There is a scene at the end of Dazed and Confused, where after a night of hanging out and partying, a couple of the members of the main party decide to spend the rest of their night hanging out at the fifty-yard line of the football field smoking a joint. It is at this point that Wooderson finds the contract given to the main character of the film, Randall “Pink” Floyd, by his football coaches. Pink initially refused to sign the contract, which itself is a pledge of abstinence meant to serve as a commitment to his team, but after encouragement from his teammates to appeal to the coaches, decided he would probably sign it just to end the whole ordeal. Wooderson (played iconically by Matthew McConaughey), himself a twenty-something man who works …show more content…
With movements such as counterculturalism reaching their peak, the care-free attitude of participating in illegal activities such as drugs was rampant. This is explicitly shown with the characters in the movie, who not only all participate in recreationally smoking marijuana frequently throughout the film, but do so in public areas like the park and the rec center. This mentality is shown immediately after Wooderson makes his statement, with another member of the group, Slater, an avid marijuana enthusiast and dealer, chiming in that if Pink were to sign the agreement, that he should put some “grass right in the middle… roll it up, [and] sign the joint.” To these characters, there is no conflict to be found within their lives, so when any outside conflict enters, such as the coaches who wish to enforce rules upon them, we see the contrast between the care-free and everyone else. These coaches, like many who saw the uprise of the Hippie movement back in the 60’s and 70’s, saw it upon themselves to criticize and regulate those unlike themselves, not so much out of the overall safety of the population, but out of spite for the activities that these other people are participating …show more content…
Where everyone besides him immediately signs the contract just to avoid conflict without any intention of following through, Pink stands for what he believes is right, even if it leads to contention with his coaches. He finds it immoral that he is being restricted by people who he believes are just trying to impede upon his happiness, when they have no significant impact on his life otherwise. Among a movement where avoiding conflict was a contributing factor to the overall landscape encompassing the movement, Pink is the outlier among the group who fights back for what he thinks is right, even if it cause a strain in his relationship with his friends. The film never makes an attempt to validate his actions, leaving them open-ended and up to the interpretation of the viewer to decide whether they believe he is making the right decision in
Matthew undoubtedly purchases marijuana even though he could get a criminal record and face charges. Even the thugs at Matthew’s school do not bring fear into him. “It was no fun messing with someone who didn’t look scared… He wasn’t afraid of pain. Not anymore” (Ellis 2). It was clear that nothing was able to erode his courage. To compare, Ramon illegally and fearlessly makes a living for his family selling crystal meth. He also wants to traffick his kidney for the sake of his family despite his fear of going to jail. Both children don’t allow themselves to be stopped no matter how risky their actions are as long as they focus on their respective
For over seventy years, marijuana has been a growing problem in our society. Due to all of the controversy over this drug, there have been countless battles fought concerning marijuana's capabilities. In the 1930's, a moral panic surfaced with regard to the use of marijuana. The movie Reefer Madness is a perfect example of how the media stereotyped and distorted this new drug in order to construct it as a social problem, convincing society that this narcotic was single handedly destroying humanity.
In this quote, marijuana is described as an informal word “weed.” Sometimes, using a casual word is more persuasive than a formal word. The affinity for “weed” expresses that everyone could be involved in the accidents because of marijuana addiction. As a result, the readers keep away from marijuana. This story and the close-up wheel appeal to the reader’s emotions about how terrible marijuana is.
Women were represented in different ways throughout the movie Metropolis, but the underlying theme was women were seen as purely sexual. Maria was seen as the nurturer in the film, but also as a sexual object. She was the one who preached for peace and harmony down in the catacombs to the workers. Maria was also the nurturing maternal figure that was seen walking into the garden with all of the poor children. The vamp, on the other hand, was portrayed blatantly as a sexual object. This whole movie was seen through the eyes of the male perspective, which usually portrays women as sexual objects, and robs them of any identity. Lang shows Frederson as having fear of femininity which involves women's emotion and nurturing.
