I feel sorry for anyone who thinks the government means well and is looking out for our best interests. At least as far as my own country goes. I'll spare you my opinions of our present day issues, but today, we're going to talk about propaganda. Anti-Marijuana propaganda of the post-prohibition 1930's. An utterly ridiculous movement pushed mostly in film. We had a lot of those for a lot of years. Too many if you ask me. Today, I'm going to touch on not the first, but for some reason, the most famous anti-Marijuana propaganda film. Yep. It's Reefer Madness time!
Now, I don't fault anyone for not being hip to something they've never partaken in. Even to this day, we have people that are very much unclear about many things pertaining to marijuana. And yes. This is a very long time ago, but this is still pretty insulting. A movie which frantically preaches against something for one reason, while giving another. A very different one. All this fuss over something nobody even attempted to do their homework on. In order to direct American citizens into the loving arms of alcohol, the government stoops to telling horror stories about the pot. Very preachy stories. In this particular one, we begin with a rather lengthy warning to read through, followed by some community members getting lectured in a parent-teacher meeting. Marijuana has become a problem as of late, and since it grows wild everywhere, it's hard to keep the desired level of control over the plant and those hip to this "ghastly menace", which they actually call it.That's right. Ghastly menace. They don't even call crystal meth that, nowadays. In fact, this movie actually portrays the effects of marijuana more like meth than pot. Even going to far as to push the idea that people who are high are highly dangerous and either insane or on their way. This story is of a tragedy involving two clean cut highschoolers who got burned badly after getting too close to the ghastly menace, forever altering their path in life.
Bill and Mary are sweet on each other, and they like to have tea on the back porch after playing tennis. These two couldn't possibly have a more squeaky clean existence as they gently joke around with one another. Things quickly shift after their friend Jimmy introduces them to pot dealer, Jack. Bill is invited to Jack's pad where he finds a bunch of crazy reefer addicts who like to play the piano and dance while laughing like fiends. Bill decides this is for him and has himself a joint (marijuana cigarette), which, of course, immediately gets him hooked, making him say stuff like "Let's go Jack, I'm red hot!" Bill's life begins to suffer as he spends more and more time at his new friend's pad. Bill's best girl tracks him down, but instead of getting through to him, Mary is also lured into the spider web that is marijuana.
Mary gets stoned, and would have probably never stood a chance, even if things hadn't ended as tragically as they did. What I mean is that, once high, Mary is fondled and molested by some weirdo, and as a beyond fried Bill walks in and sees this, a fight breaks out which a gun is quickly brought into. The gun goes off, Mary is accidentally shot and killed, and after the knocked out Bill comes to, he is informed by the reefer addicts that he had just killed his girlfriend while blacked out. And how is he to argue? Bill can't remember anything. Unfortunately, the tragedies have only begun, as the guilt-ridden Bill, among others, are repeatedly reminded why it's best to stay clear of the ghastly menace!Well, shit! They makes quite an argument, don't they? It almost seems like they have an ulterior motive. So, what we have here, above all, is 68 minutes of non-stop wrong, sprinkled with dishonesty and ignorance. Fake news, if you will. I'd be lying if I said I didn't chuckle a couple times but I've always found it odd how Reefer Madness would eventually stumble upon such cult status as one of the more recognizable bad movies. It's not completely worthless, but at best, worth very, very little. This film is also not the first of it's kind, contrary to what some may think, but if there is a worse one of these out there, I've yet to see it. What's really sad is that there's probably a whole generation of young people out there who can say that all they know about this era is what they saw in Reefer Madness. No, not all of them were retards. 3/10
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