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#1 | ||
Illustrious Ulair
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: In the home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names,and impossible loyalties
Posts: 4,240
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Bit of a side-track, & I've pointed up this issue before but this could affect TH. Previously there have been calls for images of smoking to be banned in movies but now we see:
The Disney Studio has pledged to remove smoking from its family-oriented films. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6916293.stm Quote:
Could we really see Bilbo sitting outside Bag End sans Pipe? Personally I can't imagine Bilbo (let alone Gandalf!!!) without his pipe ![]() Or maybe pipes will be excluded from the ban? Quote:
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#2 |
A Mere Boggart
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: under the bed
Posts: 4,737
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I know...
![]() Still it will bring an interesting dimension of Thought Police to Tolkien's work to see Bilbo ripping his nictotine replacement patch from his arm as he collapses after the Unexpected Party at bedtime... ![]()
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#3 | |
Curmudgeonly Wordwraith
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Ensconced in curmudgeonly pursuits
Posts: 2,515
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Quote:
As far as Bilbo's pipe smoking, I find it interesting that Disney should wish to relegate smoking to the dustbin of political correctness, yet at the same time offer distorted views of princesses unable to find true satisfaction within their lives until their princes arrive to 'complete' them. On the other hand, I must applaud Disney on the fact that Captain Jack Sparrow -- although a murderer, a cheat and a liar -- does not smoke. We wouldn't wish to send the wrong message to our children.
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#4 |
Illustrious Ulair
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: In the home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names,and impossible loyalties
Posts: 4,240
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The reasoning seems to be that showing characters smoking will encourage impressionable movie goers to smoke. Seems to me that the lawyers could have a field day with this. Isn't it an admission that, despite all their earlier protests, movies do inspire copycat behaviour?
Is alcohol consumption to follow - no beer quaffing Hobbits in case it leads to alcoholism among movie goers?. No six meals a day for Hobbits in case it encourages over-eating & exacerbates the obesity problem? |
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#5 |
Princess of Skwerlz
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: where the Sea is eastwards (WtR: 6060 miles)
Posts: 7,500
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If we follow your reasoning, davem, we'd have to remove weapons and violence from all movies, or high school kids will be inspired to take guns to school and mass murder their teachers and fellow students...
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'Mercy!' cried Gandalf. 'If the giving of information is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you. What more do you want to know?' 'The whole history of Middle-earth...' |
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#6 | |
Curmudgeonly Wordwraith
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Ensconced in curmudgeonly pursuits
Posts: 2,515
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Quote:
![]() As I inferred earlier, I think the whole anti-smoking campaign in movies is more of a publicity stunt (a smoke screen?) rather than a true philanthropic effort to curb dangerous habits of impressionable youth. Why are they not more concerned about our society's seeming desensitization to excessive violence or the deluge of negative images dumped on young girls in order to rush them on the road to promiscuity? I am far more concerned for my daughter regarding 'Bratz Dolls' (which are banned from my house) than smoking in movies.
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And your little sister's immaculate virginity wings away on the bony shoulders of a young horse named George who stole surreptitiously into her geography revision. |
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#7 |
Spirit of the Lonely Star
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 5,133
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I don't know if anyone remembers but when Fellowship first came out, Michael Martinez wrote a heartfelt essay "protesting" the depiction of smoking in the movie. He had recently had a relative die from lung cancer and felt it should not have been included. I found that fairly surprising from someone who does have an idea of the context in which Tolkien wrote and the role of pipeweed in the Shire.
Disney is a private company and has the right to lay down whatever restrictions they want on their own products. However, I don't have to like it or agree with a policy like this. I say that as someone who has lost two close relatives to lung cancer as a result of smoking. If I'm uncomfortable with something in a movie, I'd prefer to exercise my personal discretion as a parent to steer my kids away from what our family finds "objectionable". I used to be in charge of book selection in a large public library system so I know this whole business is a terribly slippery slope. One person would object to "X" and another to "Y" and, before you know it, you've laid down rules that gut out the heart of a piece of literature or art. But, at the rate we're going in getting The Hobbit onto the screen (whether or not you like that idea), it seems as if we aren't going to have to worry about specifics like this for a while!
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Multitasking women are never too busy to vote. Last edited by Child of the 7th Age; 07-26-2007 at 11:48 AM. |
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#8 |
A Mere Boggart
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: under the bed
Posts: 4,737
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I think (but I don't know - he shall have to verify it
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