Someone on a review said that people didn't know about the link between tobacco and cancer when this movie was made. That wasn't true. Research on the link went back to the 1700s. All of President Grant's associates knew his throat cancer was from his incessant cigar smoking. While there is always a reviewer of war, and war era, movies to say it is propaganda, I didn't see anyone saying that about this movie. Hmmm.
shareSo true. Cigarettes were called "coffin nails" since their creation, due mainly to their addictive/habit forming properties.
shareTrue indeed. Here's a passage from A Counterblast Against Tobacco written by King James I of England in 1604.
"A custome lothsome to the eye, hatefull to the Nose, harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the Lungs, and in the blacke stinking fume thereof, neerest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomelesse."
It's been generally known that tobacco is dangerous to the lungs ever since we adopted the practice from the American Indians.
Like a lot of movies from that period, it was definitely loaded with pro tobacco propaganda and they did not try to hide it in Bright Leaf. As has been noted, the link between tobacco and cancer was known to those in the industry and they tried their best to hide and downplay the danger. A lot of actors were afraid to speak out about tobacco because of the immense influence the tobacco industry had in Hollywood. The tobacco industry wrote the book on product placement.
share"So true. Cigarettes were called "coffin nails" since their creation, due mainly to their addictive/habit forming properties."
I'm pretty sure I heard Gary Cooper himself call a cigarette a "coffin nail" in the movie itself. I'm "pretty sure" because of Coop's tendency to mumble his lines at times. Did anyone else hear him say it?
Not necessarily - and it has never been proven. Probably was but no one knows for sure.
shareKeep in mind that when Bright Leaf came out, there were ads on the radio for Camel cigarettes that told listeners that "more doctors smoke Camels than any other brand." They also said that Camels were milder, and in a 30-day study not a single case of "throat irritation" occurred!
People knew cigarettes weren't necessarily great for you, but the extent of the dangers associated with smoking were wildly underplayed by the industry, and people who are addicted to a dangerous substance like to believe that it's not that big of a deal.
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