The House I Live In Movie Analysis

1850 Words4 Pages

In 1971 on June 17, President Richard Nixon delivered a special message to the Congress on drug abuse prevention and control. During the presentation, Nixon made it clear that the United States was at war with this idea of drug abuse. What baffled Americans then, and still baffles Americans today, is that we are at war with our own nation with drugs; it is not some foreign affair like the media tends to focus on with Mexico. Nixon stated that at the time of his speech, what was implemented to control drug abuse was not working…“The problem has assumed the dimensions of a national emergency. I intend to take every step necessary to deal with this emergency, including asking the Congress for an amendment to my 1972 budget to provide an additional $155 million to carry out these steps. This will provide a total of $371 million for programs to control drug abuse in America.”(Wolleey and Peters) Since the publicizing of the term “War on Drugs” in 1971, it has been used by many political candidates in elections over the years. In the movie, it was stated, “ every war begins with propaganda …[and] the war on drugs has never been actually on drugs… [Additionally] drug laws are shaped less by scientific facts, but more by political [reasoning].” (Jarecki) The movie, The House I Live In, directly relates to certain themes and terminology that were discussed in Martin and Nakayama’s Intercultural Communication in Contexts book, that have been used in class. Through the analyzing and comparing of The House I Live In and Intercultural Communication in Contexts an individual can begin to localize the ideals behind this everlasting war on drugs; some ideals focus on terms from the text like ethnocentrism, diversity training, and culture while ... ... middle of paper ... ...7 Feb. 2014. Johnannesen, R. L. (1990). Ethics in human communication (3rd ed.) Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press. Martin, Judith N., and Thomas K. Nakayama. Intercultural Communication in Contexts. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2013. Print. Merica, Dan, Carol Cratty, and Jessica Yellin. "Eric Holder Seeks to Cut Mandatory Minimum Drug Sentences." CNN. Cable News Network, 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 27 Feb. 2014. The House I Live In. Dir. Eugene Jarecki. Perf. Eugene Jarecki, Nannie Jeter. 2012. Netflix. Walsh, John. "Q&A: Legal Marijuana in Colorado and Washington." The Brookings Institution. Washington Office on Latin America, 21 May 2013. Web. 26 Feb. 2014. Woolley, John T., and Gerhard Peters. "Richard Nixon: Special Message to the Congress on Drug Abuse Prevention and Control." The American Presidency Project. The American Presidency Project, n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.

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