Constantine, Hellblazer, smoking in movies, Stranger than Fiction

John Constantine’s smoking evolution — 1988-2014

March 17, 2015 Pepe Lepew 1 Comment

satan gives constantine a smoke — Lucifer (Peter Stormare), gives John Constantine (Keanu Reeves) a light.

Smoking might be taken away from Wolverine soon, but there’s a precedent. Smoking has already been taken away from a comic book legend — John Constantine.

Several years ago on a blog far away (that blog is long gone; I abandoned it about six years ago), I wrote a piece about “Constantine” and smoking. “Constantine” was and probably still is the most patently anti-smoking movie to ever come out of Hollywood. “Constantine” was a total Keanu Reeves vehicle and it was released in 2005, coming right after the end of “The Matrix” triology.

It wasn’t a particularly good movie (it gets a 46 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes), it was a total rip-off of “The Matrix”, it made a fair amount of money ($200 million worldwide), but was not a huge hit and it completely pissed off loyal “Hellblazer” readers because it changed everything about John Constantine. In the comic book series, Constantine was blond, British and cocky. In the film, he was dark-haired, American and sullen.

And all that being said, looking back on the movie 10 years later, I think “Constantine” was arguably the most influential movie ever for changing the culture of smoking in Hollywood. “Constantine” came out roughly the same time as “Stranger than Fiction,” another anti-smoking Hollywood movie.

Remember the time — 2005. At the time, smoking was rampant in Hollywood films. Not just R-rated movies, but PG-13 movies marketed to teens and even PG- and G-rated movies marketed to kids. Hollywood had a long, sordid history of promoting tobacco products, for decades for free, and then beginning with Superman II, for a price. Hollywood, every bit as much as Madison Avenue, promoted smoking as cool, suave and hip going all the way back to the early 1930s.

john constanine 5 — John Constantine in the comic books.

Even after payments between Big Tobacco and Hollywood studios supposedly came to a halt after the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement, movies continued to show smoking as cool, suave and hip. Hollywood didn’t get a nickel for 50 years to promote tobacco products, made millions from Big Tobacco for about 18 years and amazingly, mystifyingly, even after those payments were supposedly stopped, Hollywood STILL just kept giving the tobacco industry all kinds of free advertising in movies marketed to teens.

I was part of a huge push to get an R-rating for smoking in movies. A push that I think has mostly succeeded, though it was a bloody fight. Hollywood resented us do-gooders, even though it was perfectly cool with R ratings for more than one F-bomb, the slightest glimpse of full-frontal nudity and ANY drug use, even someone just rolling a joint. But take away cigarettes from PG-13 movies? CENSORSHIP! R ratings are not set in stone for smoking, but the campaign has discouraged studios from having smoking scenes in PG-13 and PG movies.

Along came “Constantine” and “Stranger Than Fiction.” I watched “Constantine” again this weekend on satellite, and I was reminded of what a genuinely groundbreaking film this was. It wasn’t popular at the time, it pissed off “Hellblazer” fans, and the anti-smoking message feels like a forced and trite plot point, but dammit, this was the first movie I ever saw that came right out and said, “smoking sucks.”

constantine 3 — “Constantine,” released in 2005, was the most anti-smoking movie ever made

I went to see this movie in the theatre and despite the mixed reviews, I loved it. Maybe because of the anti-smoking message. I didn’t know much about the “Hellblazer” comic book series, and if I had known much about it, I probably would’ve hated the movie. Anyway, “Constantine” was surprisingly pretty scary and Peter Stormare and Tilda Swinton were amazing as Lucifer and the Archangel Gabriel, respectively. Stormare played the most terrifying Satan I’ve ever seen (as I said, “Constantine” is a surprisingly scary movie), with tattoos, a lisp and wearing a white suit with black oil dripping off his bare feet. Keanu Reeves was badly miscast and more or less played the movie as Neo from “The Matrix.”

Lucifer rips the lung cancer out of John Constantine’s body — ewww!

Most movies about the Devil and the Apocalypse and religious drivel are hopelessly dopey (I mean go watch “The Omen” again sometime and you’ll be reminded just how stupid and ridiculous that movie was) and compared to other films of the genre, “Constantine” was not as dopey as most — despite Shia Lebouf’s painfully bad role in the movie. The plot is similar to “The Prophecy,” which is another Apocalypse religious hokum movie I can actually stomach, mostly because the Devil is simply a spectator and the real bad guy is the Archangel Gabriel (again) and Christopher Walken is amazing as Gabriel. His greatest role by far.

