MovieChat Forums > The Insider (1999) Discussion > Strange that nobody smokes in film even ...

Strange that nobody smokes in film even tho they do.


Al Pacino smokes like a furnace, so does Crowe and probably most of the actors in the movie.
In fact, you could probably count on the fingers of one hand the number of movie stars that don't smoke. Tom Cruise for one. Travolta claims he doesn't smoke but he's smoking like a forest fire in most of his films. At 2 1/2 hours long it was amazing that nobody lights up as most movies are chock-full of smokin' it up scenes.

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Maybe the movie was planned that way.

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Wouldn't it have sort of, like, gone against the film's agenda of being anti-Big Tobacco & thereby inevitably increasing awareness of health risks inherent in smoking...? Cuz seeing big, cool movie stars light up unquestionably works as an ad for smoking.



"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

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In the same way seeing big, cool movie stars snorting coke or shooting people unquestionably works as an incitation to replicate the act, or differently?

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One doesn't necessarily or instinctively act out what one sees in an ad, but an ad's an ad regardless. Either way, are you saying the sight of Humphrey Bogart or Robert Mitchum smoking cigarettes in old movies doesn't look freaking COOL?



"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

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The real Wigand asked that no smoking be shown in the film, and barring a couple background people, its held true in the film.

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lol hypocrite actors.... preach smoke is harmless.. smokes like a chimney. It's obvious smoking causes cancer and various other illnesses. People smoke because of addiction and theres that. Induced addiction should be a crime.

The increase in human knowledge is the cause of the decline of religions.

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I noticed that too and was amazed to see an American movie in that no-one smokes (although some ppl in the background do so, I just didn't notice, I read about them). That's so unrealistic. But in the trivia section here it says that the real Jeffrey Wigand requested that.

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Lincoln Lee: I lost a partner.
Peter Bishop: I lost a universe!

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Apparently the real Jeffrey Wigand requested there be no smoking, and Mann (mostly) honored that request. Do the real Bergman and Wigand smoke? That's the only reason these smoking actors would smoke in this film anyway.

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In Mann's Miami Vice (2006), no character smoked either.


Drifting through lost latitudes with no compass and no chart

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NOOOOO I didn't know he smoked!


___________
I stopped paying attention to ratings ever since Insomnia received a mere 7.2.

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