The Portrayal of Addiction in Hollywood Films of the 1940’s
Since the heroin epidemic of the 1950’s, Hollywood has made a few good films about addiction, and lots of bad ones. Among the bad ones, Bad Lieutenant and Light Sleeper; among the good ones, Drugstore Cowboy and Panic in Needle Park. In the bad movies, the addicted protagonist is presented either as evil, or as unloved, misunderstood and overly sensitive. In the better films, the characters of the addicts are nuanced and the viewers’ judgements of them are complex.
Still, whatever our sympathies, our revulsions, however we size up Bobby and Helen in Needle Park and Bob Hughes and his friends in Drugstore Cowboy, we define them as addicts, and our feelings about them are based on that. It is not surprising that we judge them on their identity as addicts, since addiction is the subject of the drama unfolding before us.
That seems unfair.
An auteur contemplating a film about addiction would do well to take a look at the attitude toward addiction in Hollywood’s films of the 1940’s.
First of all, almost every film of that period deals with addiction. If the hero or heroine of the film is not an addict, then one of the main subsidiary characters is bound to be a chain-smoker. However, the severe addiction of a character, or a number of them, to tobacco, plays absolutely no role in the unfolding drama. They are addicts – the film makes that clear – but their addiction is presented as incidental and has no relevance to the film’s plot.
Whatever the source of this humane attitude toward addiction on the part of the writers, directors, producers of Hollywood’s Golden Age – perhaps a compassion born from the horrors of World War II, or a propensity toward being non-judgmental, arising from the moral dilemma posed between having once been bohemian bourgeoisie in Europe and now being Southern California swells – it is an attitude that all of us – not just the film industry – would do well to emulate.
Of course, in a Hegelian world such as ours, every rule is proved by the existence of exceptions to it. Here is one of the few moments, in the cinema of the 1940’s, when addiction not only comes to the fore, but is made the linchpin of a film’s romantic finale.
Since the heroin epidemic of the 1950’s, Hollywood has made a few good films about addiction, and lots of bad ones. Among the bad ones, Bad Lieutenant and Light Sleeper; among the good ones, Drugstore Cowboy and Panic in Needle Park. In the bad movies, the addicted protagonist is presented either as evil, or as unloved, misunderstood and overly sensitive. In the better films, the characters of the addicts are nuanced and the viewers’ judgements of them are complex.
Still, whatever our sympathies, our revulsions, however we size up Bobby and Helen in Needle Park and Bob Hughes and his friends in Drugstore Cowboy, we define them as addicts, and our feelings about them are based on that. It is not surprising that we judge them on their identity as addicts, since addiction is the subject of the drama unfolding before us.
That seems unfair.
An auteur contemplating a film about addiction would do well to take a look at the attitude toward addiction in Hollywood’s films of the 1940’s.
First of all, almost every film of that period deals with addiction. If the hero or heroine of the film is not an addict, then one of the main subsidiary characters is bound to be a chain-smoker. However, the severe addiction of a character, or a number of them, to tobacco, plays absolutely no role in the unfolding drama. They are addicts – the film makes that clear – but their addiction is presented as incidental and has no relevance to the film’s plot.
Whatever the source of this humane attitude toward addiction on the part of the writers, directors, producers of Hollywood’s Golden Age – perhaps a compassion born from the horrors of World War II, or a propensity toward being non-judgmental, arising from the moral dilemma posed between having once been bohemian bourgeoisie in Europe and now being Southern California swells – it is an attitude that all of us – not just the film industry – would do well to emulate.
Of course, in a Hegelian world such as ours, every rule is proved by the existence of exceptions to it. Here is one of the few moments, in the cinema of the 1940’s, when addiction not only comes to the fore, but is made the linchpin of a film’s romantic finale.