“What are
the underlying values and
ideologies in drug
related texts such as “Channel
4’s Run” and how does this compare to American texts on the same subject?”
What
will this question answer?
·
Race and drugs
·
Social class and drugs
·
Health care system in the UK and America
·
America’s liberal views towards drugs vs. UK
·
How do American drug related texts
illustrate them vs. UK
What
other film texts will this essay cover?
UK drug related films – Run
(Social Realistic), Skins (Teen Drama), TV Docs (2)
US drug related films –
Miami Vice (Drama series), Requiem for a Dream (Drama), Wolf of Wall Street (Comedy),
Scarface (Action) and Reefer Madness (Stoner Film)
____________________________________________________________________
Main
Text: Run
Online
Articles
-
Telegraph
Article “Run, Channel Review” by Sameer Rahim, on July 15 2013
·
“Last
night’s Run (Channel 4), the first of four
interlinked episodes that are being shown on successive evenings this week, was
hardly sugar-coated, but such was the humanity of the writing and especially the
performances that the characters felt compellingly real” – evidence to support the truth
illustrated on screen, brutal approach to drug related themes
·
“This is the
first show created by Daniel Fajemisin-Duncan and Marlon Smith – who grew up
together in Brixton – and was clearly a labour of love. Channel 4 should be
applauded for allowing them to realise their unsentimental vision.”
-
UKTVREVIEWER Article “Run (Channel
4) Review” on July 16 2013
·
“Everything about it was superbly gripping, featuring characters which we
got to know instantly”
- Telegraph Article “Lennie James: I said yes before I’d even read the
script” by Richard Vine on July 15 2013
·
Lennie James:
“A drug addict who’s trying to work his way back from pretty much as low down
as is humanly possible; he’s homeless, he’s separated from most of his family,
his child, his mum.” – when James was
nine he lost his mum and didn’t know who his father was, he was able to thus
apply a sense of loss to his role as a drug addict where drugs had forced his
family to neglect him.
·
James
described the illustration of the production as a city where “life gets decided
in the maybes”.
·
Directors,
Daniel Fajemisin-Duncan and Marlon Smith: ‘we want to tell our version of south
London like that one day’ (influenced by ‘Storm Damage’ that they watched growing
up) – They wanted to illustrate Brixton
in an honest and truthful way, from their own point of view. Stereotyping was
based on what they grew up seeing (shorthand narrative – Medhurst)
·
James:
“Before I’d even read the script I’d said yes. It was set in the neighbourhood
that I grew up in and it was an opportunity to come home and work with guys who
were from my neck of the woods.”
·
The power of
Richard’s story elicits a heart-breaking performance from James who says he has
always been drawn to characters “who dance among the ambiguity and the grey
areas”.
·
To prepare
for the role, he walked around Brixton in costume, shuffling through rush-hour
streets like a ghost. “As
an acting technique that’s not something that generally works for me,” says
James. “
·
But James was
keen for scenes in which Richard could stand tall. “I wanted to find moments
that could show not just the fallen man, but who he used to be. It was the same
with Tony in Line of Duty. I never thought about him as a corrupt guy, I tried
to find his motivations.” – James’ main
aim was to illustrate the emotions that surround the character and to not
reinforce negative stereotypes associated with the black heroin addict – this
is clear through the narrative that forces an audience to empathise with
‘Richard’ in more emotional scenes.
·
James
believes that British TV drama is currently on a high – “thought provoking and
grown up”.
-
Voice
Online Article “C4 Give New Writers a Run” by Davina Hamilton on July 7 2013
·
To be blunt, Run is
not a ‘hood’ tale, nor is it a drama about ‘man on road’, or any variation of
the type of racially stereotypical story that the masses might expect a young,
black, male writer to produce – particularly following on from the huge success
of Channel 4’s hit
urban drama Top Boy.
·
On the contrary the writers say they weren’t trying to recreate
Top Boy, although some people thought they would do just that.
·
“We knew from the beginning that we didn’t want to overlap with
Top Boy and we were aware that being young black men, there might have been the
assumption that we were going to create a drama like that,” says
Fajemisin-Duncan, who is of Nigerian, Jamaican and Irish descent. – avoiding stereotyping and discrimination
towards ethnic minorities when using intense themes.
·
“In creating the drama, we looked for universal themes; collective
things that we all share. That allowed us to get around the problem of falling
into stereotypes.” – content
·
Aware of the negative side of racial stereotyping, the duo says
they are mindful of being labelled as ‘black filmmakers’. However, they also
acknowledge the potential positive impacts of being defined by race. – would the illustration of the characters
been different if it was a white director?
