'R' rating urged for films with smoking

The Toronto Sun ^ | 01/22/04 | Susan Aitken

[Modernman]

Teenage anti-smoking activists want the province to slap an "R" rating on all movies showing tobacco -- meaning no one 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, 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."

SAW IT IN MOVIE

The team got the idea from an American study that found more than half of kids from ages 10 to 14 started smoking because they saw it in a movie, Tham said.

The study also concluded that the more youngsters saw smoking in films, the more likely they were to spark up.

"The whole concept is absolutely ludicrous," Alan Goluboff, president of the Directors Guild of Canada, 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."

[Modernman]

Notice how it seems like the only people who smoke in movies these days are the bad guys?

[Mamzelle]

Well, all the good guys smoked in Lord of the Rings. Pipeweed, doncha know.

Made me want to run right out and find one of those twelve-inch-long pipes.

[discostu]

Ah yes, it's not possible for children to make their own decisions guided by advice from their parents, it's always the evil movies and video games doing it. Self control? Never heard of it.

[bobjam]

We can have sex, drugs, glorification of crime, violence and foul language in PG-13, but heaven forbid they show the legal use of a legal product.

[TheBigB]

Watching Match Game reruns on the Game Show Network is worth it just to see Charles Nelson Reilly actually puffing away right on stage during the show.

[Modernman]

The movie rating system always did seem pretty arbitrary to me- ultra-violence okay, sex bad. This takes it to a whole new level. What next, any movie showing people eating junk food gets a PG-13 rating?

[zook]

How totally Canadian!

[discostu]

It's always been up to the handful of people on the ratings board and their opinion on that day. The whole process is really odd, they have no set rules and things get appealed. Always remember the infamous 1.5 seconds of Robocop when ED109 kills that guy, they gave the movie an X and to get down to an R they had to cut 1.5 seconds of one scene... completely non-sensicle system.

[EggsAckley]

Or watching the b/w "I've Got a Secret" with Garry Moore. Chain smoking, and handing out cartons of smokes as prizes. LOL!

[G.Mason]

"How totally Canadian!"

I'm glad I read all the posts first, before replying.

Exactly my sentiments!

I'm sorry sir, I can't rent you and the lady The Maltese Falcon, or High Noon, however we do have some like Debbie Does Dallas, and Deep Throat, that are smoke free.

[joesnuffy]

LOL...old Bogart movies everybody in the scene was smoking...the bad guys and good guys would always offer each other cigarettes...a guy would never think of approaching a girl without offering her a cigarette...asking for one or a light was always the great icebreaker...

Now they got guys and dolls making out with the same gender....but at least they are not smoking...

As usual they got their priorities like a duck in a noose...

[CaptRon]

I have 3. They stay out of my line of sight when I'm relaxing and reading.

[Pearls Before Swine]

We can have sex, drugs, glorification of crime, violence and foul language in PG-13..

Maybe, if this catches on, PG-13 can include "partial tobacco" scenes if not outright smoking, which would get the R. Just like "partial nudity." No explicit smoking, although you might see an ash tray, or a pack of cigarettes, or someone apparently about to smoke, or a tobacco leaf, or a pipe, or someone hawking a loogie from a good chaw.

[zook]

Not to even mention Disney's "101 Dalmations" or "Atlantis"!

[Republicus2001]

Why doesn't Rob Reiner propose a hefty tax on Hollywood movies? Second-hand violence influences untold numbers of our youth to lives of suffering...it's for the children & just trying to save lives

[whereasandsoforth]

This move isn't about movies today. It's the first shot at getting the classic movies & TV shows banned. It isn't about smoking either. It's about removing these examples of how life use to be. Decent families, people with morals, spiritual messages...these are the real dangers. The left doesn't need Ward Cleaver or even Fred Flinstone around to remind the masses that people use to respect common decency.
You heard it here first folks!