The host, Adam Scorgie, walks us through a fairly typical documentary format, taking time to address many of the points of controversy that are so fluid surrounding marijuana. He takes us to his hometown in British Columbia, where we get to visit the home of a grower; his "Grow Op". He takes on a trip to Grow Op that had been raided by police months before, but is now a forgotten spot on the side of a hill; 20 buried railroad cars turned into a huge underground green-house. We walk down city streets while he feeds us numbers and statistics. Then we get to hear from experts and people celebrities opposed or adversely affected by anti-marijuana laws. It isn't spectacular in its format, it doesn't reinvent the wheel. It is light and easy to watch. It offers facts, leads us to conclusions, challenges the status-quo, and feeds us exactly what it wants us to digest. And it does all this cleanly and with a good amount of craftsmanship.
What else can I say about it? Not much. It doesn't break down any doors or light up the screen with controversy. Even when it offers slices of the conservative position (marijuana is bad) it doesn't do it with much gusto. In fact, it is quite kind in how it handles the opposing side. Early on in the study it asks a couple of ex-growers what they thought about legalizing Marijuana, and they say without hesitation "Why would we want to give up that money?" And thus is the whole point of the film; the acknowledgment that money is the motivator behind any action concerning Marijuana. With that in place, nobody is truly evil in this story, just part of "The Union"; part of the vast system of people who profit in one way or another from the drug-trade, particularly Pot.
I actually found this message to be a bit refreshing. It is understated, but present in this film. Everyone believes it is ludicrous that Pot is illegal, but there is so much money involved. It doesn't produce crime by producing violent people, but instead by simply being criminal to possess, which is good for the whole criminal system, from lawyers to privatized prisons. It gets people elected to office, and keeps a long of chain of private entrepreneurs willing to side-step the law working hard for a plant which can be grown anywhere and yet holds a value greater than gold bullion. It is a marvel of cultural manipulation and indoctrination.
I found this film to be very similar to "Why We Fight", the documentary about the Industrial War Complex. It is understated, one-sided, and it doesn't shake the foundations of conventional thought so much as remind us not to bury our heads under the covers.
It doesn't try to quantify its facts, and the people interviewed aren't experts in their field of pertinent study. Nobody is interviewed who might provide an opposing view, so no confrontations exist to distract us away from its simply logic: Marijuana isn't harmful, but keeping it illegal is. And that is somewhat sad. I always like a good dose of opposing argument in my righteous indignation. But I don't fault the movie for sticking to one side of the issue so completely; many documentaries do that. You can't pick up a Michael Moore movie without coming away feeling like you should have been offered a plastic splatter-sheet when you entered the theater. But I guess the thought is that we are inundated with one side of the argument anyway, so why not offer a bit of clarity to the propaganda?
And this movie does so very well. It is kind and soft-spoken, much like a person smoking marijuana. And that is refreshing in a documentary.
No comments:
Post a Comment