Smoking in "Avatar": Necessary to "Reflect Reality"?

by Anne Landman — January 4, 2010 - 5:26pm
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James Cameron's new blockbuster movie Avatar won a "black lung" rating for gratuitous smoking from the Web site Scenesmoking.org, which rates motion pictures according to the amount of smoking they show. Avatar is a futuristic fantasy that takes place sometime in the 22nd century. In it, Sigourney Weaver plays an environmental scientist who puffs on cigarettes as she tries to save the moon Pandora. Cameron responded to the accusation of gratuitous smoking in Avatar by saying that smoking is a "filthy habit" that he does not support, but that smoking in movies is necessary to portray reality:

...[S]peaking as an artist, I don't believe in the dogmatic idea that no one in a movie should smoke. Movies should reflect reality.

Stanton Glantz, director of the University of California San Francisco's Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, says the smoking scenes in Avatar hand millions of dollars' worth of free advertising to cigarette makers, and points out that the very idea of a chain-smoking environmental scientist is in itself a gratuitous bit of fantasy.

Main Source: 
New York Times, January 3, 2010

Comments

Gratuitous?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on January 6, 2010 - 8:21pm.

Not to break anyone's heart, but not only am I a regular reader (and money contributor) here and somewhat progressive, but... gads...I also smoke! And it just so happens that I know an environmental scientist that smokes.

Can you imagine? Shocking!

Personally, although I am not a big fan of smoking in general (and wish I didn't), I agree with Ms. Weaver wholeheartedly, not to mention that just because the act of smoking is not a "progressive thing to do" it does not necessarily meant that it is a "conspiracy" or that someone was "paid off".

The smoking was so out of

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on January 5, 2010 - 1:42am.

The smoking was so out of character and out of time it raises the question of whether someone was paid for her character to smoke.

Smoking?

Submitted by doorma (not verified) on January 6, 2010 - 6:30pm.

Forget the smoking--how did her character go from battery acid to saccharine in one scene?

Smoking in Avatar

Submitted by Lisa Graves on January 5, 2010 - 9:54am.

It made me wonder the same thing! It did seem like an anachronism and product placement....