The Ringer

I saw this somewhere between 6th & 8th grade and some memories have remained (If they're at all accurate). I think, for one, I was surprised to see Rhoda's husband playing a drug pushing villain. Secondly, I remember liking the song the movie would cut to at different points. It was some hippie duo (was it Brewer & Shipley?)pounding away on guitar and piano (was it "one toke over the line"?). The last wisp of memory I have is David Groh and the Drug Dealer holding up a big colorful bag of pills and laughing maniacally. The only thing missing was Dr. Evil laughing with them. It was that ridiculous. Anyway, I'd love to see it again, just to gauge how accurate my memory is. For all I know, I could be combining a couple of different anti-drug shorts. I remember seeing a few of 'em back then.

Directed by Jeff 'Just Before Dawn' Lieberman in 1972, The Ringer is a short film about how adults exploit the gullibility of youth to peddle their wares, whether it be bland pop music, pointless fashion accessories, or recreational drugs. Through clever marketing, making whatever it is they are selling seem hip, they push their worthless, or possibly even dangerous products to kids who haven't the life experience to know any better. The purpose of The Ringer is to open the eyes of the young to how they are being manipulated, and to hopefully help them to make wiser decisions.

If it wasn't quite so dated, with hilarious '70s fashions and ridiculous slang (outrageous, you dig?), The Ringer could still serve as a potent warning to youngsters about the dangers of drugs, as well as acting as a persuasive piece to try and talk them out of the latest body modification fad (maybe I'm just too old to get it, but ear stretchers freak me out), and not waste their time listening to the latest corporate pop sensation (when they could be listening to metal!!!).

This presents three different settings - though unlike Lieberman's use of this device in Blue Sunshine, here they are very clearly connected. Not in a physical sense, merely by virtue of their content being essentially the same. All are a group of grown-up to middle-aged men, mostly white, discussing how they will sell their specific product to youths - in spite of something obviously off-putting about it. This is done via Newspeak, using words to make the kids think they like it - not explaining away the negative aspect, no, redefining it as the opposite. As the running theme goes in this, "it's all about the marketing".

As you can probably figure out(and this is not a spoiler; the opening shows us a situation involving such not going as planned, in intense, disturbing, and worst of all, realistic, unflinching close-up; the unpleasant content, occasionally shown and always present in the tone, is the only thing that makes the 19 minute running time feel draining), this is, in part, about drugs. The other items to be peddled aren't dangerous, merely either worthless or ridiculous.

This leads to the obvious question: is this a propaganda piece? And the answer, in spite of the problem posed by substance abuse when this was made, is actually, "no". It's closer to being satire. We are never lied to about the effects of narcotics(it focuses on peer pressure, and thinking about what you're engaging in), it places equal blame on purely profit-minded Capitalists(if anyone can be called the "villains" of this, it would be them), and, frankly, watching this just over 40 years later, this is still going on.

I'm 26 as I write this, and I remember stupid fads when I was a kid... pogs, yo-yos, and other crap that I've wasted my parents' money on because I fell for ad campaigns. This is well-produced, with solid filming and editing. While the acting varies some, it's never downright bad.

I recommend this to anyone who wants or needs to look more critically at what we are buying - whether it's outright harmful, or merely pointless. 6/10