The Hollywood Junkie Movie: A Book Prospectus

Proposal for a scholarly book on the history and evolution of the "junkiefilm" genre from 1900 to the present.

Working Title:

The Hollywood Junkie Movie: The Evolution of a Genre

Author:

Philip R. Fagan

Market:

This research-oriented book will provide an alternative approach to film history, following heroin use in film from the dawn of cinema to the present time. It will be of interest to film and media historians, genre theorists, social historians, and film buffs in general. Although a scholarly work, it will be written in a style that can be read and enjoyed by the everyday reader, as well as by film studies students and professionals.

Overview:

This will be a book-length study of the manner in which heroin and hard-core drug addiction have been treated in American film throughout the Twentieth Century and beyond. It will demonstrate how the heroin problem impacted the politics and social norms of different eras of American history, and how the films of the times addressed these issues. The book will also stress the relationship between the junkie film and other art forms, such as literature and music, and discuss the rich legacy of “junkie art” in American culture. Finally, it will document how the social climate, changing audience tastes, and the heroin problem of the 1990s allowed for the genrefication of the junkie movie, producing a mainstream cinematic trend with themes and subject matter that had heretofore been largely relegated to fringe and underground works.

Structure:

The book will be divided into five chapters, plus an introduction and a conclusion. The chapters will be presented in roughly chronological historical order. Each chapter will deal with individual films and cycles within the larger context of the heroin-related issues and cultural artifacts of their respective times.

The Introduction will outline this structure and provide a framework of genre theory, social history, and a general overview of the changing representations of heroin addiction in American film (e.g. the early Hollywood “low-life” and social problem films; the junkie exploitation films; the attempt by the Hollywood industry to create a junkie genre in the late 1950s and early 1960s following the success of The Man with the Golden Arm; the new American realist cinema of the 1970s; and the coherent genrefication of the junkie movie in the 1990s.) The introduction will argue that these cinematic predecessors, along with a general co-opting of underground art by the mainstream and the heroin renaissance of the 1990s produced perhaps the most subversive genre in the history of mainstream American film.

Chapter One will explore Hollywood’s treatment of society’s fringe elements from the early years of the Twentieth Century until the mid-fifties. Low-life films, The anarchic comedies of Charlie Chaplin, the gangster cycle, social problem films such as those featuring the Bowery boys, film noir, the teenpic, and other trends will be examined as they relate to the modern junkie films. Additionally, the chapter will trace the history of film censorship, drug legislation, the heroin problem within Hollywood and society at large, and the popular perceptions of the junkie during this time period. During these decades, marijuana was largely deemed the major drug threat to the white ruling class, as heroin was deemed a drug only the lower classes and minorities indulged in. The representation of the junkie in literature by writers such as William S. Burroughs and Nelson Algren, and the heroin use of jazz musicians such as Charlie Parker and Miles Davis are discussed as well.

Chapter Two may be considered an alternative to the history discussed in the first chapter, as it deals with the exploitation films produced and distributed outside the Hollywood system during the first half of the century that dealt with heroin and morphine addiction. As Hollywood films were reluctant to explore such subject matter for a variety of reasons, these films constitute the first junkie films and were as influential on the later films as the portrayal of fringe elements in mainstream cinema discussed in Chapter One. The differences between the production, distribution, and audience reception of these films and Hollywood's output will be discussed, as well as the industry’s attempts to demonize such films in order to protect its own interests. Self-regulation such as the 1934 Production Code sought to define the difference between tasteful Hollywood fare and the sleazy offerings of the exploiteers in an attempt to drive independent filmmakers out of business. Finally, the chapter will analyze three study films from the exploitation days- The silent 1928 feature The Pace That Kills, 1933’s Narcotic, and The Flaming Teenage from 1958, one of the last of the junkie exploitation films. The representations of race, sexuality, and the drug problem within these films will also be discussed.

Chapter Three will explore the years 1955 to 1989, beginning with the controversy and success of Otto Preminger’s The Man with the Golden Arm, Hollywood’s first junkie movie. A string of all but forgotten films followed that dealt with heroin and morphine addiction, as the industry attempted to establish a genre based on Preminger’s successful formula, but audiences weren’t interested. The chapter also focuses on the rise of heroin culture in the New York art scene, a legacy that began in the late 1960s and continues into the present day. Manhattan became a dark mirror to the flower power movement on the West Coast, eschewing pot and LSD for intravenous drugs like speed and heroin. From the early Warhol Factory orbit; to heroin-addled proto-punk bands like the Velvet Underground, the Stooges, and the New York Dolls; to the punk rock scene that would spread heroin use to the west coast and Europe; to the underground cinema of the Transgression movement; to the Lower East Side art scene of the 1980s; these artists and performers continue to influence and inform the modern junkie movie and the arts in general. The chapter also offers studies of the two Hollywood junkie films of 1971, The Panic in Needle Park and Dusty & Sweets McGee. Both failed to attract a wide audience or capture the imaginations of critics, although many successful films of the decade included heroin use as a plot point. These films also coincided with the heroin-related deaths of Sixties rock icons like Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin. Additionally, Chapter Three examines the role of heroin in the United States throughout three decades, exploring the government’s vested interest in the heroin trade that began with the Veit Nam War and continues to impact global politics today. The various methods of treating hard-core drug addiction that arose during this time frame are also discussed, as is the heroin-related national crime wave of the Seventies and the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s as they relate to heroin addiction, drug legislation, and the popular conception of the junkie.

Chapter Four comprises the central thesis of the book, the genrefication of the junkie movie following the success of 1989’s Drugstore Cowboy. A heroin renaissance arose in the 1990s, evidenced by a growing number of addicts in the entertainment and fashion industry, and expressed in trends like grunge rock and “heroin chic”. The decade also saw a general co-opting of junkie icons like William Burroughs, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed by the mainstream media. A heroin epidemic erupted in US suburbs and concern was expressed in the form of government-sponsored ad campaigns and citizens’ groups. These events and the end of the Reagan era provided an appropriate climate for a genre that the industry had attempted to establish in the Fifties and Seventies to no avail, and junkie films became some of the most popular, controversial and critically lauded films of the decade. This chapter studies the emerging genre film by film, with special emphasis on groundbreaking entries like Drugstore Cowboy, Naked Lunch, The Basketball Diaries, Trainspotting, and Requiem for a Dream. The chapter argues that these films, along with several others, drew on the legacy of underground junkie art, borrowing a set of recognizable conventions and tropes from various pre-existing genres and forms to forge a new postmodern film genre. The ambiguous philosophical statements contained in these films and their defiance of broad categorizations such as comedy and drama will also be addressed. Other heroin-related films of the decade, including those of Abel Ferrara and Quentin Tarantino and a cycle of junkie documentaries, will be examined as well.

Chapter Five will further establish the argument for a postmodern genre by exploring the ties between the junkie and horror film genres. Examining both the horror trappings of films like The Basketball Diaries and Trainspotting; and heroin-tinged horror films dating from the Universal mad scientist films of the 1930s, to Martin and Last House on the Left in the Seventies, to 1983’s The Hunger; the chapter will argue that the heroin issue has often been addressed in the form of the horror film. The two forms merged completely at the close of the century, with films like Habit, The Addiction, and Requiem for a Dream permanently blurring the lines between horror and junkie movies.

The Conclusion to the work will focus on the continuing trend of heroin-related films in the new century and argues that the junkie movie has become a relatively stable genre that continues to receive studio financing and attract audiences, despite, or because of, its subversive nature. This section will also touch on the changing face of the heroin problem in the new millennium.

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