Suite101 poll: Should Peter Jackson warn audiences

Sir Ian McKellen recently revealed in a radio interview that the four hobbit heroes in Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" will be smoking their pipes throughout the movies in an effort to be faithful to the literary story.

When J.R.R. Tolkien wrote THE LORD OF THE RINGS, no one outside of the tobacco companies knew how dangerous tobacco products are, or that the companies were actively promoting addiction to their products throughout the world.

If you'd like to share your thoughts on whether Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" movies should contain a warning against the hazards of smoking, Suite101's Tolkien and Middle-earth topic is running a poll through November 9.

The results will be available throughout the polling period.

It's not about being politically correct. It's about caring whether one child is influenced to take up a deadly habit because of what several stars in three bound-to-be-popular movies do. Is art worth even one human life?


www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/tolkien

I could see a warning in the end credits (as the poll suggests). It could come along with the part about "no animals were harmed in the making of this movie"...

That's too bad, I had hoped that they would cut the smoking. There needs to be a warning at the end, but it might sound corny if PJ has a little segment at the end talking about it.

One problem is that the hobbits in the movie might seem like children. I don't know if they will be emphasizing that they're really adults, but because of the size, they seem almost like children (and Pippin and Merry aren't much past their teenage years, as I recall), and this is bad: A race of pipe-smoking children.

Great poll!

"End credits" was fine with me, but I chose, "NO."

Instead of having the producers make some syrupy little public service announcement, or having a lost disclaimer at the end, why not ask the tobacco companies to pony up for an ad against underage smoking to run during the previews? They couldn't afford not to do it. Can you imagine the publicity if they refused? Why stop with this one project? Make 'em run such ads on theatre screens and video rentals. Whatever!

In fact, lots of movies on TV, cable, theatres, lots of movies feature smoking. Why single out LORD OF THE RINGS?

Besides, pipe smoking is quite different in degree and quality from inhaling a cigarette. It would be wrong to change Tolkien's story to satisfy the current, um, enthusiasms for prohibiting behaviours and banning free expression. PC or not PC is not the question in my mind. We have a substance that should not be abused, and those who make money off of it are responsible to make certain that people are informed.

Let the tobacco industry and consumers bear the cost and effort of educating children and the public at large.

I'd rather leave Peter Jackson and Professor Tolkien out of it.




(Besides, Mr. Jackson could always let a hobbit have a coughing fit trying to best Gandalf at smokerings, or let some self-righteous elf make a snide remark or two about the nasty habbits of mortals.)

Why single out "The Lord of the Rings"? Because a conscious decision was made to feature a great deal of smoking AFTER the truth came out. It's one thing to pick up the book published nearly fifty years ago and see that Tolkien had imposed a personal affectation on his characters. But he probably didn't realize in the least how addictive Tobacco could be.

As for pipe smoking, it still introduces carcinogens into the body. Cancer is cancer. And inhaling smoke still damages the long. Long-term exposure to smoke regardless of the source increases the risk of various cardiopulmonary diseases.

As for the tobacco industry, for better or worse we have made our settlement with them.

And since Peter Jackson has made the conscious decision to promote smoking with what will be one of the most popular film trilogies of all time, he has fully immersed himself in the issue. He's a big boy. He doesn't need to be protected from the consequences of his own decisions.

Unfortunately, we do need to protect each other from the consequences of decisions made for us generations ago. Millions of tobacco-related deaths still lie ahead of us. We should do what we can to reduce that number.

To answer the question - definitely not.

Don't get me wrong. I'm about as against smoking as one can get, within reason. But... you don't see re-releases of Bogart movies with anti-tobacco warnings on them.

Of course, this isn't a rerelease of an old movie. It's three new movies, the first of which is still a year away.

Nonetheless, if people can get all riled up over minor changes to Arwen, the question of whether Peter Jackson will portray black against white, etc., etc., I think it's worth a discussion (or half dozen) to talk about an issue which actually impacts a lot of people in their lives.

Why should we have some exceptions?

good poll and topic!

should all new edited books and websites put a warning under the pics of Tolkien smoking his pipe? NO

should there be a warning in the movies? NO

why? i admit it's a difficult question but as somebody has already said: leave the warnings to the tobacco firms. i don't think we must do an exception with LOTR, i think that no movie need to do warnings about tobacco effects. Can you imagine a warning in Smoke?

You have to ask the question how many people will be influenced to try smoking because they see it in a movie. Ben does have a good point about the Hobbits coming across as children, which I hadn't considered, but still... I realize seeing things in a movie and reading about them in a book are not the same thing, but in the book there's all sorts of smoking. Gandalf even says in Moria that he needs a smoke! Did reading LOTR induce me to try pipe smoking? NO! I've never smoked a pipe in my life. I don't smoke cigarettes either; and you'd better not light up in my house. All sorts of movies show drug use these days. Are there warnings against drug use? No. Do these movies influence people to try drugs? I don't know; I know they don't influence me personally to try them and they never have. Just some food for thought.

As I said above I'm not against there being some sort of warning. I do like Gil's suggestion that the tobacco comapnies put the anti-smoking ad in and not PJ. I think that makes the most sense.

If people haven't figured out by now that smoking is hazardous to their health, I don't think a warning at the end of LOTR is going to help.

