MovieChat Forums > Hollywoodland (2006) Discussion > Constant chain smoking in this film

Constant chain smoking in this film


Whether or not smoking was more accepted then is inconsequential. I actually got tired of everyone in every scene smoking. It almost was as if it were a subplot.

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Yes, it does seem like there is a "formula" that studios use to evoke "The Fifties". It includes chain smoking, tie bars, high-rise slacks, fedoras, and a sort of sepia quality to the colors sometimes. I can assure everyone that the colors in the 1950s were no different than they are now; having said that, it is true that smoking was pretty rampant at the time, especially among the type of people portrayed in this film. (BTW the cars were way cool.)

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BF and Bach, I am a virulent anti-smoker, but I must tell you that the prevalence and acceptability of smoking are very true to the times. Your point, BF, is well-made that it is a bore, and I find myself almost choking at the thought of how blue the air must have been!

Bachstrad, I LOVE your comment on the colors. Lol.

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What other habits of people, which are none of your business, do you campaign against? The use of the word virulent is telling, on many levels.

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Watch any old movie from back then and you'll see someone smoking in almost every scene.

I'm the best there is at what I do, and that ain't pretty.

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The chain smoking is part of the era and it is also relevant to Adrien Brody's character (Louis Simo) as he goes into despair about his career. For most of the movie he doesn't smoke. But, after the chain beating and murder of his client's wife, he digs up an old cigarette and starts smoking again. And, then we see him drinking and carrying a pack of cigarettes as he hits bottom (when he goes to see his son at the school). So, in that sense, the cigarettes are indeed an integral part of the story.

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There is absolutely nothing wrong with cigarettes in a film. They are fine and joyous things. I salute this film for showing so much smoking. Hollywood should do more of this in films, rather than pander to the wails and cries of those hippie liberals.

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This isn't really about the movie, but I can't help myself..... I can't beleive someone - in a serious manner - commented about characters in a movie smoking cigarettes. Why would it bother anyone that a person on your television is smoking? Are you offended when characters in a movie eat fast food or drink a soda? At least there is a half-hearted effort to inform the uncaring public about the possible risks associated with smoking - Not so for cancer causing food being forced down our throat. Cancer caused from processed food and fast food and the fake sugar in our soda and the plastic in our fake butter feels the same as cancer from cigarettes. I can't turn on the television without seeing somone consuming a diabetes causing, cancer inducing coke or pepsi or flavored water with high fructose corn syrup or milk with enough hormones to make a 9 year old start her period. But, you're probably right - smoking is wrong and you should not be forced to watch people 'fake smoke'in a movie while eating your microwaved healthy choice dinner.

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Sometime in the past, lawmakers/protesters decided that having movie characters smoke makes little kids want to smoke too. If you think about it, it could be truth. I've seen a lot, and I mean a lot, of kid emulate what they see in a hip hop video.
And we began our war on obesity recently. There are a lot of promotion on eating right. Although I am really skeptical that they would make much of a different, but you have to give them credit for trying.

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I am afraid the smoke will come thru the TV and give me cancer.

Now here is what really think the anti smoking nuts go crazy anytime they see someone with a cigarette. I wish they would all get a life and stop worring what other people do.

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johntbooker,

Several of my relatives have died from lung cancer. Two of them were in their forties and had NEVER smoked, but they were exposed to their parents' cigarette smoke from birth to the time they left home.

No one could EVER convince me that their cancer wasn't caused by tobacco smoke.

By the way, three of their four parents have also died from lung cancer. The last surviving one has severe emphysema.

I suspect that most people who doubt that tobacco smoke is harmful are smokers who are in denial.

Believe it or not, I had no problem with the constant smoking in Hollywoodland. It depicted the times, and the movie would have been unrealistic without it. I hope, however, that no one would be stupid enough to take up smoking because they've seen a movie star or other celebrity smoking on screen or in real life.

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Very well said. Today, it's all about minding other people's business. And I'm guessing that most of the people who carp about the cigarettes do more than their share of smoking pot, or partaking in some other sort of substance abuse.

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I agree totally. Funnily, I consider myself a liberal, but in the sense that people should have the freedom to live how they choose. I'm a non-smoker, but several of my flatmates do smoke but I don't get all anal retentive when I see them smoking. It's their choice. But (or "butt") this is totally daft- why should anyone get offended by smoking in a film? It's not as if all the smoke is going to drift from the screen into your lungs and eyes is it? Funnily, in PC old NZ there is an anti-smoking lobby group ASH which wants all movies that feature smoking to be rated R18. I kid you not. Fncking ridiculous!

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Those weren;'t liberals iun the 5o0s, a lot of commmie hippies.

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get a life

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Smoking is and was always a method of showing a character that is “out of balance.” In spite of claims made these days that smoking was somehow glamorized through movies and television in order to get people to smoke; it was always an obsessive-compulsive character trait.

In this film, it might be more interesting to wonder about the characters who are not smoking and how that impacts on the overall story line.

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Would it make you feel better to know that most of the smokers from the '50s are now dead?

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Just watch a Hitchcock film. Even old ladies smoke in Hitch's movies!

"The mango cream pudding...it's...an interesting topping..."

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Rock on, warped. Loved your answer. Lololol!

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Thankyouverymuch. Party on, baubelle!

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I don't smoke. I don't like the smell of it. But It didn't bother me in this film, as it's pretty accurate to what use to happen back then. They smoked a lot, and most Hollywood people back then smoked.

I an't afraid of no ghosts!

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