MovieChat Forums > Christiane F. - Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo (1981) Discussion > You don't think this sort of romanticize...

You don't think this sort of romanticizes drug use?


Especially these days when you go to any party where well to do career people get together and within twenty minutes someone invites you to snort a line? Heroin is the last hush hush drug left in our culture. Maybe its best left out of peoples thoughts. Remember people do not shock as easily as they did back then. I know my kids will not be allowed to watch this.

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This is the biggest nonsense ive ever read!
You think that if someone doesnt know about drugs he will never take them? and if someone doesnt know about sex he will never have any right?

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Did you actually WATCH this movie? Romanticize? You must be outta yr mind!!!

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Please, please read other posts, threads...dont think that shielded in some way, it wont happen, awful to think of loved ones succumbing to the terrible disease of addiction but sometimes it just happens no matter what you do, best to show it to them and let them see what it can lead to, SOME films have glamorized in some way, but most, thankfully show the terrible downfall that drugs can lead to.
Jan B

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[deleted]

I think it should be compulsory viewing for all kids. I watched this when I was in school 25 years ago and the images have stayed with me. Great film and great acting.

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This is the only film i've ever seen that does NOT in any way glamourise drug use.
It should be shown in every High School in the world. While it wouldnt work with all, it would the scare SOME kids out of ever trying H.

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I do softer drugs, and this film made me feel bad about it... and got me hooked up on Heroes again.

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Oh yeah that movie is real romantic. I don't know which part is more romantic, the one where the kid is shooting up in a disgusting toilet at a train station, the part where she talks with her friend about that john who gets his rocks off by being peed on, or the numerous scenes of puking/bleeding.

Maybe before you decided what your kids should or should not be allowed to watch you should watch it for yourself.

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I've done quite some drugs myself, but stayed away from heroin. Maybe cause I was a teen in the 90's, some people around me used it, but it already had gotten the image of an enormous loser-drug. So I just stayed away from it.

But exactly this movie is a movie I'll show my kids. This one and Requiem for a dream will do the trick more than telling your kids to stay of drugs a 1000 times.

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" I know my kids will not be allowed to watch this."

Great, if you're planning to live with them on a desert island till the end of your days. Oh, you probably assume that those American teenage commedies will give them more realistic picture of the world (drugs included). Or you think they will watch Snowwhite and Lion King with their friends till they are 25?

"within twenty minutes someone invites you to snort a line"

Isn't that exactly the reason why would all kids HAVE to see this movie, as soon as they can understand ANY of its contents? Or it is better to let them "be invited..." and later show them the movie saying "and now you'll have to go through all of this!"?

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Have you seen the film? this is as real as it gets! this is not trainspoting!!! your kids should watch this! I bet they would never pick up a needle in there lives!!! That's the whole point, these were kids and only one of them made it!

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I'm not shure if it will keep anyone from experimenting, but it surely takes away a lot of the glamour and with it the need to feed one's curiosity.

Long live the New Flesh!

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Does this movie romanticize drug use? Hell yes! Impressionable kids love all those images of death and the idea of self destruction. This movie is one of the most extreme examples. I heard of many people who tried heroin because of this. Not a good movie for kids, I think.

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erm, what kind of well-to-do career parties have you been to that someone offers you a line of coke..? That's never happened to me, but perhaps I'm the exception.

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I agree with asgardsreil, although it is quite a harrowing and sad film, I can't help but find it romantic. I mean they do have some fun in it - the bit when they run and roll through the shopping centre at night while Heroes plays is beautiful and the part when you see Christiane and Detlev sharing a joint on top of the Mercedes skyscraper is wonderful and dream-like. Admitedly they havent started shooting H then but its all part of the image. And all the leopard print vests, leather jackets, dyed hair etc look hot as hell. I agree with those that say it should be shown in schools though - its just so powerful.

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Does this movie romanticize drug use? Hell yes! Impressionable kids love all those images of death and the idea of self destruction. This movie is one of the most extreme examples. I heard of many people who tried heroin because of this. Not a good movie for kids, I think.
I'm not sure if you've ever watched the movie, but the multiple scenes of them withdrawing, puking all over each other, sweating, chilling, using toilet water to shoot up ... those are not very "romantic" imagines. There is NOTHING about this movie that glamourizes heroin abuse.

The beauty is I'm learning how to face my beast ~ Blue October

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Sorry but, not only have I seen "Christiane F." probably over 50 times, but I spent 9 years in Berlin, basically living the same life that she did, in the same locales; that's how much the movie influenced me. And through the years I met quite a few young people there, from all over Europe, who visited Berlin's Bahnhof Zoo, as though it were some historical monument, just because of both the film, and the book. Christiane's clique was seen as very 'cool.' They were living such crazy lives, even though they were still so young. The club scenes, the Bowie concert, and especially the scene that begins in the Europa Center and ends up on the roof of the Mercedes building, is so iconic, and the ultimate symbol of young people rebelling and living their own lives. Of course the later scenes of drug use and withdrawal are harsh, but believe me, a lot of people see even those scenes as somehow "glamorous." In interviews, even the real Christiane says that she looks back on her drug days around the Zoo Station, "with fondness and a feeling of nostalgia." Maybe you just have to live that life for a while to truly understand. I lived there, as a junkie for about 6 years. I'm fine now and I don't regret that experience at all. We should never regret life experiences that make us stronger people, or that broaden our minds. That's how we become adults.

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Drugs obviously destroyed your brain.

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