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redglow

Lifer
Jan 7, 2019
1,823
4,066
Michigan
Currently watching Our Town. A 1940 movie about small town America.
There's a narrator, Frank Craven, who appears every several minutes and is always smoking his pipe.
I love these old movies.

 
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trouttimes

Lifer
Nov 26, 2018
5,248
21,683
Lake Martin, AL
In most of the movies from the 40's, 50's and even many in the 60's, pipes were a very common sight. I don't think I can think of a film from that era set in Europe, that doesn't show pipe smoking. All the war movies show pipe smoking as do most westerns. Maybe it is a sign that men were more thinkers back then before we had social media do our thinking for us.

 

brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
9,634
14,748
I'm surprised old movies prominently depicting tobacco use are still allowed to be broadcast given the heights of hysteria that the tobaccophobia has reached these days.

 

brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
9,634
14,748
^ I doubt there is any anti-tobacco idea related to mass media they don't already have.
Tobacco use has been one of their rating criteria for a while now...and it seems you can't view any DVD's these days without being treated to some inane propaganda ad on the unspeakable evil of tobacco use inserted at the beginning that makes Reefer Madness seem like a sober documentary by comparison.

 

jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
24,724
27,320
Carmel Valley, CA
Not an old movie, but a series that PBS aired recently, called Jamestown. Mostly period correct, it's the story of the first settlement in VA. Indeed, tobacco is mentioned a bunch, and there are many scenes showing a tobacco field (the tobacco field it seems.) There is a moment where a pipe is shown, but it is never fired up. And no one is seen smoking anything. Ever.
I fear that Brian's observation becomes a reality.

 

milehighpiper

Can't Leave
Sep 10, 2018
418
309
Denver, CO
I am working my way through the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes movies and I enjoy smoking a pipe for the hour long movies. There is at least one scene with pipe smoking and sometimes they even discuss blends in there. It seems like the classic color movies feature cigarette smoking and the classic black and white shows favor pipe smoking. Either way, both enjoyable and entertaining!

 

trouttimes

Lifer
Nov 26, 2018
5,248
21,683
Lake Martin, AL
All I've got to say is thank goodness there are folks to save us from ourselves. I've learned I can smoke weed and drink like a fish and that's ok but if I eat stake and smoke I'm doomed. Thank you, health police. I still love to see Bogart light up a smoke to help him make a point or Homes use his pipe to help clear his head.

 

anantaandroscoggin

Part of the Furniture Now
Sep 9, 2017
650
1,012
70
Greene, Maine, USA
I haven't seen it in -forever-, but doesn't the older fellow (the sergeant?) in the old black-&-white version of All Quiet on the Western Front smoke a pipe in many scenes?

 
Sometimes, I can't tell whether you are all kidding or just being full of shit. Ha ha. But, one of the things my wife and I started noticing in almost all of the new movies and series that my wife and I watch is that that all current movies and series are full of people smoking pipes. Just look at all of the threads we have had where we list tons of recent movies with guys smoking pipes in them.
Yeh, and how many times is Bing Crosby actually shown in a movies actually smoking? Look at High Society (1956), it is full of pipes and cigarettes... well, they are all lighting them, packing them, or crushing them out, but not once in that entire movies was someone actually smoking. Bing is rarely ever shown actually smoking. He fiddles with his pipe more than he is ever shown ever smoking it.
But, new movies seem to all have someone smoking pipes in them, at least briefly. Maybe you guys just watch the wrong movies, ha ha. But, I put today down as the golden era. Maybe not for cigarettes, but I see pipes everywhere. I guess it just depends on where you look or how far your head is in the sand, ha ha.

 

brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
9,634
14,748
But, one of the things my wife and I started noticing in almost all of the new movies and series that my wife and I watch is that that all current movies and series are full of people smoking pipes.
But, new movies seem to all have someone smoking pipes in them, at least briefly. Maybe you guys just watch the wrong movies
I don't think anyone was saying that there is never pipe smoking depicted in any new or newer movies and shows. Just that tobacco use is now a rating criteria and that the DVD's contain propaganda ads.
Personally, I don't watch TV...so I wouldn't know about the current shows. But I'm thinking that the one's you're referring to are most likely period pieces...it's a little hard for me to imagine a bunch of new shows set in current day all with pipe smoking (unless it's not tobacco).
As for movies, I do watch some current movies (usually not the big "blockbusters" which seem to be 90% superhero stuff...YAWN). But I don't recall seeing any pipe smoking depicted in any recent movie I've seen unless it may have been a period piece.

 

brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
9,634
14,748
^ Somehow that doesn't surprise me...but I am surprised that show's still around. But comedy and satire are sort of obsolete in these times.

 
No, actually, if you look at those lists of movies in other threads, it is new movies about today. Will Ferrell has several indi movies with pipes, and Tom Hank’s has a few. Granted, these aren’t scenes with guys just smoking, nor are the scenes very long, but they are there. Granted, there is less cigarette smoking in movies, but since Big Tobacco has gotten out of the “placed product” business in movies and there are way less cigarette smokers in society, that’s not unusual to me.
I just think it’s a far cry from using media as a “proof of world view”. Sometimes when you see a guy pissing in the street, it doesn’t necessarily mean anything more than one guy pissed in the street.

 

brian64

Lifer
Jan 31, 2011
9,634
14,748
Ok, so there are some newer movies set in the modern day that contain a scene of someone smoking a pipe. That neither surprises me nor impresses any particular point on me.
I would say that's how it should be...kind of rare and not prominently depicted...because that reflects reality. Now if there were a number of movies or shows set in the modern day that prominently depicted pipe smoking (as you seemed to be saying previously) I would consider that to be ridiculous...because the real world isn't like that.
The only point I was ever really intending to make in regard to any of this is that "tobacco use" is now being used as a rating criteria...which imo is absolute horseshit. And even greater horseshit is purchasing a DVD to watch a movie and being subjected to the most asinine anti-tobacco bullshit propaganda ad at the beginning.
It's social engineering PC trash...and Hollywood does lots of that in lots of ways.

 

f5rd2hy

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jun 24, 2017
139
227
NV
Years ago when I used to watch t.v., one of my go-to channels was TCM (except when that ben mankowiz character was on).
 

bluegrassbrian

Your Mom's Favorite Pipe Smoker
Aug 27, 2016
6,098
53,737
41
Louisville
My tv practically stays on TMC. I love the old movies during the morning and day. Noir is a personal favorite.. and I also enjoy the late night foreign films. You never know what you may see.

Surprisingly you can see a LOT of pipes on various Adult Swim shows. I used to pause the program and take a picture whenever it would happen. Family Guy would feature pipes frequently, as would shows like Robot Chicken and Moral Orel.
 
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