trading places (stock market/gorilla rape film)

[Sebastian Cobb]

I remember watching it round a friend's house off my nut and could not work out the end scheme no matter how much my friend explained it to me. I put this down to my baked head until I watched it again later and still couldn't work it out. It is weird because I had seen it loads before and the end never confused me. I think I just took it that they needed to look like they lost but actually won

I'm sure it's deliberately simple to grasp in essence (fed duff information, bet wrong way, got took to the cleaners) while appearing really complex. Gets people talking without ruining the film for people who don't fully follow it.

[jobotic]

It's only the film that informed Liz Truss' economic understanding and her colleagues' racial politics

[madhair60]

Think it assumes everyone who watches it will suddenly think gorilla rape and racism are fantastic ideas.

agreed. only gorilla rape is fantastic.

[Papa Wheelie]

Never seen this but I adore JLC in lots of other stuff so going to buy the 4K which just came out.

[madhair60]

Never seen this but I adore JLC in lots of other stuff so going to buy the 4K which just came out.

her boobies in 4K!!! bare!!! (sorry women)

[The Bumlord]

It is kind of sexist but also...good lord.

[The Bumlord]

Oh my gawwwwd he broke the fourth wall that's so weird WHY did he do thaaaaaat



Sorry I thought I was a YouTube reactor for a moment.

[Goldentony]

secretly called one (very old and white) landlord Trading Places because he always wore the type of hat Eddie Murphy wears on the train scene whenever he called round to sort things

[shoulders]

watched this one again the other night. almost impossible to tear eyes from, incredibly compelling film. the brevity of it all, the unbelievable fast pace, two hours just melt away. fantastic framing of philly, some outstanding night shots as you'd expect from child murderer John Landis, and of course you get to see Jamie Lee Curtis'es massive wabs for absolutely no reason besides 80s excess T&A requisites. sorry for being sexist but the scene was a pivotal one for me as a youth.

last act goes off the rails a bit with the mentioned and utterly bizarre gorilla rape implication and of course dan aykroyd in blackface doing an IRIE MON PLANTAIN AN TING racism voice, but other than these two massive things it's a great time.

talk about Trading Places please

Awesome film


That is all

[Mister Six]

They kind of do - early on we establish what goes on at the exchange - people speculating on the price of commodities, like orange juice, wheat and pork bellies (which are used to make bacon, which you might find in a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich).

Spoiler alert

The brothers plan to make a killing by hiring a goon to steal top secret data relating to the orange harvest. Aykroyd and co discover this, and steal it for themselves, swapping the data for false information. This leads the brothers to wrongly bet the house on orange juice futures going up rather than down, ruining them at the expense of Winthrop et al who have staked on the correct outcome.

[close]

Yeah, but they don't really explain the mechanics of it, despite dedicating 10-15 minutes showing the whole con going down in detail.

Obviously there's a con going on, but the business about shorting stocks and the details of what Aykroyd and Murphy do and say in in exchange isn't actually explained by anyone before, during or after, so unless you know how all this stuff works you just have to shrug and roll with it.

[Mister Six]

I remember watching it round a friend's house off my nut and could not work out the end scheme no matter how much my friend explained it to me. I put this down to my baked head until I watched it again later and still couldn't work it out. It is weird because I had seen it loads before and the end never confused me. I think I just took it that they needed to look like they lost but actually won

All right, I looked up this NPR article which actually explains what's happening, and it really gets across how convoluted (albeit presumably realistic) the plan is, and how they don't even explain the lingo being used.

I recently talked to Tom Peronis, a guy who has spent years trading OJ options. He walked me through every step of Winthorpe and Valentine's plan.

1. Give The Duke Brothers Bad Information

The Duke brothers — two old, rich guys — have bribed someone to get an advance copy of a government report on the orange crop. This will give them inside information on what's going to happen in the market for frozen concentrated orange juice. But Winthorpe and Valentine find out what the Dukes are up to, and they manage to steal the crop report before the Duke brothers get it.

The report says the orange crop is strong. When the rest of the world learns this, the price of OJ will fall. So Winthorpe and Valentine create a fake crop report that they put into the hands of the Duke brothers. The fake crop report says the crop was bad. The Duke brothers see this, and believe the price of OJ will rise.

2. Drive Up The Price Of Orange Juice Futures

The setting, the floor of the commodities exchange. The Duke brothers have told their trader to buy orange juice futures, and to keep buying no matter how high the price goes.