Lucifer arrives in “Constantine”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rVFse1LLQs

Anyway, in the comic book series “Hellblazer,” which began in the late 1980s, John Constantine was portrayed as a gruff, chain-smoking Brit. At one point in the series, he was dying of lung cancer until he made a deal with two demons for his soul to save his life (the demons couldn’t let him die because they were rivals).

The film “Constantine” took a different twist. Constantine was dying of lung cancer, but he explicitly blamed the cigarettes for his condition. In one scene, he traps a spider under glass and blows smoke under the glass, telling the spider, “welcome to my world.” Later in the film, Constantine commits suicide to make a deal with the devil and in the absolute best line of the entire movie, Constantine asks Lucifer, “do you mind if I smoke?” and the Devil responds, “no, go right ahead. I’ve got stock.” Awesome line!

constantine-poster-600x818 — In the 2014 “Constantine” TV show, John Constantine is blond and British, but does not smoke at all.

In the end, Constantine is allowed to go to Heaven because he sacrificed himself by committing suicide to save someone else. Not wanting to let Constantine go, Lucifer rips the lung cancer out of Constantine’s body to give him a lifetime of chances to screw up so he can someday collect his soul. The film concludes with Constantine seemingly reaching into his trenchcoat pocket for a cigarette, but instead pulling out a stick of gum. Awesome. I loved it. Trite, beating people over the head with the anti-smoking message, but I loved it.

In “Stranger than Fiction,” a character played by Emma Thompson was originally written as a chain-smoker. However, the producer of the film Lindsey Doran hated smoking and hated smoking in movies. After battling with the director, they agreed on a compromise, Thompson’s character would still smoke, but it would be portrayed in a negative manner. Sure enough, throughout the movie Thompson’s character continually has to grab tissues as she coughs up gobs of phlegm. Gross and disgusting. Her assistant, played by Queen Latifah, begs Thompson’s character to quit smoking throughout the film and at the end of the movie, Latifah leaves a pack a nicotine gum on Thompson’s desk.

I honestly feel those two movies are when the tide began to turn against smoking in movies. That’s why, despite its many, many, many flaws, I will always have a soft spot for “Constantine.”

As an aside, this past year, there was a “Constantine” TV show on NBC. They completely took John Constantine’s smoking out; banished completely. That’s how far the issue has come. Constantine was blond, wise-cracking and British like he was supposed to be, but they didn’t even bother making his smoking a part of the character or a plot point, they just simply dumped it as unnecessary and a relic of the past. The show only lasted 13 episodes and likely isn’t coming back. However, a “Constantine” sequel has been planned by Guillermo del Toro. It was be interesting to see if they make it if they will bring back John Constantine’s smoking.

Epilogue of “Stranger than Fiction”

“Constantine” 2014 TV series

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5mQ5nqyw3M

Disney, Goofy

Disney’s bizarre 1951 cartoon about smoking: “Hey mister, you got any weed?!”

March 14, 2015 Pepe Lepew

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9KrAyXdmoA

Holy crap, I just stumbled across this while writing a post about Marvel Studios and just HAD to add a post about it. This is the weirdest thing I have ever seen.

I did a bit of research and found that this cartoon comes from 1951. It’s about Goofy taking up smoking, his attempts to quit and his nicotine withdrawal.

My favourite part is when a desperate Goofy goes up to a guy with a cigar and begs him for a smoke, going through a list of slang for a smoke, including “fag” and “weed.”

Adding to the surreal irony of this cartoon is the fact that Walt Disney himself was a chain-smoker and died of lung cancer at the age of 66.

Enjoy!

Disney, Marvel, MPAA, smoking in movies

Holy Wolverine! No more smoking in Marvel movies?

March 14, 2015 Pepe Lepew

Disney CEO Bob Iger announced last week that there will be no more smoking period in any film distributed by any Disney-affiliated studio rated PG-13 or lower from now on (Not sure Disney still makes R-rated movies, the studio did for a while through Touchstone.)