Compare to representation of black
drug dealer in ‘TopBoy’ by white director Yann Demange.
-
Time Out London Article
“From Market to Mural: touring Brixton with the creators of Run”, by Gabriel
Tate on July 12 2013
·
Daniel Fajemisin-Duncan lived
here (Brixton) as a child and the characters were inspired by those that he
grew up seeing.
·
‘This is one of the last examples of old-school
Brixton,’ says Smith.
·
‘People thought [the drinkers] might be
dangerous, but they’re only a danger to themselves. A lot of them said there
was always someone at the back of their minds, a family member or something,
driving them on to get better.’ - They hoped to convey this idea through
Richard’s story line involving his family. It’s a story the pair use to
powerful effect in the show, as alcoholic and former crack addict Richard
(Lennie James) makes a desperate bid to persuade his estranged daughter that
he’s reformed.
Critical Reception:
·
Wikipedia shows that the reception of the third episode ‘Richard’
of (1.39 million UK views), which was higher than the final episode of
‘Katrina’ (1.11 million UK views).
Channel 4 Clips (clips provided by to introduce character ‘s
profiles/story)
“S1-Ep3: Hope”
·
The clip establishes the stereotypical challenges within a lone
parent, ethnic minority family. The scene consists of close ups which allow an
audience to embody the character’s emotions and meet him prior to watching the
series.
“S1-Ep3: Old Haunts”
·
Harsh brutal comments that drug addicts may have to face - "Dealer:
Do you want a line?/ Richard: I'm alright thanks./ Dealer: Oh okay. You'll get
hungry soon.". Specifically,
the use of "you'll get hungry" establishes a strong sense of animalistic
imagery personifying the recovering drug addict.
Books in relation to the
topic:
-
Brave New World, 1932 by Aldous Huxley, British
writer and philosopher. - Health system in America
Use this text and
evidence from ‘Telegraph Article in November 2013 under the politics section by
Brendan O’Neill who is the editor of the online magazine’ where he addresses
the fact that the novel (Brave New World) may have got some things
“terrifyingly right”, in regards to drugging the populace.
The story is about the
idea of the government controlling the populance in 2540 (set in London)
through a drug which is only meant to enhance their positive emotions – no come
downs in real life or through "All the advantages of Christianity and
alcohol; none of their defects."(Chapter 3, Page 218, paragraph 26). “You
do look glum! What you need is a gramme of soma”.
The article establishes
the narrative in Brave New World and how the drug ‘Soma’ subdues all “malice and bad
tempers”. Additionally, O’Neill suggests that “Modern society uses
antidepressants in a disturbingly similar way. A British psychiatrist is
worried that antidepressants are being dished out not to combat serious
depression but merely to “get rid of
unhappiness”. As in Brave New World, we prefer to
supress “malice and bad tempers” with drugs rather than ask what travails might
lie behind such emotions and how they might be addressed.” – Similarity in both the text “Requiem for a
Dream” – behaviour demonstrated when patient Sara was neglected by the doctors
and prescribed to more tablets.
-
Crack in America: Demon
Drugs and Social Justice, 1997 by Craig Reinaram. – Drugs and Race
The novel focuses on
crack cocaine. It offers a new understanding of both the drug addiction and
prohibition. It shows how crack use arose in the face of growing unemployment,
racism and shrinking social services (America). Written by a team of drug
researchers, the text explores the different impacts on white, blacks, the
middle class and the poor. It also discusses how the media and politicians
generated the crack scare as the centrepiece of the War on Drugs: Moral Panic.
KQ: “In 1989, American
politicians and the news media began an extraordinary frenzy that ran until
1992. Newspapers, magazines and television networks regularly carried lurid
stories about the new “epidemic” and “plague” of drug use, especially crack
cocaine.” –
The media was injecting (Hypodermic needle model) into passive
audiences, resulting in Moral Panic (Cohen). A noteworthy point is that prior
to this, ‘Scarface, 1984’ was released based around ethnic minority ‘Tony
Montana’ from Columbia, and was painted as a drug related criminal – moral
panic in America towards Mexicans and Columbians – through films such as this. Those
who were associated with the drug “Crack appeared in late 1984, primarily in impoverished
African-American and Latino inner city neighbourhoods”. – page 2
Online research
(Historical Text):
-
Miami
Vice, Sex and Drugs and Rock & Roll in the TV Market by ONC Wang in
February 1988 (from Jumpcut)
·
For the last two decades U.S. recreational drug
culture could prove its difference from the rest of society by pointing to the
mass media's laughable misrepresentation of drug use.
