To MikeP: Yes, that was a joke. People who know me here would know that it's the kind of jest I would make, and in this case, with the thread becoming just a tad too maudlin, I chose to add just a line of levity.
Thanks Ron. Just struck me as odd and I felt that wasn't really something you'd say with conviction.
Okay Bob DiMucci, with all due respect, could I humbly ask that you please stop posting all these images from each year. Is it really necessary? Maybe start its own thread? I don't want to speak for everyone, but not sure we need a poster image for every single film PSH has ever done, year by year for 20 years...
Agreed. I don't think they make for a dignified tribute.
I think the Movie Posters help illustrate that he worked constantly. A successful working actor career that most in his profession would appreciate and no pun intended, die for.
Rest in Peace and I wish the best for the children.
This photo speaks volumes:
Heartbreaking to think of the kids who no longer have a father.
To MikeP: Yes, that was a joke. People who know me here would know that it's the kind of jest I would make, and in this case, with the thread becoming just a tad too maudlin, I chose to add just a line of levity.
Given the subject of the thread, I'd say that was a bit misplaced. In fact, a lot more than a bit.
I'd prefer the former rather than the latter. Sorry you had to be browbeaten into (let's face it) hurrying it up... we didn't all have a problem with your approach, Bob.
Bob, I very much enjoy your display of posters, and find them to be an appropriate and dignified way to celebrate a movie career. I have no idea why a couple of people here were so ludricrously touchy about them.
Maybe they think these pictures will cause the Board to start acting up...
I know he had better characters and more nuanced performances in his career. But honestly, whenever I hear his name, I can only immediately think of the first role I ever saw him in: loveable goofball Dusty in Twister. "Food. Food! Food!"
But I wonder if we be getting the same reaction if it was a black actor that OD?
Would just like to reinforce a point I was trying to make a few days ago, that often in life we create a more complex issue when there might not be one, Maybe MR Hoffman did have a big problem but maybe he didn't. Years ago I knew a guy who was a very happy satisfied guy, with everything in his life. his career, his marriage, his family friends etc etc.But back in 79 there was a very topical drug making the rounds in clubs at night in New York called ANGEL DUST. a very dangerous drug. This guy made a mistake he took it one night and fell in love with the effects like falling head over heels with a girl on one date, There was no serious problems in his life. I found out every Friday night he went to this club and took more and more of it. Bad stuff over a period of 6 months it was starting to f--- him up. The point I am making there does not have to be major reasons people go down the wrong road heading towards tragedy. Sometimes it's just bad luck, YES BAD LUCK, WRONG PLACE WRONG TIME, PERIOD. when you are dealing with hard drugs it sometimes don't take to long to slide, unlike alcohol or cigarette smoking where you often do have plenty of time to stop the slide.
Dan the Man, I agree with what Oscar Wilde once said:
THE TRUTH IS RARELY PURE AND NEVER SIMPLE
Exactly...from my experience of 15 years of working with (and, occasionally, alongside) heroin users (and many other substances) 99% of people who say "It will never harm me" or something similar (the usual one is "I know how much I can take and still be safe", and they usually don't) are just in plain old denial. Drug users are substance users - they are not stupid. They know the dangers, but the draw is too powerful...and sooner or later overtakes the danger...it's not that they don't believe it's dangerous, normally they just don't want to...There are many reasons why they start...the saddest case I came across was of a perfectly respectable middle-aged housewife who's son had gone off the rails...so she injected herself with heroin to demonstrate to him how easy she thought it was to get off the drug. You know the rest of this story...
Having effectively had heroin myself (I will never forgive that medic) I can attest to it's power...I had it nearly 20 years ago...only once, and it was forced on me....but even now I still think about how it felt...the warmth, the comfort...that feeling...the escape...
I have seen four bodies that were only corpses because of heroin, yet the path that took them to that wretched pool of faeces, vomit, urine, and lost opportunities, is never, ever a simple one...and every time we try and simplify it we miss something...usually the single most important thing.
The UK Criminal Justice System had a major wake up call some 30 or so years ago...a sudden, and very big recognition, that underlying causes were being ignored. Someone is not a criminal because they possess heroin for personal use, they are a criminal because something in their background causes them to be there at that time with those drugs. Send them to prison, they don't change anything (except maybe lose their flat, or be ostracised by family, which are now well-known root causes of offending) and come out more sophisticated at their offending than before. Work with them, struggle to understand the underlying causes, spend time with them, talk to them...it takes time and effort, and will rarely work first time, but it does work...
50 pounds of heroin at today's prices? Just under £1m. The cost of a gram wrap? Could be a lot, lot more...
PSH's case is devastating. Consider what led him to that situation....must have been horrific. My heart truly goes out to the family.
