The movie Friday is a comedy, but it also depicts many important socialissues. The story is set in the city of Los Angelos, California, in whatcould be called a high class ghetto.
The main theme of the movie is about ayoung black man who looses hisjob and is influenced by his best friend to smoke marijuana. The movie alsoshows the relationships of his family and other members of his neighborhood. With a zany cast of characters and a hilarious script this movie touches oneverything from gang vlence to the use of drugs, crime, guns, relationships, sex and life in theghetto. Because of all these issues, I found this an interesting movie witha wide variety of topics to address. Marijuana has been around for a long time. It’s use is once again becomingpopular.
Although it’s not legal, many people use it socially and formedicinal purposes. The Hollywood elite smoke it. Musicians such as Dr. Dreand the Black Crows celebrait’s use.
Television shows like Saturday Night Live and Kids In the Halldepict it as harmless fun. Marijuana fashion has grown into a ten million dollar industry, with theseven branch marijuana leaf showing up on caps, T-shirts, earrings andtattoos. Studies show that after a decade of declining drug use, marijuanause has increased sharply among gh school students and college students in the last two years (Duschbaun 8). In the movie Friday, rap star Ice Cube plays the character Craig.
Craig hasnever smoked marijuana. However, his best friend “Smokey” smokes marijuanaeveryday. Craig looses his job, leaving him home all day with nothing to doto occupy his time. Hjust hangs out in the neighborhood with his friends. Smokey tries toconvince Craig to try some marijuana.
At first Craig doesn’t want to. Smokey is persistent. He points out to Craig that he doesn’t have to workand doesn’t have anything better to . Craig and Smokey eventually sit on the front porch and get stoned.
Peerpressure is obviously the only reason Craig gives in. Actually he had otheroptions, but he chose not to use them. Common sense and a simple explanationwould have worked for aig just fine (How to Say No and Keep Your Friends 23) Everyday we are facedwith choices. It is up to us to decide what’s right and wrong. Craigdecides to try it and things start to happen that he really doesn’t like.
Craig and Smokey get into some trouble with the neighborhood dealer, BigWorm. Smokey sells pot for him, but can’t pay him the money he owes becausehe and Craig smoked the pot. Big Worm threatens them and sends a gang of”hoods” after them with mache guns. They just barely escape and are scared shitless. The amount of gangviolence that can be contributed to the use and sale of illegal drugs hasrisen dramatically in the past seven years (Gates 67). It’s no wonder thatthis is happening with thuse of marijuana becoming so popular again.
Violence and crime are issues we hear about every day. We can watch anynews broadcast and see the evidence of these increasingly worrisome problems. In Friday, both of these issues are very apparent. Debone, the neighborhoodthief and “bully” is cotantly harassing the people in Craig’s neighborhood.
He breaks into theirhomes, steals their possessions, beats people up to take their jewelry andother items and is just generally a pain in everyones ass. He is the mostviolent person in the movieCraig gets into a fight with him and pulls a gun on Debone. Craig feelsconfused and not sure what to do. His father convinces him to give him thegun. He insists that Craig should fight like a man with his fists. I don’tthink that was very good aice.
Debone was twice as big as Craig and probably 100 pounds heavier. Theydo fight and surprisingly Craig wins. You would think that most problems canbe solved without violent acts. The reality is that sometimes, under certaincircumstances, thatust doesn’t work. Obviously, this was one of those times.
Sexual promiscuity was also depicted in this movie. Craig’s neighbor has anaffair with a preacher. His sisters friend sleeps around to get drugs. Smokey puts the moves on anything in a skirt. To so blatantly condone thiskind of behavior is repulse.
With the rampant spread of the Aids virus and other sexually transmitteddiseases anyone with common sense
