Coordinates | 37°46′45.48″N122°25′9.12″N |
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name | Thank You for Smoking |
director | Jason Reitman |
producer | David O. SacksEdward R. Pressman |
screenplay | Jason Reitman |
based on | |
starring | Aaron EckhartCameron BrightKatie HolmesMaria BelloDavid KoechnerRob LoweAdam BrodySam ElliottWilliam H. MacyJ.K. Simmons Robert Duvall |
music | Rolfe Kent |
cinematography | James Whitaker |
editing | Dana E. Glauberman |
studio | Room 9 EntertainmentContentFilm |
distributor | Fox Searchlight Pictures |
released | |
runtime | 92 minutes |
country | |
language | English |
budget | $10 million |
gross | $39,232,211 }} |
The film was released in a limited run on March 17, 2006, and had a wide release on April 14. As of 2007, the film has grossed a total of more than $39 million worldwide. On November 24, 2006, NBC announced that it is developing a television pilot based on the film. The film was released on DVD in the US on October 3, 2006, and in the UK on January 8, 2007.
As anti-tobacco campaigns mount and numbers of young smokers decline, Naylor suggests that product placement of cigarettes could once again boost cigarette sales. Naylor's boss, BR (J.K. Simmons), sends Naylor to Los Angeles to bargain for cigarette placement in upcoming movies. Naylor takes along his young son Joey (Cameron Bright) in hopes of bonding with him. Throughout their trip, Naylor teaches Joey about the beauty of argument. Naylor is also sent to bribe Lorne Lutch (Sam Elliot), the cancer stricken man who once played the Marlboro Man in cigarette ads and is now campaigning against cigarettes. Naylor offers Lutch a suitcase of money for his silence and Lutch initially refuses. Naylor suggest he take it, but then open a charity for cancer victims, but if he does this, he wont be able to use any of it to help his family, because he will seem like a hypocrite. Naylor's argument convinces Lutch to take the hush money for his family.
Vermont Senator Finistirre (William H. Macy), one of Naylor's most vehement critics, is the promoter of a bill to add a skull and crossbones warning to cigarette packaging. During a televised debate with Finistirre, Naylor receives a death threat from a caller. Despite the threat, Naylor still plans to appear before the U.S. Senate to fight Finistirre's bill. Naylor is then kidnapped and covered in nicotine patches, causing him to nearly die of nicotine poisoning. Naylor awakens in a hospital where he is told that his smoking habits have resulted in a high nicotine tolerance level and have saved him, but that he is now hypersensitive to nicotine and can never smoke again.
Meanwhile, Naylor has begun a steamy fling with a young reporter named Heather Holloway (Katie Holmes). Believing he can trust her, Naylor tells Holloway all about his life and career as they make love. However, after Naylor’s kidnapping, Holloway publishes an article that relentlessly bashes Naylor and his work at the Academy. It exposes Lutch’s bribe, the secret plans for product placement, and the MOD squad as well and accuses Naylor of training Joey to follow his amoral example. Following the article, all public sympathy for Naylor’s kidnapping evaporates, and BR fires Naylor in an attempt to distance the Academy from negative press.
Unemployed and publicly hated, Naylor falls into depression until his son Joey helps him recall the integrity in his job of defending corporations that almost no one feels deserve a defense. Rejuvenated, Naylor tells the press about his affair with Holloway and promises to clear the names of everyone mentioned in her article. He also declares that he will still appear before the U.S. Senate on the packaging bill, even without the backing from the Academy. At the Senate hearing, Naylor admits to the dangers of smoking but argues that public awareness is already high enough without extra warnings. He emphasizes consumer choice and responsibility and, to the dismay of Senator Finistirre, claims that if tobacco companies are guilty of all tobacco related deaths then perhaps the state of Vermont is also guilty in their high production of cheese-caused cholesterol related deaths. At one point, Finistirre asks Naylor if he would condone his son smoking cigarettes by the time he is eighteen. Naylor responds, "If he really wants to smoke, I'll buy him his first pack."
Impressed by Naylor’s speech, BR offers Naylor his job back, but Naylor publicly refuses to work for his backstabbing boss. Heather Holloway, ruined by the public humiliation of Naylor’s confession of their affair, is reduced to working as a local weather girl. The Academy is dismantled soon after the trial, and Senator Finistirre begins working to digitally remove cigarettes from classic films. The MOD Squad still meets weekly, now with the addition of lobbyists for fast food, hazardous waste and oil drilling. In the footsteps of his father, Joey wins a school debate using lessons his father taught him. Naylor opens a private lobbying firm, in which we see him continuing on the same path, guiding a trio from the cellphone industry. The movie ends with Nick's lines "Michael Jordan plays ball. Charles Manson kills people. I talk. Everybody has a talent."
