An educational short film explaining the dangers of marijuana use via the story of a young man named Tom, his parents, and Tom's pot-smoking friends.An educational short film explaining the dangers of marijuana use via the story of a young man named Tom, his parents, and Tom's pot-smoking friends.An educational short film explaining the dangers of marijuana use via the story of a young man named Tom, his parents, and Tom's pot-smoking friends.
- Director
- Writer
- Star
J. Edward McKinley
- Tom's Dad
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe Life magazine Tom's dad gives him to read is the October 31, 1969 issue.
- GoofsThe policemen who arrest Bunny's brother are wearing motorcycle helmets, but they're in a police car.
- Quotes
Narrator: Mac takes Tom to a psychedelic shop, a head shop. The place is something else. Out of sight. A pot smoker's supermarket. A psychedelicatessen.
- ConnectionsEdited into The Educational Archives: More Sex & Drugs (2003)
Featured review
Law(n)making
Very far from the awful exploiter "movie", "reeefer madness", "keep off the grass" is still an attempt to discourage youth from taking up the habit of smoking pot, marijuana, hash, the child with a host of names.
Made in 1969, at the height of the "rebellion of youth" against the establishment, the Vietnam war at its peak, Nixon president, and the world needing a boost of something to level out the fear of things escalating, pot had found a home with young "rebels", who needed to assess the world in a different way from their parents - and found in the (still) illegal drug a different feeling from the aggression-inducing alcohol of 'before'.
The movie documents a youth, discovered by his father to be a recent convert to pot, in rational search for information about the drug and consequences of using it - in fact the whole of the movie is based so much on rational thought, that one could get the impression somebody was actually concerned with the hysteria from the media - "jumped from 16th floor high on marijuana" and similar headlines - and from the FDA and FBI, who needed another focus, after the end of alcohol prohibition, and found it in the pot, smoked by jazz fans and Negroes alike, to prevent massive unemployment in the 16.000 men strong police force ...
The basic idea of the movie - that the young man search for confirmation of information - is in fact rather good, and at that time, quite novel idea, if only superficially rational, when all conclusions are based on observable, but partial 'facts' - loss of coordination, redness of eyes, "loss of dignity", obsessive mono-focus, humorous outbursts over 'nothing', overrating of personal achievements, pot leads to crime or heavier abuse etc. And the young man to no great surprise has all the 'facts' confirmed at various hip parties, visit to the local hip dope influenced artist loving his new doodles, watching the courteous police arrest a friend, who could not resist trying to buy his dope at the wrong place, and end up getting ripped of at night by three youngster spouting the 'right' lingo to tie them in with the rest of the pack!
A very educational movie, which has no doubt helped with its mission in its own time - but today seems only a step removed from the hysterics of 'reefer madness' and the like. Personally it seems to me that use of marijuana never had quite the impact on culture as was feared and prophesied in the script. But one should never discount the parental generation's attempt to warn the younger. And as such it comes across: Observe the signs, and think for yourself.
Made in 1969, at the height of the "rebellion of youth" against the establishment, the Vietnam war at its peak, Nixon president, and the world needing a boost of something to level out the fear of things escalating, pot had found a home with young "rebels", who needed to assess the world in a different way from their parents - and found in the (still) illegal drug a different feeling from the aggression-inducing alcohol of 'before'.
The movie documents a youth, discovered by his father to be a recent convert to pot, in rational search for information about the drug and consequences of using it - in fact the whole of the movie is based so much on rational thought, that one could get the impression somebody was actually concerned with the hysteria from the media - "jumped from 16th floor high on marijuana" and similar headlines - and from the FDA and FBI, who needed another focus, after the end of alcohol prohibition, and found it in the pot, smoked by jazz fans and Negroes alike, to prevent massive unemployment in the 16.000 men strong police force ...
The basic idea of the movie - that the young man search for confirmation of information - is in fact rather good, and at that time, quite novel idea, if only superficially rational, when all conclusions are based on observable, but partial 'facts' - loss of coordination, redness of eyes, "loss of dignity", obsessive mono-focus, humorous outbursts over 'nothing', overrating of personal achievements, pot leads to crime or heavier abuse etc. And the young man to no great surprise has all the 'facts' confirmed at various hip parties, visit to the local hip dope influenced artist loving his new doodles, watching the courteous police arrest a friend, who could not resist trying to buy his dope at the wrong place, and end up getting ripped of at night by three youngster spouting the 'right' lingo to tie them in with the rest of the pack!
A very educational movie, which has no doubt helped with its mission in its own time - but today seems only a step removed from the hysterics of 'reefer madness' and the like. Personally it seems to me that use of marijuana never had quite the impact on culture as was feared and prophesied in the script. But one should never discount the parental generation's attempt to warn the younger. And as such it comes across: Observe the signs, and think for yourself.
helpful•118
- ottfried
- Jan 12, 2007
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $1,000 (estimated)
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