marijuana in the movies
Since the beginning of movie making, filmmakers have tried to mirror society. The counterculture has always been a favorite issue, including marijuana use. As early as the 1920's, marijuana has made many cameo appearances in films as well as a few starring roles. From its early days of scare tactics in the now famous cult favorite "Reefer Madness", to the late 70's marijuana heroes, Cheech and Chong in "Up in Smoke," grass has come full circle. Although it is said that millions light up everyday, Hollywood has a hard time dealing with the use of marijuana on the silver screen. Nowadays, the majority of films that feature marijuana are somewhat neutral in their portrayal of this "illicit activity." But there have been quite a few that have marijuana in the forefront as the star. The earliest films featuring marijuana use were created to scare the audience by showing exaggerated effects of smoking it and usually introduced a character whose life falls apart after they become addicted to it. A prime example of this type of film is "Reefer Madness" released in 1936. This film started out with a warning to the audience of a new drug menace, which threatened the American way
During the 80's very few films featured marijuana as the star, mainly due to the declared war on drugs by President Ronald Reagan. The 90's however saw a resurgence in these types of films. One in particular followed the template left by the Cheech and Chong series. It 's called Half Baked released in 1998. In the film the main characters are frequent marijuana users like Cheech and Chong, their smoking gets them into a situation that they don't seem to be able to get out of, and they always get out of it without ending up in jail. In "Half Baked", Thurgood, Scarface, tie-die-brain-dead Brian, and reefer happy kindergarten teacher Kenny, smoke a lot of weed and have fairly mundane lives. That is until Kenny goes on a munchie run and ends up in jail after killing a policeman's diabetic horse after he feeds it all the junk food he had bought. The cop killer is given a 1 million-dollar bail and his 3 friends have to find a way to bail him out. They decide to sell high-gra! her boyfriend Jack. Jack is the person who introduces our hero Jimmy to marijuana. He meets him at the local teen hangout and lures him back to the Reefer Den telling him he knows where theirs a "real party." The peer pressure proves to be to much as Jimmy takes his first hit of a joint sending him spiraling into a weird hallucination sequence with belly dancers, fire eaters, and ending with a dancing goat man that is severely disturbing. While at the Reefer Den, Jimmy, as well as the audience, are introduce to some other characters that show exaggerated affects of marijuana. Theirs the lovable Ralph, an ex-college student who is so deep into marijuana addiction that he can only communicate by maniacal laughter. Theirs also Sally, a reefer slut, who pays for her habit with the only currency she has- her body. The film proceeds to show Jimmy's fall into addiction and goes to great measures to show his change from a "good egg" to a "bad egg." He is shown smoking a joint ! This film went to great lengths to scare the audience into never touching marijuana and probably lead to the passing of the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. Throughout the 40's,
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1443
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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