Filmic representation of drugs

The representations of subjective states of mind, especially those caused by drugs, in both music and film draw on experimental use. Rock of the 1960s was developed through the free use of drugs by almost every musician. Music of that time can show the different representations of drug induced states in the musicians. But its representation in the filmic context is less obvious. The use of sound and filmic techniques in the depiction of different subjective states of mind is interesting, it is just as broad as it is in music but can be more restricted than it is in music due to its audiences.

A simplistic version was on Home and Away today. A character went crazy from smoking marijuana. His subjective state was depicted through echoing voices and handheld camerawork. Fast paced cutting added to an already frenzied portrayal of his mind. Due to the context of its screening nothing more scandalous could be used.

A more shocking and stylistic version can be found in the acid trip in Easy Rider. In a cemetery in New Orleans Billy the Kid and Captain America take acid with two prostitutes they have met. Several different sequences are edited together to form a non-continuous scene. In the scene images of a girl reading from the bible, of Peter Fonda talking to his dead mother, the prostitutes stripping naked and crying, a man in the cemetery and other insignificant images are used. They are edited together in a frenzied way that makes absolutely no sense. However, the juxtaposition of the images creates the feeling of confusion and disorientation that the characters are feeling.

The sequence would mean nothing without the sound. It starts with the repeating of an indistinguishable sound that could be marching or factory sounds. The innocent voice reading from the bible of Jesus’ downfall juxtaposed with the girls stripping and being raped illustrates the confusion of the state that they’re in. The crazy ramblings and talking to the dead in the cemetery creates a morbid, eerie feeling. The influence of music can be seen here such as The Beatles' song Revolution 9 or The Doors’ song The End seem to be imitated in the soundtrack.

The filmic techniques drawn upon are taken from the ideals of realism rather than Hollywood concepts of continuity. The acid trip is much more stylised than the simple version in Home and Away, but both show the way that filmic terms can be employed to portray subjective states of minds of characters.