Stoner film

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Stoner film (or stoner movie) is a colloquial term referring to a subgenre of movies depicting the use and/or the users of marijuana.[1] Typically, such movies show marijuana use in a comic and positive fashion. Marijuana use is one of the main themes, and inspires most of the action.

The series of movies in the 1970s starring Cheech & Chong are archetypal "stoner movies." Some anti-drug films like Reefer Madness have also become popular as "stoner movies" because their anti-drug message is seen by viewers as so over the top that the film amounts to self-parody.

High Times magazine regularly sponsors the Stony Awards to celebrate stoner films and television.

Contents

[edit] Common elements

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Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (September 2007)

Many stoner movies also have certain other elements and themes in common.[2]

[edit] Mission

Often stoner movies revolve—at least in part—around a quest or a mission that the main characters, always well-meaning but easily distracted stoners, must embark upon. Usually these quests are altruistic or noble in nature and involve the main characters raising a large sum of money or putting their band back together for some reason.

In Half Baked, Thurgood and his friends must become drug dealers, but only to raise money to bail their wrongly convicted friend Kenny out of jail—not for personal profit. In Rolling Kansas, the protagonists embark upon a journey to find the fabled Magical Marijuana Forest, but again, only to earn enough money to save the main character's failing business. Similarly, the plot of Dude, Where's My Car? begins with a seemingly self-centered quest to find Jesse's car but ends in a potentially life threatening mission to save the universe from an alien weapon. Conversely, in the movie Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny JB and KG must embark on a journey to retrieve a fabled guitar pick, fighting Satan himself in the process. In Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Harold and Kumar simply get the munchies and try to get to the burger chain White Castle, yet they must deal with distractions and the police before they get their burgers.

[edit] Sex

Another almost universal element of stoner movies is sex. Stoner movies are irrefutably ruttish ones, as reflected in the main characters. Beautiful, many times nude women are a staple of the genre. More often than not, the main characters are unsuccessful in losing their virginity or fornicating, and the search for it can be their quest. The well-meaning but sexually frustrated male adolescent is a common stereotypical view of the stoner. Female stoner equivalents of the sexually frustrated male stoner are rare—if not entirely absent—from the stoner genre.

These themes are loosely based upon the ideals of the stoner culture's parent culture, the hippie movement. The origins of free love and the easy-going, warm-hearted, sometimes altruistic lifestyle are firmly rooted in Haight-Ashbury. The idea that one can personify these attitudes, face seemingly insurmountable challenges, smoke marijuana and still emerge victorious provided that one's heart is true and intentions noble is perhaps the most common stoner theme.

[edit] List of stoner films

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e Meltzer, Marisa (Tuesday, June 26, 2007). Leisure and Innocence (web). The eternal appeal of the stoner movie.. Slate a daily web magazine. Retrieved on 2008-01-23.
  2. ^ Pastorek, Whitney (2004-07-27). Joint Ventures. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved on 2007-04-01.
 This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008)

[edit] External links

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