If you haven’t heard the latest news regarding smoking and entertainment there is a group out there that wants any movie that shows people smoking in it, to be rated R, no matter what. If there is any cigarette on screen in someone’s mouth the movie gets an R, plain and simple. Obviously I think this is ridiculous as do a lot of people, but this group seems to think that Wolverine having a cigar in his mouth for 2 scenes of a movie (when in the comics there is almost always a cigar in his mouth) is going to cause younger kids to want to smoke.
Personally I never took up smoking, a good majority of my friends did and even a lot of my family smokes or used to smoke and guess what, I’ve probably seen a lot more movies than any of my family and friends. Never once have I ever recalled wanting to have a cigarette after seeing someone in a movie smoke. This is just a ridiculous way for people to blame someone else for their kids smoking. What’s next, are they going to start making movies refrain from showing alcohol on screen in a PG-13 movie? They might as well if they are trying to get smoking banned from movies. Alcohol causes quite a few deaths each day itself, and a lot of them are much more violent than death from cigarettes. I guess casually having a beer in a PG-13 movie is much better for you than casually having a cigarette…
These groups that are lashing out against entertainment need to learn where the real problem is coming from, the parents. If you were a good parent and explained the dangers of smoking, drinking, etc to your kids as they are growing up they are going to be a lot less likely to start. Now obviously you can inform them of the dangers and a lot of kids are still going to try them, and some will do it more than others, but if they are aware of the dangers before hand, a movie character is not going to be the reason they start. I would bet to guess that most kids start smoking because of the human influences around them more than from a fictional movie character. If people in your family smoke or their friends smoke they are more likely to try it because of the way they look up to or admire those people, not because Wolverine is holding a cigar in his mouth for a few scenes in a movie.
At 13 years old I think kids should already know about the dangers of smoking and peer pressure. I recall these things being jammed down my throat at that point in my life. So if you’re trying to blame the entertainment industry for the things your kids may be doing you need to take a step back and look at the big picture. Kids today have a lot more going on than even I did as a kid and I’m not that old. And for the people that are starting these groups to censor the entertainment their kids experience, why don’t you take the time you’re wasting doing that and talk to your kids once and a while. It’s your responsibility as a parent to teach your kids what’s right and wrong, movies should not be raising your children. Maybe you shouldn’t have had kids if you’re just going to pass the blame on to someone (or something) else when your kid fucks up.
