For His Son

This is a 1912 silent short from the infamous D.W. Griffith that is... an anti-drug piece!

Apparently, D.W. Griffith wasn't a fan of Coca-Cola.

To be perfectly honest, I did see a movie last night (once again via the DVR) but I've been preoccupied with various things the past 24 hours so I need more time to finish that review. Earlier today on my Letterboxd activity feed came a mutual reviewing a D.W. Griffith short I had never even heard of before... as apparently he made at least 500 in his life, that is understandable. Besides being a hair under 15 minutes, its plot made me laugh when I read that mutual give his brief review on the short.

Get this: a physician desires the ability to give more money to his adult son. His solution: creating a soft drink subtly named DOPOKOKE which contains-get this-cocaine! Context is needed here: Coca-Cola did indeed contain cocaine in the first few decades of its existence... along with other beverages. At least in the United States, some thought that the drug had medicinal effects. A National Food and Drug Act was finally created in 1906-which meant that the white powder's presence had to be identified-although it wasn't until 1914 that it was classified as a narcotic.

Anyhow, naturally Dopokoke became popular in town, including children consuming the drink. Dad makes money he can give to his son but as Griffith was a moralist (despite The Birth of a Nation), things go wrong and a tragedy happens. Thus, it was a worse idea on dad's part than the European Super League. Even without the usage of copious intertitles, the story still comes across and it was a fine 15 minutes that managed to do a satisfactory job of demonstrating the evils of cocaine and avarice. There are several copies of this floating around online, of varying quality. Overall, I was and am amused as the idea of “a D.W. Griffith anti-drug silent short.”