Director Jason Reitman asked many of his prospective actors and actresses to be in the film by writing each of them a personal letter. Every one of his first choices accepted their part and most thanked Reitman for his letter. Reitman was also to persuade Eckhardt, Holmes, Macy, and Lowe to sign on to the film with minimum pay.
It was only after meeting David O. Sacks, who had made his fortune as founder and former COO of the Internet payment company PayPal, that Reitman found a financier for his script. A first time producer, Sacks spent over a year trying to acquire the rights to the film from Icon. He financed most of the film’s $8.5 million budget and let Reitman keep most of his original draft. The project marked Reitman's first feature length film as a director, though he previously directed short-features and commercials and had worked on the set of his father, Ivan Reitman, also a director.
During the filming, Reitman made the conscious decision to omit any smoking of cigarettes. The only scenes that include smoking are older films the characters watch, such as when John Wayne lights up in Sands of Iwo Jima.
Before the film was screened at the Sundance Film Festival, internet rumors claimed that an extended nudity scene between Eckhart and Holmes had been cut down due to pressure from Holmes' husband, Tom Cruise. Reitman and executives denied that such a scene had ever existed but welcomed the publicity it garnered for the film. Reitman later said that "Half the questions that I've been getting are thoughtful questions about the moral of lobbying and how does satire work. And the rest is just, 'Is there actually any nude footage out there?'"
Controversy also erupted after the film was screened at the Toronto Film Festival. Thank you for Smoking was met with tremendous popular reception and afterward disputed claims emerged as to who had signed a distribution deal with Sacks. Fox Searchlight and Paramount Classics both issued competing press releases claiming that they had secured rights for the film's distribution. Sacks later claimed that he never reached a firm deal with Paramount, and noted that Fox Searchlight had offered $7 million for distribution, while Paramount Classics offered $6.5 million. Allegedly, Sacks called Paramount at 1:15 a.m. saying he was uncomfortable with their initial deal. Ruth Vitale, co-president of Paramount Classics said "He can't resell the film" and noted "I can only think that because of his naiveté and inexperience he would do this."
While Thank You for Smoking the book was praised as a sharp criticism of both anti-smoking lobbyists and the tobacco industry, the film has received more mixed reviews on its satirical content. Steve Palopoli of Metro Silicon Valley writes that "no matter" how much the hype machine might hard-sell the idea that the movie 'skewers both sides of the issue', any child old enough to recognize Joe Camel can tell that underneath the sarcastic joking, this is a bitterly anti-smoking film." Palopoli goes on to say "the supposed case against the anti-smoking lobby has been reduced mostly to some limp jokes at the expense of William H. Macy's senator character, who is fervently against the tobacco lobby". Many felt the film’s relatively sappy ending negated the slicker, darker tone of the book. The Washington Post’s Desson Thomson thought that "as written and directed by Jason Reitman, 'Smoking' is filtered too heavily with moral redemption."
Reitman has maintained his purpose was to match the tone and satirical message of the book as closely as possible. "What I wanted people to think about was political correctness. I wanted them to think about ideas of personal responsibility and personal choice. I think cigarettes are a wonderful location for that discussion because cigarettes are something we know all the answers to", he posits. "I wanted to look into this idea of why we feel the need to tell each other how to live and why we can't take personal responsibility for our own actions when we fall ill from things that we know are dangerous." Stephanie Zacharek of Salon agrees with Reitman, "Despite its title, the movie doesn't come packaged with a strong anti-smoking message, because it doesn't need to: Everyone knows that smoking is bad for you, including people who continue to do it." Buckley said about the decision to omit smoking that "[I]t was very deliberate, and I think rather cool."
name | Thank You for Smoking (Music from the Motion Picture) |
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type | Soundtrack |
artist | Various artists |
cover | ThankYouForSmoking.jpg |
released | April 18, 2006 |
recorded | Various times |
genre | Soundtrack |
label | Lakeshore Records |
reviews | *Allmusic [ link] |
next album | }} |
Category:2005 films Category:2000s comedy films Category:American independent films Category:American political satire films Category:Films set in the 1990s Category:Films set in Washington, D.C. Category:Films shot in multiple formats Category:Films shot anamorphically Category:Films shot in California Category:Films shot in Washington, D.C. Category:Films shot in North Carolina Category:Films based on novels Category:Films directed by Jason Reitman Category:Directorial debut films Category:Fox Searchlight Pictures films Category:English-language films
bg:Благодаря за пушенето da:Thank You for Smoking de:Thank You for Smoking et:Täname suitsetamast es:Gracias por fumar fr:Thank You for Smoking hr:Hvala što pušite (2006) it:Thank You for Smoking hu:Köszönjük, hogy rágyújtott! ja:サンキュー・スモーキング no:Thank You for Smoking pl:Dziękujemy za palenie pt:Obrigado por Fumar ru:Здесь курят (фильм) fi:Thank You for Smoking sv:Thank You for Smoking uk:Дякую вам за палінняThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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