This goes back to Danny and Sandy. Their relationship was extremely confusing and dramatic. Danny wanted to be with Sandy but didn’t want to lose his bad boy reputation. He knew, though, that if he didn’t try to change a little that he might lose Sandy. While Sandy obviously wanted to be with Danny too, she wasn’t confident in going against her parent’s morals and the way she was raised. The Pink Ladies had a huge influence on Sandy considering they were her only friends at her new school. By the end of the movie, she conformed to the way Danny, the guys, along with the Pink Ladies, dressed and
The movie I watched was Brokeback Mountain. It was released in 2005 and produced in the United States. The movie is 134 minutes long. The screenwriter for Brokeback Mountain was Larry McMurty and the Director of the film was Ang Lee. The movie stars Heath Ledger as Ennis Del Mar opposite Jake Gyllenhaal as Jack Twist. Anne Hathaway and Michelle Williams play their wives Lureen and Alma respectively.
The Screwball comedy is a film genre that found its way onto the screens in the early 1930s and lasted till the early 1940s. They were a consequence of the newly adapted censorship law in 1934 that restricted addressing adult content on screen. They therefore incorporated more comedic and creative ways of symbolizing topics such as sex and homosexuality. Screwball comedies were mainly based on plots that had conflict between social classes as their many premise and always had a happy ending which was almost always marriage. This consistent maintenance of the status quo of marriage is a major aspect of feminism depicted in screwball comedies (Heather 26). While advocating for marriage, screwball comedies highlighted the shift in the foundations of marriage and greatly highlighted the growth of feminism in light of a shift in roles and expectations surrounding this institution.
The general mindset of the 1960’s San Francisco scene is well summarized by Reebee Garafalo in his book Rockin’ Out: Popular Music in the USA when he states: “For the counterculture, the focus on mind-expanding drugs seemed to offer the possibility of greater self-awareness and consciousness, which would in turn lead to a world without war, competition, or regimentation.” The concept of expanding the mind in order to achieve a peaceful, utopian world naturally lends itself to the consumption of drugs. The image of half naked, marijuana smoking hippies dancing around in the park comes to mind when one thinks of the late 60’s Haight-Ashbury scene. Drugs help tremendously in creating an altered state, making one oblivious to the outside world. A great deal of the music was preaching peace, love,...
Throughout history people have used marijuana for its dried leaves, flowers, stems, and seeds to relieve pain, stress, and other medical issues from one’s life. Within the recent years it has become one of the most debated issues in the United States. In the 1930s, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Narcotics (now the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs) claimed that marijuana was a “gateway” drug and was a powerful, addicting substance. During the sixties marijuana became a symbol for rebellion against authority so it became very popular by college students and “hippies”. So in 1982, Drug Enforcement Administration increased pressure on drug farms and houses which decreased the use of marijuana. In the past twenty years marijuana has become a
It was 1920 when smoking began to catch on in the United States. Its recreational use was restricted to jazz musicians and people in show business. “Reefer songs” became the rage of the jazz world. Marijuana clubs, called tea pads, appeared in every major city across the country. Authorities tolerated these establishments because it was not illegal or considered a social threat. In the early 1930’s marijuana became stereotyped as a violent drug, and by 1936 was illegal in all states. Marijuana research was at a stand still and the thought of it being a violent drug faded and the idea that it was a gateway drug emerged in the late 1940’s early 1950’s. In the 1960’s marijuana became very popular among the young college crowd. This was looked at as a challenge to authority and the government.
