This short films traces the history of opium and examines contemporary heroin trade and addiction in the United States.This short films traces the history of opium and examines contemporary heroin trade and addiction in the United States.This short films traces the history of opium and examines contemporary heroin trade and addiction in the United States.
Photos
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- Quotes
[first lines]
Paul Newman: [narrating] There are oases of comfort throughout the world. However, the earth offers few pleasures for most of its inhabitants. For his 10,000 years of grubbing a living off the planet, man has found life, for the most part, to be cruel. Disenchantment abounds. Fatigue, hunger and cold. However, nature, almost as an afterthought, softened her terms. She sprinkled the harsh earth with a variety of plants, each offering momentary escape, a passport from reality. Their protective effects have been known since the time of the ancients.
After that blinkworthy introduction by the voice of Paul Newman, we listen to a number of police officers and DEA agents who tell us how easy it is to smuggle Horse into the United States and where to buy it in Manhattan. We then see the horrible ravages wrought by this modern plague, which seem to consist of one man jabbing a needle into his thigh, garbage piled in front of a poorly maintained tenement building and people sitting around a Synanon center, who talk about communicating.
Perhaps the people who made this public service movie thought that everyone knew why Heroin is so bad, but it all seems couched in terms of money and the thought inevitably arises -- or, at least, it occurred to me -- that if the stuff were not so expensive, then people would not have to steal to buy it, and a Heroin habit would be not much more trouble than maintaining a habit of drinking a six-pack of Diet Coca-Cola a day. Perhaps they thought showing the ravages of drug use would be too graphic. Perhaps they thought a two-reel Public Service Announcement did not permit these details.
All I know is that if this was intended to convince people not to do drugs, the only clear barrier would be the expense and jail. Maybe we would be better off if we just legalized all of these things....
- boblipton
- Jan 29, 2011
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- The Distant Drummer: Flowers of Darkness
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro