Historical smoking

The film ‘The Monuments Men’ has been released with a PG-13 rating. The reason – “some images of war violence and historical smoking.”

Yes, the Motion Picture Association of America will give a movie a PG-13 rating for showing “historical smoking”.

'The Monuments Men' takes place towards the end of the World War II and, if viewed by children, may expose them to members of the U.S. military smoking cigarettes. This is apparently something so shocking to the eyes of young kids that they need to be protected.

It seems this rating for smoking has been going on for a while. The earliest appearance of “historical smoking” for a PG-13 rating that I could track down shows up in the 2009 film “Alien Trespass”.

In that film, an alien crash-lands in America during the 1950’s and a character in the film smokes a pipe.

A man smoking a pipe in 1950’s America may just be too much for today’s kids. For those of you who were children in the 1950’s and may have witnessed actual pipe smoking, I don’t know how you survived.

But it’s not only ‘historical smoking’ that must be avoided by the eyes of youth. Some feel what may be considered the future of smoking, e-cigarettes, must avoid being seen.

Some stars were seen smoking e-cigarettes during the Sunday broadcast of the Golden Globe Awards, so a group of senators on Tuesday decided to write a critical letter.

In a open letter to the shows producers, senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), and Edward Markey (D-Mass.) said, “Unfortunately, this year, many young viewers saw notable displays of e-cigarette use throughout the awards show, including the opening monologue and repeated shots of celebrities smoking e-cigarettes.”

“We are troubled that these images glamorize smoking and serve as celebrity endorsements that could encourage young fans to begin smoking traditional cigarettes or e-cigarettes.”