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Pot Shots
Posted by FoM on September 21, 2000 at 21:48:23 PT
Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post Staff Writer
Source: Washington Post
I'm not proposing that director Ron Mann should have called "Grass," his newest documentary, something more like "Oregano," but there is a bit of false advertising going on here. In a sense, the movie is about marijuana in the way that "Saving Private Ryan" was about Hitler. Dope, ganja, the evil weed is there in the background all right, stinking up the place with its sweetly acrid smoke, but the film's true subject matter is not really drugs but the war on drugs. As such, it's more filled with dry facts and figures, old black-and-white newsreel footage and boring, right wing talking heads (e.g., Richard Nixon, George Bush, Ronald Reagan) than it is with actual information about Mary Jane herself--and that's the film's real bummer. 
By the way, in case you're wondering on which side of the issue Mann and his narrator, hemp activist Woody Harrelson, come down, an on-screen graphic enumerating the hundreds of billions of dollars that have been spent enforcing federal drug policy in the last 20 years is accompanied by the sound effect of a toilet flushing.Unlike Mann's earlier work, such as "Comic Book Confidential," a lively history of the comic book, and "Twist," a wry look at the evolution of rock 'n' roll dancing, "Grass" is a fairly dull treatise, tracing the U.S. government's current ineffectual efforts to eradicate recreational marijuana use, from the early crusade of one Harry J. Anslinger, the first director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (a precursor to the current Drug Enforcement Administration), to the more recent "Just Say No" campaign of Nancy Reagan. Although Mann mixes in such sure-fire laugh-getters as clips from propaganda films like the legendary "Reefer Madness" and an educational short that asks "Marijuana: Threat or Menace?," the film's legislative story line--the passage of bills, laws and uniform codes of prosecution--is a real buzz-kill.We learn that dope makes you happy and relaxed, then sleepy (duh!), not unlike alcohol, but we don't learn anything about its chemistry or the current state of medical research as to its long- and short-term effects. Mention is made of Paraquat, an herbicide that turned out to be more dangerous than the drug itself, but not one word is devoted to PCP, a pot additive also known as angel dust or love boat that's been said to lead to psychotic behavior.Occasionally, Mann weakens already strong points about wasteful spending and political hypocrisy with such cheap and pointless shots as a nervously lip-licking Tricky Dick, Gerald Ford falling down a flight of airplane stairs and anonymous reporters making on-camera bloopers. Har har. I guess all this would be funnier if I were watching it high.Structured around a faux-sociological time line that traces pronouncements of the "Official Truth" about pot from such chestnuts as "If you use it, you will kill people" to howlers like "If you smoke it, you will be in the grip of Satan and the godless Sodomites that run Hollywood," "Grass" attempts a light touch, but ultimately it can't rise above the sense that it has as much of an ax to grind as the humorless and misguided bureaucrats it mocks.GRASS (R, 80 minutes) -- Contains a couple of naughty words and lots of, um, drug use. Visions Cinema/Bistro/Lounge. Source: Washington Post (DC)Author: Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post Staff WriterPublished: Friday, September 22, 2000; Page N46 Contact: letterstoed washpost.comAddress: 1150 15th Street NorthwestWashington, DC 20071© 2000 The Washington Post Company Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/Feedback: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm Related Articles & Web Site:Grass The Movie - A Ron Mann Filmhttp://www.grassthemovie.com/Roger Ebert Says Legalize Ithttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6231.shtmlDan Mindus On Grass - National Reviewhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6005.shtmlCensors Give Grass Green Light on Appealhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread5966.shtmlHowls of Protest Greet Ontario Ban of Grass The Moviehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread5961.shtmlFilm Banned For Showing Pot-Smoking Chimps http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread5952.shtml
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Comment #3 posted by Dan B on September 22, 2000 at 12:45:10 PT:
My Critique of the Critic
This critic has made a shameful mockery of the art of movie criticism. Instead of judging the movie on its own merits, he judges it through the filter of his own warped world view. O'Sullivan shows us that objectivity is a word foreign to his vocabulary, and after reading this review, I would not take anything he has to say about any movie seriously. The bottom line: O'Sullivan does not like this movie because it disagrees with his politics. If I were the editor of the Washington Post, he'd be fired for incompetence.
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Comment #2 posted by MikeEEEEE on September 22, 2000 at 07:37:27 PT
Correct Title
Yes the title is correct, this guy is taking pot shots at the movie, as if it's an exercise in how to do that. It seems suprising because all I've seen are good reviews of the movie. All I'd like to know is when I could get a copy of it.
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Comment #1 posted by Occassional Pot User on September 22, 2000 at 00:40:10 PT:
Thanks for the PR!
Hehe, all theyre doing by saying such nonsense is getting more attention to the movie. Heh
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