Film Year: 1936
Genre: Drama
Director: Louis J. Gasnier
Starring: Cheech, Chong, Jay, Silent Bob, Seth Rogen, James Franco, Ice Cube, Chris Tucker, the entire cast of That 70's Show
Commentator: Michael J. Nelson
The Movie
Initially titled Tell Your Children, Reefer Madness was initially filmed by a church group to help spread the word about the dangers of marijuana (spelled "marihuana" in the movie, because only damn dirty Mexicans spoke silent J's back then, and we're 'Mericans!). You can definitely tell, because this film feels very much like a "Say No to Drugs" play that all involved is forced into, though you can't help but ponder whether or not the cast is sneaking out back in between scenes and smoking a joint.
The story involves young dopes Jimmy and Bill being lured into a pot party thrown by local drug dealers and become addicted to marijuana. The magic plant makes the duo do silly things, such as laugh maniacally for no reason, dance like idiots, have premarital necking/implied sex, and kill pedestrians with their cars. After a few days Jimmy's sister/Bill's girlfriend Mary seeks her sibling and boyfriend, only to be almost raped by a high drug dealer, when Bill bursts in and starts fighting with him. In the struggle a gun is pulled and Mary is shot dead, and Bill is framed for the crime.
So there you have it folks, if you smoke weed your concerned family will find out and be killed. You don't want that to happen, do you? Then don't.
It would be easy to say this film hasn't aged well, but that might be implying that there was a time period where it came off as fine filmmaking. I wasn't alive in 1936, but it feels like even back then this would have been hard to take seriously. The scenarios are ridiculous and exaggerated, the acting is godawful, and film just looks like a filmed amateur community play. The only people it would ever convince to not smoke marijuana are the ones who never have and have already decided that they never will. Congratulations to them for reaffirming fears through ignorance though.
But Reefer Madness is not alive today because of its anti-pot message. It's alive today because people think it's hilarious because of how incompetently it gets the message across. It's interesting to think that this church group back in 1936 tried to stamp out marijuana once and for all and accidentally created a movie people get high to and laugh at. Now we're in a country where states are legalizing marijuana left and right and the silent J is socially accepted. God bless weed!
The Commentary
It may not seem like much right now, but this DVD was the first taste MSTies had of movie riffing in nearly five years, since the cancellation of Mystery Science Theater in 1999. There was no Crow, no Tom Servo, no Satellite of Love, and the caveat that we'd have to sit through a colorized film. The starving fanbase ate it up, because it was the best we could get.
In retrospect, this is probably the most important release in the respective of film riffing as we know it today. When Legend Films asked Mike to riff Reefer Madness, it led to them asking him to riff further movies. It then helped pave the way to Mike, Kevin, and Bill reuniting (but ultimately failing) as The Film Crew. Then Mike's cushy job at Legend helped him experiment with internet audio commentary, leading to Rifftrax, the most prolific riffing project in the world. Rifftrax begat iRiffs, which allowed fans to create their own riffing projects. The encouragement of joining iRiffs by Rifftrax helped make Incognito Cinema Warriors XP last longer than it was initially planned. The success of Rifftrax and the renewed interest in MST3K helped inspire the creation of Cinematic Titanic. And ultimately the continued fanbase of this comedy format that had been rolling for all these years led to the highly successful Kickstarter campaign that relaunched Mystery Science Theater 3000 on Netflix.
All of this we have to thank to a colorized DVD of a stupid propaganda movie from the 30's. Thank you, Reefer Madness!
But while its place in riffing history is locked, outside of its contextual interest this solo commentary is fairly weak. Mike seems a bit out of practice in his film riffing and is fairly stiff without delivery punch. His voice sounds kind of hoarse as well. Given that I imagine he wrote this commentary by himself I'd say he does fine, but outside of dry sarcasm he doesn't offer this film much.
He also tries his hand at being a traditional historian commentary and offers tidbits about the production every once in a while, but there doesn't seem to be much enthusiasm in the information shared. And honestly, there doesn't seem to be much interesting information about this particular movie in the first place. For the most part this commentary isn't really that strong in any of it's goals, and probably more joy can be found in watching this wonderfully dumb movie by itself.
But while its place in riffing history is locked, outside of its contextual interest this solo commentary is fairly weak. Mike seems a bit out of practice in his film riffing and is fairly stiff without delivery punch. His voice sounds kind of hoarse as well. Given that I imagine he wrote this commentary by himself I'd say he does fine, but outside of dry sarcasm he doesn't offer this film much.
He also tries his hand at being a traditional historian commentary and offers tidbits about the production every once in a while, but there doesn't seem to be much enthusiasm in the information shared. And honestly, there doesn't seem to be much interesting information about this particular movie in the first place. For the most part this commentary isn't really that strong in any of it's goals, and probably more joy can be found in watching this wonderfully dumb movie by itself.
Average
The DVD
Reefer Madness is brought to us by Legend Films as part of their colorization line. The color print looks as unnatural as colorization usually does, but it looks like they were having fun with it. The multi-color marijuana smoke is quite fun, making this colorized version worth watching. A black and white version is also offered.
Mike's commentary isn't the only commentary on this disc, as Legend Films provides their own commentary about the colorization process of the film. It's mostly about color usage and they have some colorful laughs at the film. This commentary is worth a listen.
There's a bonus "short" which is mostly just a comedic interview called Grandpa's Marijuana Handbook: The Movie. This man, Grandpa Ganja as he's called (his real name is Evan Keliher), apparently wrote a book under the same title where he humorously gives his opinions on marijuana controversies and how to get away with growing your own. I haven't read the book, though this segment is fairly amusing. It runs longer than my attention span will allow this subject though. There is also a collection of outtakes.
The disc concludes with a trailer for the film.
Mike's commentary isn't the only commentary on this disc, as Legend Films provides their own commentary about the colorization process of the film. It's mostly about color usage and they have some colorful laughs at the film. This commentary is worth a listen.
There's a bonus "short" which is mostly just a comedic interview called Grandpa's Marijuana Handbook: The Movie. This man, Grandpa Ganja as he's called (his real name is Evan Keliher), apparently wrote a book under the same title where he humorously gives his opinions on marijuana controversies and how to get away with growing your own. I haven't read the book, though this segment is fairly amusing. It runs longer than my attention span will allow this subject though. There is also a collection of outtakes.
The disc concludes with a trailer for the film.
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