Pubdate: Thu, 25 Jan 2001
Source: Evansville Courier & Press (IN)
Copyright: 2001 The Evansville Courier
Contact:  P. O. Box 268 Evansville, IN 47702-0268
Fax: 812-464-7435
Website: http://courier.evansville.net/
Author: Anthony Breznican

HOLLYWOOD PUSHING NEW AWARENESS OF DRUG ABUSE

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 such as "Traffic" and "Requiem for a Dream" to 
thoughtful comedies such as "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 known 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. 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. 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 such as "Lost Weekend" (alcoholism), "The Man 
with the Golden Arm" (heroin) and "Less Than Zero" (cocaine), and 
sometimes silly propaganda such as "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 Med-ellin cartel -- a 
one-man, $35 billion-a-year conduit.

Even comedies such as "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 budgets allocated to such movies 
are 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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