IT'S NOT THAT THEY DON'T BELIEVE IT'S DANGEROUS, IT'S THAT THEY DON'T WANT TO. I AGREE, The point I am making is sometimes we do foolish things in our lives and it does not take very long to see the devastating results. One does not always have to have long term problems for these tragedies to happen.
He knew before he started it was addictive and destructive, but that's the choice he took with a free and open mind. The addiction happens after you start.
Dan the Man, I agree with what Oscar Wilde once said:
THE TRUTH IS RARELY PURE AND NEVER SIMPLE
Exactly...from my experience of 15 years of working with (and, occasionally, alongside) heroin users (and many other substances) 99% of people who say "It will never harm me" or something similar (the usual one is "I know how much I can take and still be safe", and they usually don't) are just in plain old denial. Drug users are substance users - they are not stupid. They know the dangers, but the draw is too powerful...and sooner or later overtakes the danger...it's not that they don't believe it's dangerous, normally they just don't want to...There are many reasons why they start...the saddest case I came across was of a perfectly respectable middle-aged housewife who's son had gone off the rails...so she injected herself with heroin to demonstrate to him how easy she thought it was to get off the drug. You know the rest of this story...
Having effectively had heroin myself (I will never forgive that medic) I can attest to it's power...I had it nearly 20 years ago...only once, and it was forced on me....but even now I still think about how it felt...the warmth, the comfort...that feeling...the escape...
I have seen four bodies that were only corpses because of heroin, yet the path that took them to that wretched pool of faeces, vomit, urine, and lost opportunities, is never, ever a simple one...and every time we try and simplify it we miss something...usually the single most important thing.
The UK Criminal Justice System had a major wake up call some 30 or so years ago...a sudden, and very big recognition, that underlying causes were being ignored. Someone is not a criminal because they possess heroin for personal use, they are a criminal because something in their background causes them to be there at that time with those drugs. Send them to prison, they don't change anything (except maybe lose their flat, or be ostracised by family, which are now well-known root causes of offending) and come out more sophisticated at their offending than before. Work with them, struggle to understand the underlying causes, spend time with them, talk to them...it takes time and effort, and will rarely work first time, but it does work...
50 pounds of heroin at today's prices? Just under £1m. The cost of a gram wrap? Could be a lot, lot more...
PSH's case is devastating. Consider what led him to that situation....must have been horrific. My heart truly goes out to the family.
Wow, Greg, these were powerful and thought-provoking comments. This tragedy with PSH has turned around my attitudes to heroin completely. I now think this should be legalized; this means I've made a 360 degree turn.
A friend's daughter was a junkie at 18 and I remember hearing the whole horror story there. The girl had been the only child in a broken family and she was fat and unattractive. Perhaps she fell in with a crowd of junkies who, finally, made her feel she belonged and part of a group.
Peoples' psychological needs drive them to do all manner of desperate things. PSH had alcohol and drug problems at an early age and this does suggest another dynamic at play. Clearly he couldn't handle the public pressure of being a celebrity and would have had a myriad of other issues.
I also like to remember Robin Williams's words about drugs:
"Cocaine is God's way of saying you're earning too much money".
Just innocent bantering and discussion my friend. Again I am not endorsing anything , but he knew it COULD be destructive[Mcdonald's -diabetes- sometimes death-----smoking- lung cancer- sometimes death- drinking- liver disease-sometimes death-high on pot while driving-car crash- sometimes death. Happened to a relative of mine. I like to be open minded on these subjects without endorsing anything destructive. Life can be tough we must be careful on so many things.Yes, I know how destructive heroin can be.
After seeing, for the first time, Before The Devil Knows You're Dead, any statement Hoffman may have been making about drug use/abuse didn't register with me one iota. I just took the story to revolve around a very tense family drama with the drug den scenes being subsumed within so they didn't vie for greater attention as a part of the whole.
Now, his role in the film, I find, needs re-evaluating. The character he plays is a malignant product of excess which he, rather incredibly, seems to have undertaken without even so much as flinching. The portrayal is without compromise. In fact, one is given to wonder if he was even attempting to act at certain times. Given Hoffman had a parallel real life drug problem, why did he go ahead and do the role? Because we know that actors often need to invoke painful memories to get to grips with the 'meat' of their character - especially when it is known the actor in question is a 'character' actor. How much would that have potentially opened up a can of worms? It's a little painful to watch, in hindsight, because it is easy to imagine that to some extent he was saying, "see, I can handle this."
After seeing, for the first time, Before The Devil Knows You're Dead, any statement Hoffman may have been making about drug use/abuse didn't register with me one iota. ."
If you listen to Sidney Lumet's informative commentary track, hes repeats over and over "this is a melodrama" In other words, it is not supposed to be a serious, realistic drama but an exagerated over-the top entertainment A fine film if you watch it with thatn in mind! bruce
Thanks Ron. Just struck me as odd and I felt that wasn't really something you'd say with conviction. 
