However, that wasn’t always the case and cigars have appeared in many movies over the years and we’re going to take a look at some of those appearances here.

Comedy

When you put a cigar into the fingers of Charlie Chaplin it’s not long before the cigar becomes a major part of slapstick comedy and Chaplin was just one of many who used our beloved cigars as a major part of the comedy in many movies and, while these days we may cringe at the sight of an old comedy routine that involves an exploding cigar, back in those days no one seemed to mind.

And there was a rather serious side to exploding cigars too. While Hollywood thought of them as something to use in comedy others saw a more sinister use for exploding cigars as life tried to imitate art. The CIA is reported to have had tried to kill Fidel Castro with an exploding cigar but, as with all their other attempts, it failed miserably.

Affluence

As I said at the beginning, cigar smoking has long been associated with affluence and wealth and Hollywood directors have not been slow in using the cigar as a way of setting a scene or imparting a mood when they wanted viewers to thing of wealth and a lifestyle.

If you haven’t seen the movie Titanic then you’ve missed a cigar-smoking scene that’s rich in symbolism and even a little poignant. As some of the passengers realize that, for them there will be no escape, they settle back to enjoy what they know will be their final cigar.

Unfortunately there’s another side to the cigar smoking/affluence angle that’s perhaps not what we might like others to think of when they see a cigar smoker. That evangelist of greed and self-centeredness in the movie Wall Street … Gordon Gecko … is still remembered as a smoker of the very best cigars and for many people the image he portrayed is carried over to cigar smokers today.