MovieChat Forums > Hatari! (1962) Discussion > So much smoking!

So much smoking!

posted 16 years ago by DMDad
29 replies | jump to latest

This is a really enjoyable movie that I have watched many times but I was recently struck by how much cigarette smoking occurs. I realize that movie was made when smoking was more common and fashionable but the amount in this movie is incredible. Virtually every seen has two or more actors smoking, Dallas is even seen chain smoking 3 cigs in one scene. There is much more smoking than even a Bogart picture from the 40's. Were the Hatari producers paid by the cigarette companies to feature smoking?

[–] tbmarten 16 years ago

Ever check out the series Mad Men? It's set in the 60's and the characters practically smoke non stop. My parents tell me that was very common in the 60's to smoke that much.

"I swallowed a bug"

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] pbl1 16 years ago

whatever you say, Eddie! one can't ever have enough censorship!

What the $%*& is a Chinese Downhill?!?

[–] CaptSquid 16 years ago

I think that political correctness has gone too far. I watched this film when it first came out -- I was 7 years old at the time. Look past the smoking, for the love of Pete, and enjoy the movie for the scenery and comedy.

[–] DavidStHubbinsUSA 16 years ago

OMG............"Certainly not suitable for children"

Please tell me your kidding you PC Liberal ass wipe. It's a movie. If your kids are that impresionable you better just home school em and lock em away. Kids have been watching this for years. You shouldn't be though. Go back to your Martha Stewart and leave this to the real world. Jerk.......

[–] chopper_babe 13 years ago

I first saw this around 6 years old and many times throughout my 30th year... I guess I noticed smoking, but had been taught any way that it was bad for you. I really did not register how much smoking took place, I was always paying attention to the story and the animals.

[–] phil-169 16 years ago

Your post reminded me of another 60s film, "The Hustler."

One commentator said somethng like:

"After seeing 'The Hustler,' even the surgeon general wants a cigarette."

[–] osopestoso 15 years ago

They were always drinking (Booze) when they weren't working or sleeping. So what? It was before the wussification of the world brought on by socialist wonks with no lives. They need to have everyone else be as miserable as they are.

It was a much less "PC weenie" era. PC sucks, as does everyone who espouses it.

Obama smokes. He does not deserve to be president. Smoking is not PC. Right?

[–] yohojohn 15 years ago

Yes, people smoked a lot in those days; it is an historical fact. But why would it not be suitable for children? I saw the film in the theater when I was a kid and I watched reruns of it on TV when I was growing up. Guess what? I didn't take up smoking as a result of this or any other film.

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] matt_garth 15 years ago

juan suggests avoiding this film because of its smoking, while encouraging your children to watch BASIC INSTINCT so they can learn about sex.

"Take 'em to Missouri"

[–] Pat ODay 15 years ago

These are the same pantywastes (yes .. I spelled it correctly) who want guns outlawed because as we all know, it's the lawful gun owners who are doing all of the crime <rolls eyes>. All the while, they're forcing your kids to learn how to put a condom on a banana at school (although your kid can't do math).

[–] JuanMacready 15 years ago

All guns should be BANNED.

[–] scotbpens 15 years ago

Fine, then the only people with guns will be criminals!

[–] Pat ODay 15 years ago

My guns have killed fewer people than Ted Kennedy's car.

So we should probably rather ban cars. Or at least, Ted Kennedy's car!

[–] ford_id42 14 years ago

All trolls should be shot in the face with banned shotguns. Both barrels.

"I'll have eggs, sausage, chips and beans, and a tea."
-- Nick Mason

[–] scotbpens 15 years ago

How did we get from characters smoking in a 1960s movie to guns and condoms?

And the correct spelling is "pantywaist." Check any dictionary. It originally meant a boy's undergarment with the shirt and underpants buttoned together. Figuratively, it means a weak, timid or effeminate male; a sissy.

"PantyWASTE" means a useless or worthless individual. It's an eggcorn of recent origin, like "butt naked" instead of the correct "buck naked."

[–] Pat ODay 15 years ago

Didn't I infer in my post that my (mis)spelling was intentional?! Did you not get that memo?

[–] Xcalat3 14 years ago

they looked like chimneys!

When there's no more room in hell, The dead will walk the earth...

[–] amazon423 14 years ago

All the smoking in this movie is accurate which is why, thanks to all that second-hand smoke, so many of us who lived and were children then, a lot of us have problems with vertigo (affected the inner ear from frequent ear infections) and every time we get sick it goes straight to our lungs. Fortunately when the 70's came along a lot of those smokers quit cold turkey because the doctors were starting to wise up. Abraham Lincoln has a quote attributed to him that "If man were meant to smoke his nostrils would be pointing skyward like a chimney (sic)."

BTW a common quandary when my clients discussed how hard it was to stop drugs, alcohol, and smoking was how did our parents always go cold-turkey and usually abstinence won out. Why can't people do that nowadays without all the aids out there to help them stop? Do people lack determination nowadays?

[–] Hawaiian_Gecko 13 years ago

You'll find that perfume causes vertigo to the same extent as cigarette smoke if you do a bit of research.

[–] amazon423 13 years ago

To Hawaiian Gecko: Maybe it does but I don't use perfume, household deodorants, incense or anything else that has a scent and don't smoke, use candles or anything else. The reasons for this is that I sneeze with certain scents, have driven shuttles with people drenched in perfumes, and own parrots which cannot be near household cleaning scents or with cooking scents from overheating pots and pans with non-stick surfaces. My favorite air cleaning tactic is to open the doors and windows of my studio apartment to let nature take its course. In spite of this I have had vertigo spells all my life and I have grandkids.Perfume does not enter into the equation. I even use personal deodorant that is unscented as is my body soap and shampoo.

[–] SquirrelBot3000 14 years ago

Smoking then didn't have the health warnings it does today. It was still a social thing to do, and wasn't "hazardous to your health". Big tobacco was very good about brushing research that showed they made cancer sticks under the table back then.

So in the end, no, it's not unusual that the characters lit up as much as they did.

[–] hardwood53 14 years ago

I thought it odd that only a character or two were smoking at a time. In real life one smoker lights a cigarette and all the other smokers in sight have to light one too. It is the herd instinct thing at work. One chain smoker usually inspires an entire room of chain smokers. Also drinking alcohol is a heavy smoking activity. Those of you with such short sheltered lives have no idea how things were. Where you see heavy smoking, I see restraint.

[–] Hawaiian_Gecko 13 years ago

In the '60s even David Brinkley and Chet Huntley smoked while giving the NBC Evening Newscast. People were much less intrusive on the lives of others at that time in history.

[–] Silent_Larry 9 years ago

Yep. By my memory, it was common to see one or more ashtray/s in half the rooms of almost any house.

As a child of the 60's I hated the smell of cigarette smoke, never took it up. Still, it amuses me to see people get practically unglued seeing smoking in old movies and TV shows. Get over it. It's fair to have a bit of a chuckle over how pervasive it was back then; I lived it and it kinda makes me laugh now. But "unsuitable for children"? Please... get over it. Treat it as a lesson. Talk to your kids about why it was a bad idea, point out which of the actors they're watching eventually died of lung cancer; job done.

Oh and sorry folks, I seem to have posted an internet comment that does not find a lame excuse to tie in condemning elected officials I don't like. I'll have to work on that.