S( KIINnThe Fog EffectnScarface; Directed by Brian DenPalma; Written by Oliver Stone;nUniversal.nby Stephen MacaulaynOne of the consequences of thenmedium of mass communication is thatnthey have a tendency to deaden people’snsensitivities to the existences of good andnevil and so leave them perceiving justngrey areas that take an all-important rolenas people drift into moral and spiritualnambivalence. Consult the front page of annewspaper: reports about the deaths of anlarge number of persons, train derailments,nnatural catastrophes, diplomaticntalks aimed at reducing the possibility ofnnuclear war, the weather, and about hownthe local sports team did: death, disaster,nand danger are diminished by the climatenand games. Television news broadcastsninclude the same topics; commercialnmessages may seem to break the streamn—^and perhaps once did—^but now are anpart of it, so that political turmoil is equalnto an upset stomach. Popular maga2inesnlike People put the efforts of a MothernTeresa on the same level as the slinkinessnof a soap-opera star; tabloids like theTVationalnEnquirer pal cancer research onnpar with U.F.O. sightings. The effect is ancooling down that leads people to tolerate,naccept, or become indifferent tonwhat would, in another time, be considerednoutrageous. Sometimes, ofncourse, people react from this escapenfrom real things. Often, their efforts arengross. Duringthe 19th century, for example,nthe naturalist movement in literaturenevolved, in part, in response to whatnsome considered to be the spurious attitudenof retreat manifest by those rangingnfrom the Romantic poets to thenFlaubert of Salammba “This is thenworld: dirt and squalor,” many of thennaturalists insisted, and one of thenreasons why their work is more like journalismnthan art is because they were seeingnonlyfith and despair, which is merelyn28inChronicles of Culturenthe obverse of that which their foes werensinging about.nToday, drugs, as a subject of discourse,nare treatedinabland, off-handedmanner.nHeroin is one of thefewillegal substancesnthat evokes any heat, yet it is rarelynbrought up. Too many have become indifferentnto marijuana. Whereas it wasnonce a point of contention in publicnforums, it is now wimpishly accepted asna part of the landscape. Cocaine is regularlyndesignated a “recreational drug,” asnif it has some characteristics that make itnlittle different from jogging or skittles.nCocaine is—^in general, not medical usen—a chemical that causes a horrible disease.nIt must be opposed on all levels:npolitical, legal, economic, cultural. DirectornBrian De Palma attempts to addressnthe last-named in his Scarface.nClearly, De Palma is against cocaine. Fornhim, it is not a benign substance that is asnchic as a bowl of macademia nuts. Henfights his battie through naturalisticntechniques, which may not be as effectivenas other means, but which indicatenthat he has a certain morality—albeit anprimitive one—which is lacking in manynof the creations of several contemporarynwriters andfilnimakers.Atellingreactionnis that of novelists Kurt Vonnegut andnJohn Irving. They rejxjrtedly walked outnduring a screening of the film, Vonnegutnafter some 15 minutes of the nearly threehournproduction. Why? Could it be thatnthefr sensitivities were bruised? Thatnsounds good, given the raw horror of thenfilm, but doesn’t hold. Vonnegut’s latestnnovel, DeadeyeDick, is centered on then^^M^^”n.^ ^^nnnfetal shooting of a pregnant woman: it’snan accident, the story goes. Irving, in ThenWorldAccordingtoGarp, rendersoneofnthe most disgusting scenes in fiction: thenocular impalement of a child on thenthreaded end of an automobile gear shift.nAnother accident. Both can throw upntheir hands and exclaim, as Vonnegutnoften does, “So it goes.”nCocaine use is no accident; the destructiveneffects are a certainty once annindividual makes a choice to take that firstn”toot”—^then another and another andnanother. According to a news report,nsome five million Americans use cocaine;nup to 20% of them are hooked. It’s an expensivendrug: one gram can cost $ 150 ornmore; a gram is good for only a quicknnight out. The cocaine trade, consequently,nis a multibillion-dollar-a-year industry,none bigger than therecordingandfilm industriesncombined. Those involved innthe business are not small-time crooksnwho are hustling a few bucks. Politiciansnand legal authorities undoubtedly receivenbribes to smooth the skids for thensmugglers and distributors. Bankersnmust be employed to launder the vastnquantities of money. Investment operativesnare necessary to hide the enormousnincome that results from the txade inndeath. But who talks about cocaine?nDe Palma dedicates5a»;;fece to HowardnHawks and Ben Hecht, the two men responsiblenfor the 1932 movie of the samenname. There are a few “paraphrased”npassages in De Palma’s film that acknowledgenthe original. Overall, the titlenand the nods are trifles. In the history ofn