“We are extending our policy to prohibit smoking in movies across the board: Marvel, Lucas, Pixar, and Disney films,” said Iger.

I was already kind of aware that Disney had clamped down on smoking in its movies (Disney cartoons have a long history of portaying smoking to young audiences). However, here was the part of the story that struck me — Marvel movies include the X-Men (The Marvel mega-brand was purchased by Disney a few years ago.)

So, does that mean no more smoking for Wolverine from the X-Men? Wow, a cigar is a really big part of Wolverine’s persona. We’ll have to see if they follow through with that.

Other Marvel characters often seen chomping a cigar: Ben Grimm, Nick Fury and Sgt. Dugan from Captain America. I’m not sure if Nick Fury has been smoking in the recent Marvel movies. But, it’s a moot point now if he had been.

This also means you will not see any smoking in any “Stars Wars” movies, though off-hand, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen smoking in any “Star Wars” film. Did Obi-Wan smoke a pipe sometimes?

As it stands, very little (if any) smoking gets sneaked through the PG-13 rating today anyway. I believe what has happened is studios just don’t want to butt heads with the MPAA over smoking in PG-13 movies and have more or less voluntarily removed smoking from teen and kids’ movies. Smoking is still pretty much shrugged off in R-rated movies, which is fine.

However, Iger said smoking could still be allowed in some movies in a historical context. For instance, in a movie about Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln could be portrayed smoking his pipe.

Of course, Disney will not be going back and wiping out smoking from all of its old movies, and I’m not one to advocate going that far.

BTW, I just HAD to find the cartoon that went along with that Goofy image. Here it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9KrAyXdmoA

Ireland, Jeff the Diseased Lung, John Oliver, Philip Morris

John Oliver’s Jeff the Diseased Lung takes off

March 14, 2015 Pepe Lepew 1 Comment

John Oliver of “Last Week Tonight” did a follow-up story on his show’s creation of “Jeff the Diseased Lung.”

Jeff the Diseased Lung is a trademark designed by Oliver and his show for the tobacco industry which is fighting efforts in smaller countries around the world to limit tobacco industry advertising and branding. Oliver’s show took out billboards in Uruguay and sent out t-shirts to Togo starring Jeff the Diseased lung.

Since, then, Jeff and the Twitter hastag #jeffwecan have taken off far beyond what Oliver expected. Also, there are a number of YouTube videos made by Jeff the Diseased Lung fans. Here’s one, here’s two, here’s a third. The first two are great, but that third one was … WTH?

Someone even made their own Jeff the Diseased Lung costume in Mexico City.

Oliver’s epic rant against the tobacco industry, more than 18 minutes long, savaged Big Tobacco over its efforts to harass and intimidate smaller countries that are trying to control tobacco advertising. Australia is one country that now requires simple plain packaging on tobacco products, along with graphic warnings.

As Oliver points out in last week’s piece, Ireland is another country that has joined Australia in requiring plain packaging. Hey, I wrote about that weeks ago, I beat John to the punch. He finds an incredible argument in Philip Morris’ lawsuit against Ireland: Philip Morris argued that, “a dance is only meaningful when it is danced, as a trademark is only meaningful when used.”

As Oliver retorts: “You know you have a pretty weak legal argument when it sounds like a rejected @#$%ing Jewel lyric.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_nXplzwx88

COPD, Leonard Nimoy

More on Leonard Nimoy’s death — COPD fundraiser and Leonard’s tweets

March 1, 2015 Pepe Lepew

Leonard Nimoy’s family to raise funds for COPD Foundation

Leonard Nimoy’s granddaughter, who has an online retail store dedicated to her grandfather, announced she will have special Live Long and Prosper shirts available (SHOPLLAP.com, ) to raise money specifically for the COPD Foundation.

His granddaughter, Dani Schwartz announced:

“Hi all, as you all know, my Grandpa passed away this morning at 8:40 from end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,” Schwartz wrote. “He was an extraordinary man, husband, grandfather, brother, actor, author — the list goes on — and friend. Thank you for the warm condolences. May you all LLAP.”

CBS collects Leonard Nimoy’s anti-smoking tweets, including a secret message in Star Trek IV

quit-smoking-image-from-star-trek-iv — Screen capture from “Star Trek IV”

CBS collected a bunch of tweets Nimoy made urging people to quit smoking during the final year of his life. Nimoy disclosed in February 2014 he had COPD caused by smoking 30 years ago.