For nearly one hundred and fifty years marijuana has been illegal in the United States of America. Though marijuana naturally grew in all of our fifty states, it was outlawed due the superior strength and durability of hemp rope. This threatened to replace cotton rope, which would cost wealthy cotton owners a lot of money. To this day marijuana is still outlawed in the U.S., however rope has nothing to do with it. Once slavery and the “cotton boom” were over hemp made a little bit of a comeback in a smoking form. Then, in the early 1940’s the government began releasing anti-marijuana propaganda. In the 1960’s when marijuana became popular amongst pop-culture, a movie by the name of “Reefer Madness” was released depicting marijuana users as fiends and criminals who’s normal everyday lives fell apart, and spun out of control due to the addiction to the drug. Even in the present day organizations, as well as the government, continue to try and sway people from using the substance by portraying users as irresponsible idiots. Some examples of behaviors portrayed in the commercials are: accidental shootings, running over a little girl on a bike, molesting a passed out girl, supporting terror, and impregnating/becoming impregnated. I feel that these advertisements are ridiculously tasteless and misleading. Through personal experience, surveys, an interview, and a case study I intend to prove that marijuana users do not behave in the fashion that the anti-marijuana campaign ads would suggest, and furthermore, I expect to find that the ads so grossly misrepresent the common user, even those who do not use disagree with the negative portrayals. I also challenge you to think about the suggested situations and behaviors from the commercials, I feel that you’ll see every situation and behavior in the advertisements is much more feasible to a person under the influence of alcohol than under the influence of marijuana.
Marijuana could be considered one of the most controversial drugs of the past century. There seems to be inherent benefits and obvious flaws to what a high brings to the human body. Because of this unclear risk/reward potential of ‘lighting up’ the US Government has outlawed the drug. Furthermore many have criminalized the seemingly harmless act of smoking reefer; a bias that has been scorned by many artists in popular music for the upwards of 80 years. As far back as the 1920s to as contemporary as turning on your Pandora Radio, musicians have been trying to protest in song that: It’s
Unlike the society before this movement, the hippie did not try to change America through violence, the hippie tried to change things through peace and love. The Hippie Movement was a moment during the mid 1960s through the early 1070s where sex, drugs and Rock-n-Roll, was at the forefront of mainstream society. No one really knows the true definition of a Hippie, but a formal definition describes the hippie as one who does not conform to social standards, advocating a liberal attitude and lifestyle. Phoebe Thompson wrote, “Being a hippie is a choice of philosophy. Hippies are generally antithetical to structured hierarchies, such as church, government, and social castes. The ultimate goal of the hippie movement is peace, attainable only through love and toleration of the earth and each other. Finally, a hippie needs freedom, both physical freedom to experience life and mental freeness to remain open-minded” (Thompson12-13). Many questions are asked when trying to figure out how this movement reached so many of America’s youth, and what qualities defined a hippie as a hippie?
No cigarettes.” (Green 10 pdf) Miles’ father warned him very heavily about not doing drugs, however, he did drugs in high school before. When Miles goes to high school, he gets lost in the world of peer pressure and he ends up doing drugs, drinking alcohol and smoking. In the real world, many high school students tend to fall into the traps of peer pressure and end up drinking and doing drugs illegally. This story captures the real life perspective of high school with peer pressure, stress and troubles, instead of the fake, “all smiles” perspective of high school that some movies, such as High School Musical, portray.
Feminist theory was derived from the social movement of feminism where political women fight for the right of females in general and argue in depth about the unequality we face today. In the aspect of cinema, feminists notice the fictitious representations of females and also, machismo. In 1974, a book written by Molly Haskell "From Reverence to Rape: The treatment of Women in Movies" argues about how women almost always play only passive roles while men are always awarded with active, heroic roles. Moreover, how women are portrayed in movies are very important as it plays a big role to the audience on how to look at a woman and how to treat her in real life due to the illusionism that cinema offers. These images of women created in the cinema shapes what an ideal woman is. This can be further explained through an article 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' written by a feminist named Laura Mulvey in 1975. She uses psychoanalysis theories by Sigmund Freud to analyze 'Scopophilia' which is the desire to see. This explains how the audience is hooked to the screen when a sexy woman is present. In a bigger picture, where Scopophilia derives from, 'Voyeurism' is also known as feeling visual pleasure when looking at another. Narcissism on the other hand means identifying one's self with the role played. It is not hard to notice that in classical cinema, men often play the active role while the women are always the object of desire for the male leads, displayed as a sexual object and frequently the damsels in distress. Therefore, the obvious imbalance of power in classical cinema shows how men are accountable to moving the narratives along. Subconsciously, narcissism occurs in the audience as they ...