Grass (1999 film)
| Grass | |
|---|---|
 Promotional artwork for Grass | |
| Directed by | Ron Mann |
| Written by | Solomon Vesta |
| Produced by | Ron Mann |
| Narrated by | Woody Harrelson |
| Cinematography | Robert Fresco |
| Edited by | Robert Kennedy |
| Distributed by | Unapix Home Entertainment |
Release dates |  15 September 1999 (at the Toronto Film Festival). Limited realse (10 theaters): 27 May, 2000U.S wide realse: 31 May - 16 June 2005 |
Grass: History of Marijuana is a 1999 Canadian documentary film directed by Ron Mann, premiered in Toronto Film Festival, about the history of the United States government's war on marijuana in the 20th century.
Overview
The film places much of the blame for marijuana criminalization on Harry Anslinger (the first American drug czar) who promoted false information about marijuana to the American public as a means towards abolition.
The film follows the history of federal policies and social attitudes towards marijuana, beginning at the turn of the twentieth century. The history presented is broken up into parts, approximately the length of a decade. Each decade is introduced by paraphrasing the official attitude towards marijuana at the time (e.g. "Marijuana will make you insane" or "Marijuana will make you addicted to heroin"), and closed by providing a figure for the amount of money spent during that period on the "war on marijuana."
The film is completely[1] composed of archival footage, much of which is from public domain U.S propaganda films and feature films such as Reefer Madness made available by the Prelinger Archives. The documentary was narrated, free-of-charge[1], by actor Woody Harrelson.
Critical reception
The film was generally well-received by critics, scoring 64 out of 100 in Metacritic [2], and 71% 'fresh' on Rotten Tomatoes [3]. The film became a cult hit within the cannabis subculture, and received many good reviews by viewers (Metacritic's users gave the film 9.2 out of 10).
The film has also won Canada's Genie Award for Best Documentary.
References
External links
- Grass at AllMovie
- Grass at IMDb
- Grass at Rotten Tomatoes
- Grass at Box Office Mojo
See also
- Decriminalization of marijuana in the United States
- Legal and medical status of cannabis
- Legal history of marijuana in the United States
- Marijuana rescheduling in the United States
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