·
For the first time on primetime TV, the signs of
drug consumption are actually those of the drug culture, where MIAMI VICE's
drug discourse coincides to a large degree with the same stylistic and
imagistic vocabulary — e.g., coke mirrors, rock & roll, and MTV
pyrotechnics — used by the drug culture to define itself.
·
Miami Vice circulates mainly around the “language
of cocaine” – “thematically the cocaine smugglers outnumber both heroin and pot
dealers on the show” and “the stylistic
dynamics are more complex” for the users of the drug shown through “the mirror,
fast cars, sleek visual style, beautiful dazed models”.
·
“Cocaine and wealth speak the same language as
cocaine remains the drug one can spend the most money on in the shortest period
of time.” – Evidence for the ‘Wolf of
Wall Street’ – protagonist lifestyle and relation to drugs - compare to MV
·
“Heroin becomes too debilitating, antisocial, and
is much more class restricted” – behaviour
of Richard is symbolised as antisocial, self-harm almost. The author adds
“one cannot be "laid back" in the "fast lane."” – Differing lifestyles lead to different drugs
– when comparing ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ with ‘Run: Richard’
·
‘Cocaine’ is described as the idealistic drug,
the “rich” drug thus the associations with it in films are hardly with ethnic
minorities and the working class or lower demographics, as the drug is utilised
by those who are sustaining the income it requires. – (‘Wolf of Wall Street’,
white male, in touch with cocaine and his life gets better. ‘Scarface’ – ethnic
minority, in touch with cocaine, life gets better and then worse, he dies.
Different representations depending ones ethnicity)
·
Description of Cocaine in comparison with others:
“Much more glamorous (in a bourgeois sense) than pot, heroin, or acid, coke
transforms people into the most romantic drug outlaws possible.”
·
The author finalises: “one overtly
unfortunate consequence of MIAMI VICE's infatuation with the drug discourse is
its labelling of the drug smugglers by race. This labelling reflects how the
drug culture itself names drugs by their area of origin — Jamaican, Colombian,
or Humboldt, for example.”
·
Specifically associating race with the drugs: “
The show associated each group with a drug lifestyle: the Colombians with
cocaine, the Jamaicans with reggae and marijuana, and the Haitians with voodoo
and hallucinogens.”
·
Race and Drugs in America: “The obvious, racist
implications of these associations are especially malign when one considers the
United States' present foreign policy towards those Latin American states south
of Miami's border.”
Academic Books:
TV Documentaries:
Internet Links:
-
The Guardian’s Article “Black people twice as likely to be
charged with drugs possession – report” by Peter Walker, 21st August
2013
·
“Black people are not just significantly more likely to be
searched by police for drugs than their white peers, but face almost double the
chance of being charged”
·
The study showed: “disparities for cocaine possession in London,
with 78% of black people charged, compared with 44% of white people.”
Do programmes such as ‘Run’ and ‘TopBoy’ who are dominated around
black males and their relation to drugs, thus reiterate into the mass populace
that black people are more associated with drugs than whites? – Moral Panic,
Marxists would argue that the bourgeois are associated negative societal values
upon a specific ethnic group
-
The London School of
Economics and Politics, news and media section - “Ethnic minorities targeted in
‘stop and search’ drug policing” by Naimh Eastwood and Micheal Shiner, 22nd
August 2013
·
“Black and Asian people are being disproportionally targeted”
·
“Black people are stopped 6 times the rate as white people”
Wider social context in the UK
-
Brookings Institution “How
the War on Drugs damages Black social mobility” by Jonathan Rothwell, 30th
September 2014
·
“The social mobility of black Americans has suffered collateral
damage from the ‘War on Drugs’. Being convicted of a crime has devastating
effects”
·
“Imprisoning one in three black men”
Similarly in both the UK and US there is frenzy placed upon black
people and their relation with drugs. Through drug related films such as ‘Run’,
it illustrates how the UK aren’t afraid to highlight the negative drug
associations with ethnic minorities, but is it the face that black people are
hardly associated with drugs in US films that emphasises the overall problem –
(the things that aren’t shown stand out as much as the things that are) –
American drug related films tend to be positive, outgoing “the American dream”,
by using a leading black male – who, in modern culture they associate with
negativity and crime – wouldn’t allow this same concept to be fulfilled.
-
We are the Drug Policy
Alliance “Race and Drug War”, under the issues section.
·
“drug war has produced profoundly unequal
outcomes across racial groups, manifested through racial discrimination by law
enforcement and disproportionate drug war misery suffered by communities of
colour”
Specific ethnic groups are faced with
discrimination due to the drug war, as reiterated through negative portrayals
of black males in films such as British social realistic films such as ‘Ill
Manors’ and ‘TopBoy’
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