SMOKE SCREENS

Scare Tactics, UFO Riffs and Both Kinds of Buds

Reefer Madness (1938)

Sure, lots of other 1930s films exploited Americans' newfound fear of
the evil weed, but Reefer Madness is the granddaddy of them all.
There's a reason it's a cult fave, with its over-the-top performances
and tales of dope-smoking that end in manslaughter, suicide, rape and
insanity.

Plus, it has a strange post-release evolution that's more dizzying
than a hit of one-toke: Originally titled Tell Your Children and
funded by a church group to educate families about the hazards of
pot-smoking, it was bought up by an exploitation film producer, who
added some more scandalous shots and retitled the film Reefer Madness.

The film was re-released a number of times under different names,
until it finally fell into the public domain. Then, in 1971, the film
was rediscovered by NORML founder Keith Stroup, who bought a print and
started showing it at college campuses across the country, turning the
once-educational film into a campy classic, with legions of
pot-smoking, laughing fans.

Oh, the irony.

Easy Rider (1969)

Surprisingly flaccid overall when viewed in retrospect, there is at
least one scene from Easy Rider that remains a classic after all these
years.

Sitting around a campfire, with crickets chirping away, Captain
America (Peter Fonda) offers a first-time joint to the character
played by Jack Nicholson. He's an alcoholic lawyer from a Podunk
Southern town who reluctantly takes a toke after being assured he
won't get hooked on it, and that it won't lead to "harder stuff."
Traveling companion Dennis Hopper, playing a stereotypical stoner
before there was a stereotype, sees what he thinks is a satellite
overhead. At that point Nicholson starts to riff on UFOs, and the
spacemen who have been "living and working among us" ever since
scientists "started bouncing radar beams off of the moon." He goes on
to explain how Venusians are mating with earthlings in an "advisory
capacity." Nicholson rambles on, letting the joint go out.

"Save it," drawls Fonda. "We'll do it tomorrow morning first thing. ..
It gives you a whole new way of looking at the day." "Well" giggles
Nicholson, "I sure could use a little of that."

Up in Smoke (1978)

Tommy Chong and Cheech Marin surely weren't the first comics to get
laughs out of the stoners vs. straights culture clash, but their
genius was to make it their comedic center of gravity, first on
stage, then on hit records, and finally on the screen. In their
addled state, they invited the audience to laugh at them - but that
was a consolation prize; what they were really saying was "laugh with
us." Their hit Up in Smoke begat such successors as Cheech and
Chong's Next Movie, Nice Dreams and Still Smokin' with the torch, er,
spliff, later passed to such as teams Bill and Ted, Wayne and Garth
(stoners at heart even if we never see them lighting up), Redman and
Methodman and (most recently) Harold and Kumar. As Marisa Meltzer
described their formulaic achievement in Slate: "The Cheech and Chong
films created a template from which stoner movies rarely veer: two
guys + a big bag of weed + some kind of task to complete = awesome times."

Wonder Boys (1998)

In the movie version of Michael Chabon's stellar novel, Michael
Douglas gives one of his finest performances as Grady Tripp, a writer
whose once-promising career has stalled after producing a critically
acclaimed first novel. Teaching at a Pittsburgh university while
pounding out a second book that has no conclusion in sight, Tripp is a
heavy-duty pothead. During a long, alcohol-and-drug-infused weekend,
one of Tripp's students, Hannah Green (played by a totally sweet Katie
Holmes), after sneaking a peak at the never-ending opus, has the
temerity to suggest that Tripp's problem might be too much weed.

"Well ... thank you for the thought," retorts Tripp, "but shocking as
it may sound, I am not the first writer to sip a little weed.
Furthermore, it might surprise you to know that one book I wrote, as
you say, 'under the influence,' just happened to win a little
something called the PEN Award. Which, by the way, I accepted under
the influence."

