Sex, violence and smoking

A group of budding young censors in Ontario are demanding that any movie in which a character smokes should automatically be rated "R":

Teenage anti-smoking activists have asked the Ontario government to slap a restricted rating on all movies showing tobacco -- meaning no theatre-goers under 18 would be allowed to see films featuring smoking.

The recommendation was part of the Lung Association's Youth Tobacco Team's report on how to curb youth smoking, presented to the province's Health Ministry last week.

Michelle Tham, 18, of Mississauga, Ont., said the group wanted to focus on what made teens want to light up in the first place.

"Everyone talks about peer pressure being the problem, but sometimes it's an individual person,'' Tham said.

"Maybe it's one girl who looks up to Julia Roberts and sees her smoke and feels like she has to be influenced by it.''

Then she's an idiot. Filmmakers, not surprisingly, think the suggestion is asinine:

But the youth group's proposal doesn't sit well with Alan Goluboff, president of the Directors Guild of Canada.

"The whole concept is absolutely ludicrous,'' he said.

"If these kids think that by doing this somehow it will reduce smoking in this country within the teen population, I think it's absolutely naive to believe that.''

Filmmakers shouldn't be forced to tailor their films to ratings systems, but rather concentrate on character portrayal, whether that includes cigarettes or not, Goluboff argued.

"Placing that kind of creative restrictions on the whims of an artist is dangerous,'' he said.

"Art should be out there and acting as a mirror to our society, and right now, our society allows smoking.''

Tham countered by saying that's just an excuse for a lazy industry that uses cigarettes as a crutch.

"If an actor is using a cigarette as a tool, as a prop, then what does that say about the actor's skill that they can't get those characteristics across the screen on their own without a cigarette?'' she said.

People who demand smoking be banished from the movies say a majority of films feature characters who smoke even though only a minority of people are smokers, and Canadian Press obliges:

Smoking is prevalent on the silver screen these days. Of the top 10 flicks in theatres this week, only one didn't feature smoking (Cheaper by the Dozen).

This is supposed to be "unrealistic", and a sneaky way for the tobacco companies to market their products to toddlers. But strictly speaking, if about a quarter of the population smokes, shouldn't 25% of the characters in every film be smokers?

People always complain about these crazy right-wingers and Christians, who are trying to impose their moral standards on the rest of us, even though right and wrong are completely relative, blah blah blah. Anyone out there want to tell me how this sort of thing is any different? ("Well, their intentions are good...")

Posted by damian at January 21, 2004 05:20 PM