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ARCHIVE: HARMETZ: FILM; History Is Written in Smoke  

Although attitudes toward cigarettes on screen have gradually become as politically correct as those toward safe sex, animal rights, feminism and the American Indian, cigarettes do continue to convey recklessness, rebellion and defiance. From 12-year-olds smoking behind the barn in real life, to Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon lighting up in "Thelma and Louise" (1991) on their way to becoming outlaws, cigarettes flout authority.

That defiance is a key to the runaways Lula (Laura Dern) and Sailor (Nicolas Cage) in the 1990 film "Wild at Heart." But Lula, who started stealing cigarettes from her mother's purse in sixth grade, also shares with Sailor that satisfying after-sex cigarette that has dressed a thousand movies.

Until some brave new world allows frontal male nudity, cigarettes will probably remain a handy shorthand for potency, even though, in our less subtle age, guns have taken over much of that function. But there will always be neurotic protagonists like Nick Nolte in "The Prince of Tides" proving their inner torment by the way they smoke and the fact that they smoke.

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