We look at the rise of the stoner in film, from the 1930s to the present…
The motion picture you are about to witness may startle you.
Marihuana is that drug a violent narcotic an unspeakable scourge.
the Real Public Enemy Number One!
So reads the opening crawl to the now infamous filmReefer Madness.
Originally released in 1936, it was designed as a hard-hitting expose of marijuana and its inherent dangers.
The drug could cause violent, uncontrollable laughter, the movies introduction read.
(1949) all purported to uncover the perils of drug use through lurid melodrama.
By the 1960s, authoritarian figures like Captain Hayes began to look like something from a bygone age.
We dont want nobody pushing us around.
Just what is it that you want to do?
The judge asks in a stentorian voice.
We want to be free to ride our machines without being hassled by The Man.
And we want to get loaded!
Fondas character inEasy Rideris called Wyatt another thumbing of the nose, perhaps, at his fathers uptight generation.
LikeThe Wild Angels,Easy Ridermade heroes of its drug-taking, bike-riding characters.
Here, fully-formed, are the archetypal stoner duo in cinema.
Take another look atPoltergeist, the eighth highest-grossing film of 1982.
The 80s also saw the rise of the stoner as a common archetype in movies.
Watch a high school drama or comedy of the period and youll almost certainly find one.
His car, getting high, rock and roll and picking up chicks.
Theyll soon be appearing on our screens again in Smiths long-plannedClerks III.
But what happens when this directionless character is thrown into the middle of a Raymond Chandler-like kidnapping plot?
The results are unpredictable, surreal and consistently hilarious.
Its an important but mundane job, so Dale takes the edge off by smoking marijuana.
We dont want nobody pushing us around.
We want to be free to ride our machines without being hassled by The Man.
And we want to get loaded!
