Yet there was a time when the cigarette was, on screen, the literal representation of cool : favored by detectives and femme fatales, loved by villains and antiheroes, rebellious teenagers who smoked it secretly, and tough men who lit it between adventures
To put the number in perspective: in the mid-2000s, a standard 20-pack cost around 4.60
Loosely based on a Joyce Maynard novel that was itself inspired by the Pamela Smart case that had recently rocked New Hampshire, the film stars Nicole Kidman as a cravenly ambitious TV weather girl who seduces a dopey teenager (Joaquin Phoenix) and convinces him to kill her husband (Matt Dillon.) The legendary Buck Henrys hyper-acerbic screenplay cuts through mid-'90s daytime television self-help clichs with a scalpel, playfully putting the grieving relatives on an exploitative afternoon talk show while Van Sant mixes up the media between faux-documentary, heavy drama and straight-up satire
Tobacco Control 2013
Soldiers were often provided with cigarettes as part of their rations, and the habit of smoking became deeply ingrained in military culture
Hey, California, the woman said