The Leader

[Click to enlarge]

The merchants of death

Smoking: it's as American as freedom, Mom and a big slice of warm apple pie - but not apple pie a la mode; that's French and by definition thoroughly un-American.

But really, how does one market a product that, when used properly, kills? How does one put a warm, friendly, neighborly face on a product that is sold by a handful of enormous, faceless corporations? That is Nick Naylor's (Aaron Eckhart) job. He takes all the tough questions thrown at him by a harsh and biased media and government and slings his own anti-rhetorical arguments right back in their face. Is the governor of Vermont breathing down your neck, Nick? Who is he to talk, with his artery-clogging Vermont cheddar cheese killing off innocent Americans left and right?

But even working as a shill for Big Tobacco, Naylor still has the responsibility of being a good father to his son, Joey (Cameron Bright). The highlight, the absolute quintessence of this movie can be summed up in one scene when Nick tells a little girl in his son's class that her "mommy doesn't sound like a credible expert" when she pipes up her mother's opinion that smoking is bad. But just because he's a soulless corporate whore doesn't mean he's a bad man or a bad father - just the opposite. Well, maybe he's just not a bad father, at least when he makes time to bring his son with him to Los Angeles to show him how he does business - specifically, reintroducing smoking in Hollywood as a "cool" thing for the Good Guys and buying off a diseased and vengeful Marlboro Man (Sam Elliot).

The homicidal hypocrisy in this satirical farce is not just limited to Nick Naylor and Big Tobacco. Nick and his friends call their clique the "Mod Squad," representing the big three industries that are generally regarded as bad for our health: Nick, as we know, is vested with tobacco, while Polly Bailey (Maria Bello) is the lush representative of Big Alcohol and Bobby Jay Bliss (David Koechner) speaks for guns. The "Mod Squad" spends their lunch hours guzzling cocktails whilst ghoulishly comparing the death rates of their respective industries to other groups.

But all good things must come to an end, like Nick's own smoking habit (which is only hinted at), when he is kidnapped by a group of militant anti-smokers and is left for dead at the Lincoln Memorial, covered in nicotine patches. This is, perhaps, the only case in human history where smoking saved a person's life. Naturally, his employers jump on the news and hype his mysterious recovery to their benefit - after all, smoking does decrease the risk of Parkinson's disease (maybe). The sweet taste of irony is heavy in every smoky moment of this movie.

Smoke 'em if you got 'em.

5 of 5

Article Tools