www.12stepgazette.com
January/February 2013
Page 7
12 Step Programs Invade American Cinema!
Did you ever find yourself sitting in the movie theater, watching some really good film - and all of a sudden the plot reveals that one of the cast members goes to 12 step meetings! It's such a cool feeling when it happens, usually, because many of us still seem to think that we're in this strange minority or cult. It's almost like, “see – everybody's got issues!” Or maybe more like, “darn, we're (people in recovery) everywhere!” Well, this phenomenon has been going on for years. First it started with movies about alcoholism, then it started to move into flicks about other issues but the screenwriters wanted to add maybe a little edge {Barbara Hershey's character in Hannah and Her Sisters replies to Michael Caine's character, after he says, “do you still go to those AA meetings?” with “I don't think about drinking anymore but meetings just make me feel better}. Now, however, it seems like so many mainstream films bring it into the plot just to be topical – and it works really well. How many people loved the scenes in Finding Nemo where Bruce The Shark winds up at a 12 step meeting where sea creatures go to be abstinent from eating other fish. “Fish are our friends, they're not food” was like a first step there. We find many more references of 12 step programs in movies the more popular 12 step programs become. In “Wreck it Ralph”, Ralph at-
tends a support group with other bad guys from video games and at the end of the movie states, “You'll be glad to know I'm taking it one game at a time.” In a more serious vein, the latest movie from famous director Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump and others), Flight, starring Denzel Washington, has a lot to do with drinking, drugging, recovery and has many scenes where Denzel's character (and the female costar's) sobriety is on the line. That film seemed to have program messages all over it but it wasn't necessarily promoted as a “Clean and Sober” type movie. A less popular movie that came out recently was 4:44 Last Day On Earth, starring Willem Dafoe. In this film, one of the side plots was that Dafoe's character, Cisco, was a recovering heroin addict and his brother was also one. They didn't have much in the way of program references, if any, but you could tell they were “on the wagon”. As the end of the world is approaching in hours (literally), they show Cisco's brother hanging out with old friends (still using buddies) saying how he wants to 'go out' clean. On the other hand, Cisco winds up copping and it's a real mess. Let's face it - anytime we're somewhere and we see references to our 12 step lifestyle, we all sit there and go, "cool. That's us!"
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