Transcript 4/30 Notes: Portrayals of Drugs, Alcohol, and Addiction in Film

Addiction and Film
They Say, I Say Chapter 10
Quickwrite #10
• Think of a portrayal of drug use, alcohol use,
or addiction that you have seen on film or
television. Was the portrayal sensationalized?
(Trying to shock the audience.) Was it
sympathetic? Funny? Realistic? What do you
think that this portrayal of addiction says
about the attitudes of the artists who
produced it and the culture who watches it?
“Addiction and Recovery in American
Film” p. 335
• According to the author, how has the
depiction of drug use in American film
changed over time?
• What do these changes tell us about how our
culture thinks about drug use and addiction?
How do these changes mirror changing
attitudes/ideas?
The question of censorship
• In paragraph 6, Hall states that the Motion
Picture Production Code “upheld moral standards
and opposed crime, wrongdoing, evil, or sin.
Moviemakers dutifully followed these rules”
(335).
• The big question here is whether or not it is the
responsibility of a piece of art to “uphold moral
standards.” The writers and enforcers of the code
were operating under that assumption (and were
also afraid of federal regulation). What do you
think?
“Thou Shalt Not” –
Photograph by A. L.
Schafer
“In 1934 the MPAA voluntarily passed
the Motion Picture Production Code,
more generally known as the Hays
Code, largely to avoid governmental
regulation. The code prohibited
certain plotlines and imagery from
films and in publicity materials
produced by the MPAA. Among others,
there was to be no cleavage, no lace
underthings, no drugs or drinking, no
corpses, and no one shown getting
away with a crime.
A.L. Schafer, the head of photography
at Columbia, took a photo that
intentionally incorporated all of the 10
banned items into one image.
The photograph was clandestinely
(secretly) passed around among
photographers and publicists in
Hollywood as a method of symbolic
protest to the Hays Code” (Jordan).
Reefer Madness Poster
This is a poster for one of the
films discussed in the essay.
It was released in 1936.
What do you notice about this
poster? What message does it
seem to be sending about its
subject of marijuana use?
Keep in mind that this poster
was released during the
“Code Era,” when there were
strict rules about how drug
use, sex, and violence could
be depicted in film.