The Union is a documentary about perhaps the most maligned plant in history, hemp, and specifically about the illegal marijuana trade in Canada. "The Union" of the title is the nickname for an entire economy (including many legitimate businesses) that is directly or indirectly related to the illegal marijuana trade.
British Columbian filmmaker Brett Harvey was inspired to make the film after witnessing first hand the boom in marijuana business in his home province.
The film delivers a lot of the back-story on cannabis in North America, but its done in a very accessible way, and never feels like a dry history lesson. The film’s primary focus though is on the current state of marijuana as an illegal cash crop. This is not an unbiased film – it’s pretty clear the filmmaker opinions are – but it is well sourced and logical in its arguments, and would likely be fascinating viewing regardless of what your opinions are on marijuana – even those who have no opinion one way or another are likely to get sucked in.
Assassin of Youth
Unless you’ve been living under a rock your whole life, you’re doubtless familiar with the infamous anti-marijuana propaganda film Reefer Madness, a film many find endlessly entertaining for it’s bad acting and heavy-handed moralizing. But Reefer Madness is hardly the only drug education film ever made, and for the camp connoisseur, Assassin of Youth (also known as The Marijuana Menace), is perhaps even better.
Like Reefer Madness, Assassin of Youth is a cautionary tale. Small town girl Joan is set to inherit her grandmother’s fortune, provided she can live up to the will’s morals clause. Linda, Joan’s cousin is next in line to inherit the dough, so she and her husband conspire to besmirch Joan’s character. Meanwhile, undercover reporter Art Brighton has come to town to expose Linda as a dope pusher. What follows is all the standard bad acting and kids-getting-high-and-doing-the-jitterbug scenes you've come to expect from a quality anti-drug film.
Adding to the hilarity is the fact that the surviving print of this film is full of breaks and splices which both helps pick up the pace, and lends some absurdity to the viewing experience, as scenes occasionally begin or end in the middle.
It almost seems like they were trying to make a pro-drug film. The only likeable characters other than the reporter and Joan are the dope smokers. While they are of course drug-addled buffoons, the adults are so self righteous that at times they give Dana Carvey’s infamous ‘Church Lady’ character a run for her money. The town gossip, for example, actually looks and sounds like the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz, and is shown cackling and flying by on her scooter so exactly like Hamilton in Oz, that it can't be a coincidence.
No comments:
Post a Comment