Often seen as a small prop, a way to show a character has a stressful job, a stressful life, or is just a bit run down, the humble cigarette could soon be banned from all movies shown in the UK that aren’t aimed solely at adults (those rated 18+), if The UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies has its way.
While there appears to be little public support for the movement, The UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies has called for all movies which feature smoking to receive an adult-only rating unless there is a very good reason to see a specific character sparking up; a move which would see films such as Avatar, and Remember Me (the Robert Pattinson romance), which were both classified 12A, rebranded as 18’s.
The call comes following a Bristol University study which found half of the top US movies released in the UK from 2001-2005 depicted smoking, and found that “smoking in films remains a major and persistent driver of smoking uptake among children and young people”; a sentiment echoed by medical journal Thoraz, who believe that teenagers are much more likely to start smoking if they watch movies which show actors smoking.
Public opinion however seems to be against the call, as while many parents and children alike don’t wish to see teenagers start smoking, they, and the pro-smoking lobby Forest, believe reclassifying films in such a manner would be “patronizing”, and think it would be silly to ban smoking in such a manner, yet still be allowed to depict casual sex, and a fair amount of violence in movies aimed at children; a sentiment only partially shared by actor Bruce Willis, who stopped his character John McClane from smoking in Die Hard 4 because he “didn’t want to feel responsible for any kid smoking to try and look cool.”
Matt Wheeldon.
Source: Deadline.
