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Drug Abuse In The Film 'Half Nelson'

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I chose to do the movie “Half Nelson” related to drug abuse. This movie was directed by Ryan Fleck, and was released in year September 2006. The film started out by showing that the main character Dan Dunne was a Caucasian History teacher and the girls’ basketball team's coach in a middle school in Brooklyn, he taught the 8th grade students. During the daytime, he seemed to be pretty normal, active and cared a lot about his students in the classroom. When he started discussing dialectics of power and world politics with his student, he became really passionate and enthusiastic. He often encouraged his student to understand history instead of just memorizing it as he seemed to reject the education system. Some scenes show that he was fidgeting, …show more content…

He seemed to be unfocused, even though he was constantly clapping for his students to cheer for them. After the game ended, Dan saw his ex-girlfriend Rachel waiting for him. It was obvious that Dan could not handle the emotions after a small talk with Rachel. He immediately went into the locker room to make sure there weren’t other people in the locker room, so that he could smoke crack. Unfortunately, one of his students Drey accidentally caught him doing drugs in the girl’s locker room bathroom even though he tried to hide himself without making any noise. This was pretty awkward at the beginning, as Dan felt uncomfortable for revealing his deepest secret to his student. The scene also shows that the thirteen years old Drey has problem with her own life too. Her parents were divorced, and her brother was imprisoned due to drug dealing for a guy named Frank. She rarely saw her mom because she was working all the time, and her father was irresponsible. As time goes by, Dan and Drey became closer to each other. They gradually talked and learned more about each other’s situation. Dan noticed that the guy Frank had a bad effect on Drey because he was trying to get her to start drug dealing, and Dan tried to pursue Drey not to involve in drug dealing as that was how his brother got imprisoned. The film mainly focused on how Dan and Drey influenced each other, but had troubles dealing with …show more content…

This is led by the intake of cocaine as cocaine is some white puffy powders. In most cases, people intake cocaine by snorting those powder in order to let it absorb through the mucous membrane of their noses, and this was the way he took the cocaine. A scene in the movie shows that Dan Dunne hooked up randomly with a girl he met at the bar, went to her and snort some cocaine with a stick. His emotion began to fall and revealed that he was upset to find out that his ex-girlfriend Rachel was going to marry someone else. Another side-effect led by cocaine cause Dan to have a bleeding nose in the middle of the class. Cocaine is an addictive stimulant, and it is known to be the strongest natural stimulant in today’s

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