Nimoy only took to Twitter to promote his granddaughter’s online business selling Leonard Nimoy T-shirts and other products.

Here was the tweet that cracked me up the most. From Star Trek IV, a movie Nimoy directed. In a brief scene, an Earth-bound character is wearing a big button that reads: “I Quit Smoking.” Nimoy disclosed he purposely sneaked that into the movie. I never knew that before.

Chew in baseball, Chewing tobacco, San Francisco

Follow-up: San Francisco may ban chewing tobacco at AT&T Park

February 27, 2015 Pepe Lepew

I wrote about this a day or two ago — a bill has been proposed to ban chewing tobacco both on the field and in the stands of all California ballparks, including Major League ballparks.

Now, while such a bill is likely a longshot to pass, here is an ordinance that might have a better chance. In addition to the statewide bill, there has also been an ordinance proposed to ban chewing tobacco at ballparks within the city and county of San Francisco. Well, there’s one major ballpark in the city — AT&T Park, home to the San Francisco Giants.

SFGate interviewed several players about the proposal, who said it would be difficult to enforce.

From the article:

Also in Arizona, Giants manager Bruce Bochy, who quit chewing tobacco with the help of a hypnotherapist, said: “To force a ban, that’s going to be difficult. I’ll say that. (Quitting) is something you have to want to do. I know baseball is doing a great job of trying to keep these guys from doing chewing or dipping. I’m guilty. It’s part of the the game I grew up with.”

The County Supervisor behind the proposal, Mark Farrell, said he has spken with Major League Baseball and the Giants about the idea, and said he’s “not ruling out” exemption for AT&T Park if an agreement cant be reached with the Player’s Association.

Major League Baseball has publicly stated that it is interested in banning chew at ballparks (it is already banned in Minor League parks and by the NCAA), but that it would require an agreement with the Players’ Association. Chew, which for some mystifying reason is deeply ingrained in the game of baseball, is expected to be discussed as part of the next collective bargaining agreement in 2016.

COPD, Leonard Nimoy

Leonard Nimoy dies of COPD

February 27, 2015 Pepe Lepew 2 Comments

Sad, sad news. I had a bad feeling a few days ago when I read a story that Leonard Nimoy was ill.

Leonard Nimoy died today at the age of 83 after battling COPD. In an interview on Piers Morgan roughly a year ago, Nimoy disclosed that he had been diagnosed with COPD. His voice was more gravelly than usual and several times he had to stop and clear his voice. It was obvious he was in a deep stage of it. If you watch the video, you will notice that he has an oxygen apparatus on the table in front of him, but that he was able to talk several minutes without it.

He spoke about smoking. He smoked at least two packs a day, calling himself an “Olympic championship smoker,” talked about how when he was in the military, representatives from the tobacco industry actually gave away cigarettes to the soldiers, talked about the old Camel doctor ads. He also quit 30 years ago, but he was one of the unlucky ones who still developed COPD.

Nimoy’s message: “It’s not too early to quit. The damage is being done right now to your lung cells.” Don’t wait five years, don’t wait 10 years. Quit now.

In the Piers Morgan interview, he said his initial reaction after being diagnosed was dismay.

“This is unfair. I quit a long time ago. Why is this happening to me?” Nimoy said.

It is unfair. Nimoy spent the last year or so of his life speaking out against tobacco and smoking. He had a goof life, cut short too soon, but lived it well.

I think as kids, Mr. Spock was everyone’s favourite character on Star Trek. He was certainly the most interesting. I can’t watch the old episodes without busting up laughing at the cheesy dialogue and William Shatner’s even cheesier acting. All that being said, Spock and Nimoy still bring a dignity to the show that has held up over the years.

Leonard’s final Tweet, a few days before he died:

A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP (Live Long and Prosper)

Australia, smoking, Smoking diseases

Study: Two-thirds of smokers will die from smoking-related illnesses

February 26, 2015 Pepe Lepew

I saw some reactions to this story to the effect of “Well, duh,” but actually I think it’s a pretty groundbreaking conclusion.

