Visual Literacy- Movie Review - Thank You For Smoking

What do you feel is the message the director is trying to express in this movie?

I think one of the main focuses of this film is to villainize not only the tobacco industry, but also in a small way the alcohol and firearms industries. It also highlights the father/son relationship and how formative it is. In the film the "MOD Squad" (merchants of death) meet and bragged about how many deaths each industry helped to bring around each year.

Does the movie have accurate depictions of minorities or are they situational?

Their is a scene where the main character, Nick,  goes to a old school southern dinner club. I noticed that all of the servers were African American. Other than that I didn't really notice many other minorities depicted. 

Explain if you think the director's ethnic/cultural /professional background played a role in directing this film?

Jason Reitman is famous for directing Thank You for Smoking, Juno, and Up in the Air. His father was also a director working on films like Ghostbusters, and Kindergarten Cop. Growing up, Reitman worked as a production assistant on a number of his father's films.  Thank You for Smoking was originally a novel, but Reitman adapted it for screen. This film is his directing debut. I couldn't find any information as to why he choose to work on this project, but it seems clear that his passion for directing came from his father.

What groups of people may be offended or misinterpret this movie and why?

In the film most of the charters that had positions of power were white males. The only woman of influence in the film used sex to help boost her career. While I think that it is clear that the film is meant as a satire of the "Big Tabacco" industrie, I could see how the film could be offensive if taken literally. Those directly affected by tabacco also might not appreciate the lightness with which deaths due to tabacco are discussed. This film is also "R" rated and had a lot of swearing  and sexual content both of which can be offensive to people, because of this I don't think I would ever recommend this film.

What the movie added to your visual literacy?

During the end of the film during the tabacco hearing, the expert witness arguing for the poison symbol to be place on cigarets mentioned how people are more visual now than they have been in the past. It also mentioned that visuals are helpful especially to those who are not native speakers.  While this really wasn't a large part of the film, it made me think how important symbols are. If I were in a country where I didn't speak the language I would find symbols extremely helpful.

What kind of artistic and/or visual means did the director use in the movie to focus our attention?

At the beginning of the film they made the point that 1,200 people die each day from smoking, and to emphasis this point they had an illustration of two jumbo jets crashing. Through out the rest of the film their were multiple instances where they used illustrations in the same way. Also the director used a lot of close ups in this film, he wasn't afraid to to "cut off" the top of someones head for a close up. I think the close ups made the viewer focus on the character and what they were saying through their facial expressions. 

Thank You For Smoking Trailer