The market opens, and the Duke brothers' trader starts buying. Everybody else sees this and thinks the Dukes know something. Suddenly, everybody's buying. The price goes up and up and up, and the Dukes keep buying.

3. Sell To The Suckers

Then comes the key line for the entire movie — a line that's almost unintelligible. Standing on the floor of the exchange, Winthorpe (Dan Aykroyd) yells out: "Sell 30 April at 142!"

Here's what that means: He wants to promise to sell orange juice in April for $1.42 per pound. The "30" in his line means he wants to start by selling 30 contracts. (One contract = many, many pounds of OJ.) (Also, that "30" might be some other number. It's hard to understand what he's saying. But it doesn't really matter — they sell a lot of contracts.)All the other traders think the price in April will be higher than $1.42. The traders mob Winthorpe and Valentine, agreeing to buy lots and lots of OJ from them at $1.42 a pound.

4. Wait For The Other Shoe To Drop

A minute later, everything on the trading floor goes quiet. Everybody looks at the TV. On the TV, the secretary of agriculture walks up to a podium and reads the orange crop report. The guy tells the world that the orange crop is fine.

5. Buy Low, Get Rich And Bankrupt Your Enemies

To the traders, this means that the price of OJ is not going to go through the roof. All those traders who, a minute ago, were buying all they could, now suddenly need to sell. So the price starts falling. When the price hits 29 cents a pound, Winthorpe and Valentine start agreeing to buy orange juice in April.

In other words, Winthorpe and Valentine have contracts allowing them to buy millions of pounds of orange juice in April for 29 cents a pound, and to sell it for $1.42 a pound. They sold high and bought low. They're rich. The Dukes made the opposite bet and went broke.

Bonus: The Eddie Murphy Rule

One interesting kicker to the story: Trading commodities on inside information obtained from the government wasn't actually illegal when the movie came out, but it's illegal now. It was banned in the 2010 finance-overhaul law, under a special provision often referred to as the Eddie Murphy Rule.

[touchingcloth]

Yeah, but they don't really explain the mechanics of it, despite dedicating 10-15 minutes showing the whole con going down in detail.

Obviously there's a con going on, but the business about shorting stocks and the details of what Aykroyd and Murphy do and say in in exchange isn't actually explained by anyone before, during or after, so unless you know how all this stuff works you just have to shrug and roll with it.

...

All right, I looked up this NPR article which actually explains what's happening, and it really gets across how convoluted (albeit presumably realistic) the plan is, and how they don't even explain the lingo being used.

I think that's the problem with it - it's all magic fantasy bollocks money, like FTX or The Big Short.

The Big Short explains in great deal the mechanics of the financial crash, using audience surrogates and even breaking the fourth wall to do so, but even having seen it a few times and read the book, it's still ultimately baffling because it's so against common sense. Commodities markets seem like they're baffling by design, so the film is hamstrung by that. I quite like that they don't slow the pace down with an explanation, because it wouldn't leave you any the wiser other than knowing that the Dukes had been had.

I think the film with the best portrayal of a scam which doesn't slow down the plot too much by explaining it is The Sting, which is about as simple as an effective long con as opposed to an Oceans-style heist could be, and even that I struggle with the mechanics of because the mechanics themselves aren't very narratively interesting.

Is a tremendous film, although not patch on Coming to America.

I love that the Dukes get a cameo in that film.

[fucking ponderous]

I love that the Dukes get a cameo in that film.

I can't stand that part lol. There's no real joke, Landis just hopes you'll be dazzled by recognition (my dislike of him as a person compunds my dislike of this scene of course). He always seems to have a self-indulgent bit like in his films. The train stuff in this. I rewatched American Werewolf a few months ago and that's almost a perfect film and then a good five unfunny minutes are wasted near the end on that farcical crap where David Naughton wakes up nude in a zoo and runs around trying to cover himself.

Anyway, love this very honest Playboy interview w/ Murphy on Landis, around the release of Coming to America https://www.lipstickalley.com/threads/eddie-murphy-john-landis-is-f-cked-up.387785/

[monkfromhavana]

"Those men wanted to have sex with me! One of them tried to bend me over the..."

I know, I know.

