The conclusion I hope readers to end with is that the portrayal of smoking in films depends on the context of when the film was made. And this will hopefully be shown adequately through an example of how the 1961 film, Breakfast at Tiffany's, has a much different portrayal of smoking than their current contextual knowledge of films made in the present era.
A line of defense that will need to be made to back this up is in regards to the present political situation in which films have started to portray the smoking of weed. Though this is a different substance and illegal, it is a topic of much controversy. The reason this will have to be defended against is because there are many films now-a-days that portray this smoking as okay as they are trying to cause influence for the legalization of marijuana. But on the other hand smoking, in regards to cigarettes, is still portrayed in a more negative light, and very little of it.
What I may then have to do is to describe the current situations in today's film, and perhaps use one or two examples from present day films that do portray the smoking of cigarettes.
I think you have a great idea!! Where you are going with this is really awesome and with you movie examples i think this will be a strong paper for you. Definitely by using the movies, with the differing times and social understandings and norms as evidence, it will make for a great paper. I think you might have difficulty with counter claims however, that even today movies show smoking as cool, or getting high as an exhilarating adventure, based on movies that show drugs as a way to have fun i.e Pineapple Express, Harold and Kumar movies, etc.. but i think you can easily refute those with your knowledge.
ReplyDeleteI love your topic!!! It's so true that in present times people are portraying smoking weed and other drugs more harmful than smoking cigarrettes. Though both are so harmful, through the people in my life i've seen a lot more drastic consequences to the drug smokers than the nicotine smokers. I dont know if you watch "Suits" but there's an episode when the two main characters, one a very respectable lawyer, smoke weed together and talk about how often they do it and it really made me sad to see what a bad example these lovable characters were setting. Keep up the good work!
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