Drug Film Directors

    In this next post I will be discussing the different directors and writers that have taken the chance and even sometimes have even put their reputations on the line in order to produce a film that contains certain things that might be offensive to other such as drug use or drug abuse. According to Johnson,” Director Martin Scorsese once said that movies are "really a kind of dream state, like taking dope." But a lot of movies these days are not just like taking dope; they're about taking dope. Just look at some of the recent Oscar nominees. In Traffic, a 16-year-old white girl lying in bed -- an odalisque with baby fat -- watches in a stoned reverie as a naked black man shoots heroin into her ankle”. These types of films that portray these vivid descriptions of the hardships and problems that drug use can cause sometimes get a bad rap because of the content of the film.

    I believe it is an important aspect for these kind of films that do incorporate drugs or drug use because you as a viewer understand what the writer or director wanted to convey in the film, whether that be to make you laugh or to further your understanding of drug addiction. I mention these two different directions with drug films because some directors and writers go the route of making a drama film in order to discourage the use of drugs, while others use drug references as a way of creating humor with their film. According to Leland and Rosenberg, “an emerging population that openly espouses that drugs--at least some drugs--are no big deal”. With this emerging population there have been comedy films that use this attract audiences and there is one popular series of films that have became well known, especially in the “stoner” culture. The writers Tommy Chong and Cheech Marin wrote a series of movies whose main focus was on marijuana and marijuana use. Some of their films include: Up in Smoke (1978), Cheech & Chong’s Next Move (1980), and Still Smokin (1983).

    Other writers and directors go more on the route of educating the viewers on the different aspects of drug use and what some drug users have to endure because of their addiction. Scott Kalvert directed the films; The Basketball Diaries in 1995 and Deuces Wild in 2002, both of these movies have strong ties to drug references. The Basketball Diaries was a strong and emotional film about a young man whose true love was basketball. All of this young man’s hopes and dreams are thrown away when he finds himself hitting rock bottom with drug addiction, while he watches his other friends that he knew growing up accomplishing their goals and actually doing things with their lives. His drug addiction leads him to live on the street perform sexual acts for money and many other things occur on his downward slope until he completely hits rock bottom. The film goes further into the characters struggle with overcoming his drug addiction and really portrays a vivid picture of just how hard it is to struggling to overcome addiction and really is a moving film and really paints the picture of why you should not do drugs.

Johnson, B. (2001). The Stoned Screen, Maclean’s 114(15), 58.

Leland, J., & Rosenberg, D. (1993). Just say maybe. Newsweek, 122(18), 50.