Lord Schwarzenegger has decided to throw his opinion into the ring regarding smoking on the silver screen. We get the following decree from our friends at IMDB:
Actor-turned-politician Arnold Schwarzenegger has spoken out against anti-smoking campaigners trying to rid Hollywood films of cigarettes and cigars. The California governor, a renowned cigar aficionado, insists children need to be warned of the dangers of tobacco but argues that filmmakers who wish to feature smoking should be able to exercise their artistic freedom, particularly in period settings, according to FoxNews.com. He says, “I personally don’t believe that we should erase cigarettes in movies. I don’t believe that we should erase when someone smokes a cigar in a movie. I think that we should remind people and kids all the time about the dangers of smoking. “To all the sudden tell actors not to smoke a cigarette in a movie when they portray a character … is ludicrous. I think this is going too far.”
I have to agree fully with Schwarzenegger on this one. Some characters need to smoke, and banning all images of people doing such activities is hogwash in my books. Hogwash! Black and white films in particular are able to use cigarette smoke to great effect, and I never want to see that change.
The hands of the most ardent anti-smoking activists need to stay away from other people’s artistic story telling. If they don’t like it – they can watch birds instead of films.
I for one don’t want to see a group of thugs meet up at a juice bar before their big heist. I want to see them in a surly saloon slinging beer, playing pool with a dude named “snake” and smoking cigarettes.