There are tons of movie every year in which people smoke, its an important part of their character, its real, people smoke, pretending it doesn't happen doesn't make it so.

should all new edited books and websites put a warning under the pics of Tolkien smoking his pipe? NO

should there be a warning in the movies? NO

I hope you voted in the poll. But books and web sites have not been shown to be as influential as movies and television. There is a big difference between what Peter Jackson is presenting on the big screen and what I'm presenting on the Internet (in fact, I'm only going to reach a miniscule fraction of the people he'll reach).

why? i admit it's a difficult question but as somebody has already said: leave the warnings to the tobacco firms. i don't think we must do an exception with LOTR, i think that no movie need to do warnings about tobacco effects. Can you imagine a warning in Smoke?

We left the warnings to the tobacco firms years ago. What was the result? Millions of tobacco-related deaths and illnesses, and millions more on the way.

Do you seriously believe these companies are going to come out and tell their potential customers around the world NOT to buy their products?

You have to ask the question how many people will be influenced to try smoking because they see it in a movie. Ben does have a good point about the Hobbits coming across as children, which I hadn't considered, but still... I realize seeing things in a movie and reading about them in a book are not the same thing, but in the book there's all sorts of smoking. Gandalf even says in Moria that he needs a smoke! Did reading LOTR induce me to try pipe smoking? NO! I've never smoked a pipe in my life. I don't smoke cigarettes either; and you'd better not light up in my house. All sorts of movies show drug use these days. Are there warnings against drug use? No. Do these movies influence people to try drugs? I don't know; I know they don't influence me personally to try them and they never have. Just some food for thought.

Actually, there ARE warnings against drug use, or there used to be, in the theaters. And drug use isn't portrayed as safe and harmless in the movies. I don't know of any studies which have tied drug use to movies, although some organizations have argued that underground or counterculture movies do encourage drug use.

Tobacco, on the other hand, has long been portrayed as a harmless substance. It's something "cool" people use, or which people use to calm their nerves. But unlike the drug addicts who get beaten up, raped, shot, strangled, or who overdose in the movies and otherwise ruin their lives, tobacco users in the movies generally don't reveal any consequences for their use of tobacco.

Books don't influence people to take up smoking. Movies do. And these movies will be shown around the world. The anti-smoking campaigns are not conducted around the world.

As I said above I'm not against there being some sort of warning. I do like Gil's suggestion that the tobacco comapnies put the anti-smoking ad in and not PJ. I think that makes the most sense.

Unfortunately, we relied upon the tobacco companies to be honest for decades, and they lied to us. It's not in their business plans to tell people NOT to smoke.

If people haven't figured out by now that smoking is hazardous to their health, I don't think a warning at the end of LOTR is going to help.

There are tons of movie every year in which people smoke, its an important part of their character, its real, people smoke, pretending it doesn't happen doesn't make it so.

Would it educate the masses? No, I don't think so. But it might get people to start asking questions. The United States ships tons of poison to other countries every year. Every year our business community condemns hundreds of thousands of young people to a slow death through their addiction to tobacco products.

We should at least ask our business comunity (in this case, New Line Cinema) to be a little responsible about advocating the use of tobacco products.

If nothing else, it would be the equivalent of putting the Surgeon General's warning in a commercial for a tobacco product.

Do you seriously believe these companies are going to come out and tell their potential customers around the world NOT to buy their products?

well, i don't know in the USA, but in my country of course the tobacco companies don't put willingly the warnings, but they're forced to do it by the State.

I hope you voted in the poll.

hmmm, i think Michael has discovered i've been slacking from his site recently

Smoking is an aspect of LOTR that I don't think the movies can be without. Smoke is beautifull on film and would add to the atmosphere. However, I do think a warning is appropriate.

It is not the job of the film industry to educate people, it is their job to entertain. If something is dangerous, it is the job of the government and the news media. Leave it to them.

Michael, you make it sound like no one knows that smoking is dangerous. I think by now pretty much everyone is aware that it is dangerous and hazardous to their health. Even IF you've had your head in the sand for the past 20 years, you have probably figured it out by now. The only question putting a warning about smoking in LOTR will get people to ask is why is my movie filled with educational advertisements? I came here to watch a movie, not hear things about smoking that every 2 year old knows!

hm, interesting debate. To answer the question--why not? It would definitely make clear to people that the smoking is part of the story, but that it's not "cool" or healthy. I wonder if they'll have the scene outside the ruin of Isengard--"I had not heard that they breathe smoke from their mouths" (that quote's probably inaccurate; I don't have the book with me). I always thought that scene was cute.

I do think that the movie should include some smoking, but not an excessive amount. And a warning wouldn't hurt anyone.

Smoking is important to the story as the Hobbit's addiction to pipeweed (which is shared by Saruman) is indicative of their own inner weakness as a people.

I have to bow out of this discussion here and elsewhere, but I'll say this. The film industry has been educating people for years with the wrong information about smoking. It's time for them to take responsibility for what they've done and at least STOP. And tobacco is not critical to the story at all. It's an affectation which affords one very weak plot link between the Shire and Isengard. Any commodity could have been used. Nor does Tolkien depict the hobbits or anyone as addicted to tobacco. No one would have thought such a thing possible in the 1930s and 1940s, when the story was written.

Since when has education been the business of Hollywood? They have never educated people wrongly or otherwise about smoking. Usually film is a reflection of the real world. People have been smoking for hundreds of years, its no surprise that it would show up in films.

And now, people STILL smoke, even though we know its bad for your. But it still makes sense to see it in films which are only a reflection of our society. Trying to hide it won't help anything....

And educating people about the dangers of smoking really is almost a waste of time these days. Everyone knows it will kill them, you aren't going to be telling people anything they don't already know.