from other shows that have rules. My other beef with the use of smoking is that if it is used in something made today about today and a character does smoke.....generally they are the evil one, the bad twin, the criminal....a bad person. Probably to send a message to younger people, but it's just ridiculous.
I haven't ready every post, so maybe someone already said this, but a lot of people did smoke back then and particularly cigars, which hardly anyone does today.
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Considering that the gist of the story takes place in the 1950s it was not unusual for people to smoke.
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