This article is about the 1978 Cheech & Chong film. For the 2000 hip-hop tour, see Up In Smoke Tour.
Up in Smoke, directed by Lou Adler, is Cheech and Chong's first feature-length film, released in 1978 by Paramount Pictures. It stars Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong, Edie Adams, Strother Martin and Stacy Keach.
Cheech and Chong had been a comedy team for about ten years before they started reworking some of their material for their first film. Much of the film was shot in Los Angeles, California, including scenes filmed in Tijuana, Mexico. Scenes set on the Mexican border were actually filmed at the border in Yuma, Arizona.
Plot
Tommy Chong plays Man, a jobless drummer who is kicked out of his house by his father. (Chong's character name is Anthony Stoner, but is mentioned only once.)[1] Man manages to trick Pedro de Pacas (played by Cheech Marin) into picking him up off the side of a highway by posing as a woman with large breasts. They share a large joint, which Chong's character says is made with "mostly Maui wowie" and Labrador dog feces (the result of his dog having eaten his stash.) Police discover that they are stoned and arrest them. At their trial, the pair are released on a technicality after the judge is discovered to be drinking vodka. In an attempt to procure some marijuana, they visit Pedro's cousin Strawberry (Tom Skerritt). They narrowly escape a police raid on Strawberry's house, but are soon deported to Tijuana by the INS, along with Pedro's illegal immigrant relatives (who just want a free ride to a wedding).
In order to get back to the United States they arrange to pick up a vehicle from Pedro's uncle's upholstery shop but arrive at the wrong place, a marijuana warehouse, and end up unknowingly involved in a plot to smuggle a van constructed completely out of "fiberweed" (hardened marijuana - a play on the word "fiberglass") from Mexico to Los Angeles, with an inept police narcotics unit hot on their heels. Hilarity ensues in the chaos.
Along the way, Pedro and Man narrowly avoid arrest, despite, at one point, being pulled over by the police (luckily for them, the officer gets high from the smoke coming from their van), and pick up two women, who later convince them to perform at a Battle of the Bands contest. The film concludes with their band, Alice Bowie winning the contest, and a recording contract, with a performance of their song Earache My Eye due to large amounts of marijuana smoke being accidentally funneled into the building directly towards the audience.
Marketing and box office performance
Paramount's market research determined that for reasons unexplained, the greatest concentrations of Cheech and Chong's fans were in Texas and Canada.[2] As this was the comedy team's first film, Paramount wanted the initial screenings to be filled with their most ardent fans.[3] Cheech and Chong also came up with the novel (and ultimately successful) idea of advertising the film through comic strips, which they left on bus benches. The film opened first in Texas to huge business, and also later in Canada boosted by strong word of mouth.[3] The film was a huge success, grossing $41,590,893, the 12th highest-grossing film of 1978,[citation needed] and spawned several sequels.
Reaction to content
The film was banned by the South African Publications Control Board (Censor Board) for fear that "it might encourage the impressionable youth of South Africa to take up marijuana smoking".
Influence
Several scenes are sampled by the band Voodoo Glow Skulls in their songs. The scene where Seargant Stadanko gives the code phrase "Shoot the moon!" for everyone to move in on Pedro and The Man is used as the opening sequence of the 1995 album Firme. In the song Insubordination the scene where Pedro mockingly replies to Sgt. Stadanko's inquiry of "Do you know who this is?" with "No, who is 'This is'?". The title of the album Who Is, This Is? is derived from this scene. The introduction of the song Country Phuck is where Pedro talks about punk music.
See also
References
LP Vinyl Album includes QP sized rolling paper with Cheech & Chong watermark image.
External links
