Pubdate: Thu, 18 Jan 2001
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: 2001 Associated Press
Author: Anthony Breznican, AP Entertainment Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/traffic.htm (Traffic)

HOLLYWOOD EXPLORES DRUG CULTURE

LOS ANGELES (AP) - If Hollywood had a message in the last year, it could be 
found in the 1970s-era rock 'n' roll movie "Almost Famous."

"Don't take drugs!" pleads Frances McDormand as a nervous mother who drops 
off her 15-year-old son at a Black Sabbath concert.

"Don't take drugs! Don't take drugs!" mocks a chorus of concertgoers.

 From gritty dramas like "Traffic" and "Requiem for a Dream" to thoughtful 
comedies like "Wonder Boys" and "Almost Famous," some of the better films 
of 2000 touched on lives and careers ruined by addiction. All of those 
films received Golden Globe nominations and could fare equally well at the 
Academy Awards.

Many filmmakers say Hollywood has begun escalating its own war on drugs. 
What's seen on screen, however, can sometimes seems at odds with a 
subculture traditionally know for bacchanalian excess.

Federal drug-enforcement officials note that Hollywood has a checkered 
history in depicting drugs' consequences.

"But it looks to us like they're trying hard to do a better job showing an 
accurate portrayal of the damage drug abuse does," said Bob Weiner, 
spokesman for the White House office of National Drug Control Policy.

"There were some positive messages about the need for family involvement 
and positive work of drug enforcement agents," he added. "There's less 
ambiguity now. With movies like 'Trainspotting,' I had trouble telling 
whether the message was pro or con."

Film-industry analysts say substance abuse is no longer considered glamorous.

"It's kind of out of style, and that makes it time to capitalize on the 
anti-drug message," said Robert Bucksbaum of Reel Source Inc., a firm that 
tracks the box office.

No one making a movie wants to be preachy, but many say they have weathered 
too much damage from drug abuse to stay silent.

"I don't know a single person who hasn't smoked pot or tried some sort of 
drug," said Stephen Gaghan, the "Traffic" screenwriter. "At some point, it 
becomes hypocritical not to address it."

Gaghan said he initially named a character after a friend as an inside joke 
but then changed it when he found out the friend had died of a heroin overdose.

"There's a lot of personal experience in this one," Gaghan said. "I hope it 
seems truthful."

Benicio Del Toro, who plays a Mexican drug officer who finds he has 
unwittingly aided a cartel in "Traffic," said he wanted to create "a 
conversation piece" about how the U.S. war on drugs doesn't solve the 
problem of addiction.

"People (in Hollywood) are starting to know the power they have in cutting 
(drug use) down somewhat," he said. "We can show the bigger picture of the 
problem."

The balance between entertaining and lecturing, however, can be precarious. 
"Requiem for a Dream," for example, presented such an unrelentingly grim 
portrait of four junkies that it was hard for mainstream audiences to endure.

"It's a difficult movie, and my only worry is that not enough people will 
get to see it," said "Requiem" star Ellen Burstyn, who plays an aging 
housewife destroyed by a diet-pill addiction.

"People will go to great lengths to avoid reality, and over the years our 
addictions have changed and become much more lethal," Burstyn said. "I 
think that if movies like this encourage people to stay in their reality, 
we will have done a service."

Such cautionary tales frequently have come from Hollywood - including 
gritty dramas like "Lost Weekend" (alcoholism), "The Man with the Golden 
Arm" (heroin) and "Less Than Zero" (cocaine), and sometimes silly 
propaganda like "Reefer Madness."

Those movies typically show drug users coming to no good. "Blow," scheduled 
for April release and based on a true story, ends with Johnny Depp's 
character doing hard time after flying high for years as the top coke 
smuggler for Colombia's Medellin cartel - a one-man, $35-billion-a-year 
conduit.

Even comedies like "Arthur" and the "Cheech & Chong" movies depict their 
alcohol- and marijuana-dependent protagonists as hopeless bumblers who 
can't function in regular life - even though they're having fun (or think 
they are).

The high-caliber of filmmaking dedicated to recent movies dealing with 
addiction illustrates how important anti-drug messages have become in the 
entertainment industry. ("Traffic" was even able to persuade real-life 
politicians, Sens. Orrin Hatch and Barbara Boxer, to appear in cameo roles.)

Filmmakers say the star power and big budgets allocated to such movies is a 
sign that Hollywood is taking its ability to fight drugs more seriously 
than ever.

"Drugs are a big problem in any society, including Hollywood, and the 
presence of the problem is not to be denied," said "Wonder Boys" director 
Curtis Hanson.

"Wonder Boys" plays like a farce, with Michael Douglas as a dope-smoking 
professor whose professional and personal lives spin out of control over 
the course of a weekend.

"His character avoids dealing with very important issues, and 
self-medication that he indulges in allows him to not come to grips with 
it," Hanson said. "When he comes to realize that, he can make some hard 
choices and is better for it."

The message is especially poignant, he said, considering the movie co-stars 
Robert Downey Jr., whose career has been sidetracked yet again by a drug 
arrest.

Downey, also a Golden Globe nominee for a series of guest spots on the Fox 
comedy "Ally McBeal," is someone many people can relate to, Hanson said.

"The reality is that a lot of people, even outside the entertainment 
industry, have family members suffering from addiction," he said.

Television, too, has tried to show the ravages of drug abuse. "The West 
Wing," which won a record-setting nine Emmys in September, has tackled the 
subject of substance abuse with the character of White House Chief of Staff 
Leo McGarry, who has battled pills and alcohol.

"It's finally coming out of the closet as a health problem, not a criminal 
problem," said the show's creator, Aaron Sorkin. "I think that as people 
become more aware of that about addiction, they find there are interesting 
ways to tell stories about it."
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