A Bad Image for Pipes in Brian Wilson Movie

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mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
"Love and Mercy," the current movie release based on the biography of Brian Wilson, of Beach Boys band fame, depicts a troubled gifted young musician and song writer beset by mental health problems. In the movie, Brian was also beset by a controlling abusive dad, a competitive and strong-willed cousin who was part of the band, and later, a psychiatrist who tried to control him and his money. Pipes come into the movie through Brian's dad, who was physically abusive when his sons were small, and later emotionally abusive as Brian became more unsteady and vulnerable with his mental health and substance abuse problems. The dad is always clutching a pipe, his mouth groping for it in a particularly forlorn gesture of neediness and hunger, to control and devour his sons. This is no advertisement nor encouragement to smoke a pipe. It is a kind of parody of the habit, probably picked up for the film as a way to reinforce the time frame of the movie, and to give the actor who plays the dad a physical prop. The "villains" in the movie -- the dad, the cousin, and the shrink -- are all superbly played and give the film the weight and tension it requires.

 

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
Movies have huge clout in promoting or demoting things pictured on screen. Clark Gabel stripped off his shirt in a 1930's picture and revealed himself to be wearing no undershirt, and the men's undershirt market collapsed for several years. If a sympathetic, preferably charismatic character appeared in a movie happening to smoke a pipe as part of his characterization, it would boost the pipe and pipe tobacco market. If it were a woman actor, who knows what might happen. It may be partly because the product can't be seen to be promoted or demoted, so people take the visual impression more to heart. This mean old daddy in the film twiddling with his pipe in a fidgety way probably delivered a hit, depending of course on how many people see the film. It's a good movie -- well scripted, directed, acted, edited.

 

seadogontheland

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 4, 2014
599
2
Men wearing hats was indeed a cultural requirement for many years. JFK wore not hat to his inauguration and boom men's hats were out just a few short years later. He also had a love of Cuban petite coronas...Romeo y Julietas I think.

 

ssjones

Moderator
Staff member
May 11, 2011
18,317
11,074
Maryland
postimg.cc
I heard the movie producer/director interviewed a few months ago and I had to see the movie. My wife has always been a huge Beach Boys fan, me less so. I like the story behind the "Pet Sounds" album, which is a major part of the movie. Apparently Murray Wilson, was a pipe smoker (but never Father Of The Year).
I can't find a still of him in the movie, but it sure looked like he was smoking a GBD 9438.
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indianafrank

Part of the Furniture Now
Oct 15, 2014
950
5
Newbroom
I imagine there were cobs aplenty in a pile in the corner of the outhouse.
Actually I dig in old outhouses all the time. And we usually find old, broken, clay pipes.

 
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