Drug Film: Past and Present

    I will be wrapping up my blog with this final post, which is entitled, drug film: Past and Present and I will be looking in and making in a way a compare and contrast of recent drug related films to the older and more dated films about drugs. I thought this would be a fun and interesting way to conclude this blog because I feel that you after reading this have a pretty good understanding of what a drug film is and what a drug film usually consists of. I thought it would be neat to look back into more older films and see if there is a major difference, similarities, or maybe even a little bit of both when it comes to comparing drug films from the past and drug films from more recent years.

    Despite drug use and drug addiction being around for a long time. The depiction of drug use and drug addiction was very uncommon in the early days of film and it was much more common to see films on alcohol rather than drugs. I mentioned in one of my earlier post how counterculture and the use of counterculture in films really was a stepping stone for film makers to go against the norm of society and produce films the may evoke drug use and or substance abuse. This is why drug films really kind of hit the spotlight in the 1960’s and the 1970’and started to become more and more common.

    In my research with this particular topic I found more similarities than differences in drug films from the past and drug films from more recent years. Despite the obvious technology advancements such as better picture quality and better sound quality that the more recent films have. Overall, many of the drug films that I looked into and did research on can be compared in some way to a more recent film. The similar themes and motifs can be seen from both past and present movies.

    The one major difference between drug films from the past is that there are probably not as many as there are in more recent films and also not many are as well known as the recent films. With that being said I don’t think the reason is because I am a part of the younger generation and I might not know a lot of movies from the past. I think it is due to the fact that over the years people have become more and more accepting of drug-use and the perception of drug-use in different forms of entertainment whether that is music or films. According to Leland, “Gramercy Pictures certainly used the pot connection as a selling point. The press kits for the movie included custom rolling papers and marijuana-leaf earrings, and the ad campaign ran, "See it with a bud." A second slogan, "Finally! A movie for everyone who did inhale," was nixed by the Motion Picture Association of America”. This quote was in regards to a 1990’s film, Dazed and Confused. The similarities between past and present drug films to me are obvious and these commonalities and the continue production of these types of films makes me feel like the drug film will continue to reach a theatre near you for many years to come.

Leland, J. (1993). Just Say Maybe. Newsweek, 12(18).