It turns out that his bristling defense of writing under the influence
crumbles like ash falling from a joint. But, along the way, a talented
student, played by Toby Maguire, discovers weed for the first time. In
one scene, he's wolfing down a box of powdered donuts, grinning like a
monkey and licking his fingers as if he's tasting powdered sugar for
the first time. "These are incredible," he crows. "Incredible!"

The world-weary professor gives him a knowing look and then observes:
"Finish the rest of that joint, James - you can start chewing on the
box."

And who hasn't been there?

The Big Lebowski (1998)

Jeff Bridges may have finally won an Academy Award for his performance
in last year's Crazy Heart, but his performance as middle-aged stoner
Jeff "the Dude" Lebowski was every bit as Oscar-worthy. With the likes
of John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John Turturro
and Julianne Moore in supporting roles in this standout film by the
Coen brothers, Bridges floats through the movie on a foam of white
Russians and a hazy cloud of pot smoke. There are a lot of great
moments, but one of the best comes when Lebowski, driving along in his
junker of a car and smoking a joint, takes a last drag and then flips
the roach out his car window. Only the window is still up, and sparks
from still-burning roach lands in his crotch. He crashes into a
telephone pole (who says it's safe to drive while burning a fatty?),
and eventually douses the burning number with his beer.

"Fuckola, man!" laments the Dude.

Indeed.

Saving Grace (2000)

Craig Ferguson, who has since made a name for himself hosting a
late-night talk show, co-wrote this flick, in which he stars as a
pothead gardener who befriends a recently widowed woman (Brenda
Blethyn in the title role) in severe financial straits. Deep in debt
after her husband's death, and facing the loss of her country manor,
she fends off destitution by growing pot in a greenhouse that
previously held her prize-winning orchids.

One critic called this film a "Cheech and Chong movie for the
art-house crowd."

There are plenty of low-key British humor-type laughs - or at least
knowing smiles - to be had in this gentle smoke wisp of a film. When
Blethyn finally samples some of her product, sitting on the beach,
high as a cloud, she suddenly starts cracking up. Asked by Ferguson
what's so damn humorous, she responds, "You're Scottish," a
non-revelation revelation that tickles her funny bone to the extreme.

What's that? Weed can make you laugh at things that wouldn't otherwise
be funny. Hmm. And the prohibitionists say that's a bad thing? Hmm.

Pineapple Express (2008)

It's about buds. Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) plays the mid-20s process
server in an awkward relationship with a hot high school senior; he
drives a hooptie-ass car, he's kind of clumsy, but we like him just
enough. Saul Silver, played by James Franco (Spider-Man 1-3), is his
affable pot dealer, Bud No. 2. Which brings us to our third bud:
Pineapple Express, a strain of Mary Jane so rare that if a stoner were
to accidentally drop a joint rolled with the stuff upon witnessing a
murder, it'd be completely plausible for the bad guys to trace it back
to its dealer. Thus is the plot of what became an instant-classic pot
comedy about the ambiguous relationship stoners have with their "guy."
But is your dealer your friend? You hang out, rip a bong, gratis, and
play some video games, share YouTube clips, listen to music at
abnormal volumes - always too high or too low - and just chill until
maybe he's on the phone making plans for someone else to come by. But
what happens when you and this dude wind up in the center of a
murder-drug caper?

It's Complicated (2009)

As we were putting this list together, we thought about Animal House,
which, set in 1962, didn't have much pot-smoking. But there's a
wonderful scene where an English professor (of course!) played by
Donald Sutherland (ditto!) sits in a locked bathroom with two
students, who are getting high for the first time. Stoned to the bone,
they muse on the trippy possibility of an entire universe inhabiting
an atom in a single fingernail. Jump ahead to 2010, and characters
played by Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin hide out in a bathroom during
a party to hit a few tokes. Pot's no longer the evil weed of Reefer
Madness days - no demonization, just a severe case of the munchies
results. But when can all the smokers come out of the bathroom?