Deadly Weapons in Cinema: The Cigarette
Vintage Lucky Strike ad
Deadly, sensual, dangerous, toxic. Cigarettes have always symbolized more than just mass-produced pre-rolled tobacco.
In the 1920s, cigarettes were a sign of feminist rebellion. Once seen as the accessory for “fallen women” and prostitutes, women reclaimed that symbol as theirs: the cigarette became the means to challenge social norms. Cinema reflected back on this time period: women weren’t seen smoking in movies except to be portrayed as “disgraceful”.
Later, cigarette companies realized that they could double their profits by marketing their products to women. Cigarettes became the key to weight loss, cigarettes became chic (Vogues), but most of all, cigarettes became sexy.
During both World Wars, cigarettes were distributed to soldiers to make the war more bearable - the cigarette becomes unanimous with stress relief, but also with the courage associated with fallen soldiers.
The cinematic world capitalized on the major symbolism behind cigarettes: 90% of movies display smoking in France. Why? Because cigarettes are alluring, they are freedom, liberty, rebellion. They say so much without saying anything at all.
In a coming of age movie, the cigarette represents the willingness to enter adulthood. In a Western, the cigarette represents fearlessness – it takes a real man to smoke. And in general, cigarettes are seductive: they represent hedonism, simple pleasures coming first. Cigarettes, alcohol, sex, drugs: it’s the epitome of hedonistic behavior. I don’t care, it feels good. The smoker represents the sin of ephemeral pleasure.
The media wants to portray the youth, the cowboy, the skater, the divine feminine as risk-taking, pleasure-seeking individuals. What easier way than to place a cigarette in their hand? All of these individuals are already risk-taking; the skater falls, the cowboy dies, the youth grows older. The cigarette is just a mere representation of their imminent downfall.
The cigarette thus plays a role, one as itself. So much so that the cigarette is almost laziness on the scriptwriter’s part: it’s too easy to have a character light a cigarette, because the audience will immediately understand who they’re dealing with.
Still from The Dreamers (2003)
It's only later that smoking in movies became heavily criticized. Studies revealed that a high exposure of cigarettes on screen whilst young leads to a higher likelihood of smoking later on. Cigarettes in movies thus participate in normalizing smoking. Given this information, some believe that cigarettes should be completely banned from movies, or at least from teen movies. However, banning cigarettes is, in a way, a creative censorship; imposing rules on an artistic creation based on how one thinks society should be.
Multiple problems arise from this: who can really decide what behaviors society should or shouldn't develop? If cigarettes are banned, who says representation of alcohol, drugs, and weapons shouldn't be either? In the end, It all comes down to a simple question: should movies represent how life is or how it should be?
If movies were to stay true to our current society, a quarter of the characters would be smoking, if not more. Which is obviously not the case. Yet, many want to push for even less representation. Are cigarettes so appealing that the mere sight is enough to get someone hooked?
In any case, they are appealing enough that smokers, even reminded on a daily basis of their imminent death, continue smoking.
In actuality, cigarettes in itself are not so appealing, if it weren't for the media poeticizing them: the media and cigarettes thus go hand in hand.
Stills from Fallen Angels (1995)