Thoughts about Cheech and Chong's Up in Smoke

This film is hilarious. I was laughing all the way through. And I was sober! The jokes work well. The pot humor is especially funny. The cops are very much keystone cops. I was left wanting more. Too bad it was only an hour and a half film. Cheech and Chong are great characters. They play every moment well. The story was good too. Every sequence plays up some kind of joke.

I watched this film in my living room. It was on a big TV. I bought the copy of a double feature DVD from amazon.com. Afterward I realized I could have rented it for 3.99. I don't think it made much difference in price. At numerous moments in the film I wanted to toke. Yet I had to wait until the next day and even then, I only had some burritos and taco salad which is a poor substitute for weed. All the talk about weed in the movie really gave me a big craving for a joint. I'd sure like a joint like Chong smokes in the film. Big, round and full of some great strain from Cali. It's too bad New York is so lame when it comes to legalization. Only recently has the government in Albany started to de-criminalize weed. There is a medicinal store now open. In LA I read that there is a "speedweed" distributor that delivers weed like a pizza. Well, in NY we are just starting to legalize the weed.

Yet it's films like Cheech and Chong that paved the way for acceptance of weed as recreational drug like alcohol. I can't remember a film which pokes so much fun at the drug culture and the cops which are out to control it. The scenes of people being stoned are in stark contrast to the people in Reefer Madness. There isn't any violence in Cheech and Chong. It doesn't make people crazy or violent. It's just about smoking up and getting a mellow feeling. Now I'm not too blind to say the weed doesn't have negative side effects, but films like Up in Smoke show that it isn't anymore harmful than hard liquor.

I'm currently writing a paper about Hollywood on Drugs and this is the first film in the "weed" category. I'm looking to see how "weed" has been depicted in films from the beginning of films about it to the present day. I started by selecting numerous films and have committed to watching each one, perhaps several times, and then seeing how films with weed in them have changed.

I think it's a relevant topic considering the current wave of legalizations in the US.

More posts to follow.