If he knew..

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by SpM

I don't think that these scenes were included as overt "anti-smoking propaganda", but rather as reflections of current attitudes towards smoking.

If the "anti-smoking police" had got their hands on these films, there would have been no pipeweed whatsoever. In the UK, there is a move to take scenes of smoking into account when certifying a film.

Given this, and some time to calm down from my shock that there actually were some messages against smoking in the films (I was thinking "Oh, is nothing sacred these days in the face of the health police?"), they were actually quite subtle messages. Given that I didn't even notice them, they must have been!

Considering just how much Tolkien seems to advocate the joys of smoking it must have been quite difficult to reconcile this with the very vocal, and often quite hysterical (put into context with the many other health risks we all face) anti-smoking lobby. Of course, Tolkien lived in a different world, and while smoking had been by then identified as risky behaviour, it was not quite as villified as it is today. His works also include rather a lot of eating and drinking, and I wonder whether such things would be excised entirely from a film version 50 years down the line? I can see the Green Dragon being replaced with the Green Gym, the Hobbits meeting to socialise over a bottle of mineral water and an alfalfa salad, while the Gaffer mutters darkly about his BMI in the background.

But just to play devil's advocate, I was interested to note how drinking was portrayed as a joyous pastime in the films. Where were the associated hangovers? Not to mention injuries caused by drunken horse riding or aggressive young Tooks causing fights?