According to a study out of Australia, 67 percent of smokers will die from some disease caused by their smoking. I’ve long heard the term “the majority of smokers die from smoking,” but there was no real hard-and-fast study confirming that. Well, now we have one. And it’s more than a “majority.” It’s two out of three. That’s more than previously thought.

Keep in mind, lung cancer is not the only kind of disease smoking causes. There’s at least 13 cancers that are known to be caused by smoking. Then there’s COPD. And heart disease. And other vascular diseases.

What is now known, not known 20 or 30 years ago, is the risk factor between smoking and other deadly or debilitating diseases, including diabetes, arthritis and Alzheimer’s.

From the article:

“We knew smoking was bad, but we now have direct, independent evidence that confirms the disturbing findings that have been emerging internationally,” said co-author Emily Banks, a researcher at the Australian National University.

baseball, California, Chew in baseball, Chewing tobacco, Tony Gwynn

California bill would ban chewing tobacco at ballparks

February 25, 2015 Pepe Lepew

This is an interesting tack. I have no idea if there is any political will behind this.

A California state legislator has submitted a bill that would ban chew at all baseball ballparks, including Major League ballparks (Dodger Stadium, Petco, Angels Stadium, AT&T Park and the Oakland Coliseum). The law would ban chew within ballparks by fans, coaches and players.

Now, baseball already bans chew by players at the Minor League level; I have no idea if that applies to fans, it’s probably a ballpark-by-ballpark thing. But, Major Leaguers are still allowed to chew.

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and other groups (and me) have been trying to get baseball to ban chew. The league has been reluctant to do this, I think mostly because the players’ union has to get behind it. The players’ union has said it is willing to negotiate the issue of chewing tobacco during the next contract talks, which I believe are in 2016.

Frankly, I have to believe most parks already ban fans from chewing because it’s gross and disgusting and who wants to clean that crap up? Again, it doesn’t affect NCAA or Minor League players because they’re already prohibited from chewing on the ballfield. It would be really interesting how the Padres, Dodgers, Angels, Giants and A’s would feel if this bill actually passed.

I think it might be a bit premature for such a bill until we see what happens with the MLB collective bargaining negotiations next year. I’m cautiously optimistic the union will agree to a ban on chew. But, I like that the bill is raising the issue and is putting extra pressure on baseball to deal with the problem.

Chew in baseball has become a hot topic in part because Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn died last year of salivary gland cancer and Curt Schilling recently underwent treatment for oral cancer. Both were longtime chewers. Babe Ruth also died of oral cancer.

Engle case, Engle vs. Liggett, Florida, Lorillard, Philip Morris, RJ Reynolds

Breaking: Big Tobacco companies agree to $100 million settlement of Engle cases

February 25, 2015 Pepe Lepew

Breaking news!

RJ Reynolds, Lorillard and Philip Morris have reached a $100 million settlement of 400 Engle cases in Florida. I thought they might do this. I’ve been writing for months that, every way I cut it, it was in their interest to do this.

The Engle (named after Howard Engle, a smoker who died several years ago) cases came from a Florida Supreme Court decision throwing out a $145 billion class-action judgement against Big Tobacco for its years of lies and cover-ups over the dangers of smoking. However, while throwing those cases out, the state Supreme Court opened the way for individual plaintiffs to file separate lawsuits against Big Tobacco.

Since then, literally thousands of lawsuits have been filed in Florida and Big Tobacco has been losing about two-thirds of these cases, with hundreds of millions of judgements awarded in favour of over a hundred plaintiffs. Most of those judgements have been upheld on appeal.

Rather than go through at least another decade of losing these cases (not to mention all the legal fees), I figured sooner or later, Big Tobacco was simply going to settle.

This settlement involves 400 cases filed in federal court. That’s $250,000 per plaintiff. I’m guessing there’s going to be more settlements, because I believe there’s several thousand more lawsuits ongoing, and that a lot of them are in state courts. So this settlement may have solely been to deal with the federal cases. And in fact, the NBC story is careful to say “it’s the first settlement by Big Tobacco to settle a chunk of Engle cases.”

Under the agreement, Lorillard will pay $15 million, while RJR and Philip Morris will each pay $42.5 million. This settlement won’t affect cases that have already been settled.

Great news for these families devastated by smoking! I’ll be keeping an eye out for future Engle settlements in Florida.