Paul: It's 1942, right. He's caught in Leningrad during the siege; I'm talking about one of the worst moments in human history. 500,000 people died in that one place. And there's Baktin, holed up in an apartment, expecting to be killed any day. He has plenty of tobacco, but no paper to roll it in. So he takes the pages of a manuscript he's been working on for ten years, and tears them up, so he can roll his cigarettes.
Rashid: His only copy.
Paul: His only copy. (Beat) I mean, if you think you're gonna die, what's more important, a good book or a good smoke?
Smoke is a 1995 Slice of Life film directed by Wayne Wang, starring William Hurt, Harvey Keitel, Stockard Channing, Harold Perrineau, Ashley Judd, and Forest Whitaker.
It centers on Paul Benjamin (Hurt), a writer still mourning the loss of his wife, Rashid (Perrineau), a street kid who saves Paul's life one day, Auggie Wren (Keitel), owner of the cigar store Paul frequents, Ruby (Channing), Auggie's ex-girlfriend, and Cyrus (Whitaker), Rashid's biological father.
Followed later that year by a spin-off movie, Blue in the Face.
Smoke provides examples of:
- 20 Minutes into the Past: The movie is set in 1990, as indicated by a title card that appears early in the movie, as well as the fact the guys who hang around Auggie's cigar store talk about the end of the Cold War.
- Actually Pretty Funny: When The Creeper and his dragon come to Paul's apartment to find Rashid, Paul asks who he has the pleasure of speaking with. The Creeper chuckles at that, and tells him their conversation will be about business.
- Adaptation Expansion: The movie is based on the short story "Auggie Wren's Christmas Story" by Paul Auster. The entire story is filmed in the last 12 minutes of the movie (as well as part of what plays over the closing credits); everything that happens before then was made up by Auster and co-writer/director Wayne Wang.
- Author Avatar: Paul Benjamin, as Benjamin is the middle name of Paul Auster.
- Book Burning: A non-political example as shown in the exchange between Paul and Rashid at the top of the page.
- Chekhov's Gun: The bag of money Rashid took from the Creeper.
- Covers Always Lie: The poster only features Harvey Keitel, Stockard Channing, and Ashley Judd, as if they were the main characters, and they were close. Judd's character hardly figures in the movie; and while Keitel plays one of the major characters, Channing plays more of a supporting role.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": Inverted - when Paul figures out who The Creeper is and says so, his dragon immediately gets in Paul's face and tells Paul to call The Creeper "Charles" because he doesn't like the other name.
- Deadpan Snarker: Paul and Rashid.
- Everybody Smokes: All the main characters in this movie smoke, and Paul and Auggie are seen smoking throughout. However, near the end, Paul buys only one box of cigarettes rather than two because he's trying to cut down.
- Killed Offscreen: Right before Auggie tells Paul his Christmas story, we see him holding a newspaper that has a story about The Creeper and his dragon getting killed during a robbery attempt.
- Leave the Camera Running: Most of the scene of Auggie telling his Christmas story is done in one, unbroken five-minute shot.
- Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: This is how Ruby gets Auggie to help her confront Felicity, by claiming she's his daughter. Afterwards, Ruby admits she doesn't know for sure.
- The Matchmaker: Rashid asks a bookstore clerk out for Paul.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Auggie to Rashid after Rashid accidentally spills water on the Monte Cristo cigars Auggie was planning on selling, and thereby ruining them.
- Self-Plagiarism: The story Paul tells Rashid about the boy who discovered his father frozen in a block of ice is taken from Auster's novel The New York Trilogy.
- Shout-Out: "So he huffed and he puffed, and he smoked his book."
- When Auggie tells the guys who hang around his store about what happened to Paul's wife (she got caught in the crossfire of a shootout nearby), one of them says, "Bad Day at Black Rock all around, huh, Auggie?"
- Tempting Fate: Auggie is sure nothing will go wrong with the Monte Cristo cigars he plans to sell.
- Waxing Lyrical: When Auggie hears Rashid has just turned 17, he starts trying to sing "It was a Very Good Year" before giving up.
- White Man's Burden: Paul helping Rashid to reconcile with his father.