[Vodkafone]

I can't stand that part lol. There's no real joke, Landis just hopes you'll be dazzled by recognition (my dislike of him as a person compunds my dislike of this scene of course). He always seems to have a self-indulgent bit like in his films. The train stuff in this. I rewatched American Werewolf a few months ago and that's almost a perfect film and then a good five unfunny minutes are wasted near the end on that farcical crap where David Naughton wakes up nude in a zoo and runs around trying to cover himself.

Anyway, love this very honest Playboy interview w/ Murphy on Landis, around the release of Coming to America https://www.lipstickalley.com/threads/eddie-murphy-john-landis-is-f-cked-up.387785/

According to IMDB, Landis was against it but was kinda nagged into it against his better judgement.

[madhair60]

Yeah, but they don't really explain the mechanics of it, despite dedicating 10-15 minutes showing the whole con going down in detail.

fwiw it's less than five mins of the movie, maybe a hair over if you count the kiss-off from Dan and Eddie

not that it makes any difference to your point. i didn't understand it in the slightest, but it didn't particularly affect my enjoyment on this viewing.

[SteveDave]

Somehow I have never seen this film. I will watch it this evening and report back tomorrow.

[The Bumlord]

Somehow I have never seen this film. I will watch it this evening and report back tomorrow.

YEAH

[Petey Pate]

This film also features Bo Diddley as a pawnbroker in what I think was his only acting role.

[Proactive]

Fuuuuuuucking superb film. The jail scene is fantastic; obviously you've got "Yeah" but my favourite is the way the guy says "What is ya, ignorant?" possibly my favourite delivery of any line ever.

Oh and it's a Christmas film, OK cheers.

[johnlogan]

And she stepped.. on the ball!

We still say this in our house.

[monkfromhavana]

We still say this in our house.

It's the way after they've finished singing, the main bloke is walking back to the girls (Muffy, Margaret, Susan & Constance) and he says to his mate "That was great, really great" that is incredibly cringeworthy.

"PCP, Phenacyclidine, ANGEL DUST"

[monkfromhavana]

This film also features Bo Diddley as a pawnbroker in what I think was his only acting role.

"Oooh how much for the gun?"

[DrGreggles]

Loved it as a kid. It was only a few years ago I realised that it's not that good or funny. Everything that is good or funny comes from the performances - it's not in the script.

[gilbertharding]

It's partly because the world of blokes on an actual floor in different coloured jackets trading bits of paper has gone (this was what all stock and commodity exchanges looked like until about 30 years ago) - it's much easier to understand the current world where blokes in shirts sit at desks with five or six monitors clicking to trade. Which is ironic.

[Epic Bisto]

I loved this film when I was younger but haven't seen it in ages, would watch it if I stumble on it again.

I love that the Dukes get a cameo in that film.

I can't stand that scene either, mainly because the Dukes are supposed to be the villains of the piece.  A bit over egged too, but it can easily be justified as not every scene in that film can be as wonderful as Sexual Chocolate.

Can't endorse John Landis nowadays for the murders what he did done.

[touchingcloth]

I loved this film when I was younger but haven't seen it in ages, would watch it if I stumble on it again.

I can't stand that scene either, mainly because the Dukes are supposed to be the villains of the piece.  A bit over egged too, but it can easily be justified as not every scene in that film can be as wonderful as Sexual Chocolate.

Can't endorse John Landis nowadays for the murders what he did done.

For some reason I added "I love that the Dukes get a cameo in this film" when what I should have said was "the Dukes get a cameo in this film, and if anything I'm ambivalent at best about this."

I've always known John Landis by name as the murder director, but I don't think I'd ever twigged that he'd directed Trading Places, or even that Trading Places and Coming to America were directed by the same person, which is dumb of me considering my earlier point re. Dukes.

What I actually do love about Trading Places is the "...and she stepped on the ball!" gag, which I often use if I overhear some braying posh cunts out and about somewhere.

[El Unicornio, mang]

And Three Amigos!

You can get from Jennifer Jason Leigh to the guy who indirectly got her Dad killed in just 2 moves using that film.

Also hadn't realised that Landis was in an episode of Psychoville.

[Better Midlands]

Probably of limited interest here, but the chant they do on the train dressed as Aficans was sampled by Masters at Work back in 1991 for a track which went on to become THE vogueing/ballroom anthem to this day.

[kalowski]

I bloody love it. Can even cope with Dan's blackface because it is ludicrous. If it's okay for Eddie Murphy it's okay by me.
Love the whole karate man stuff:
"D'you know who you're fucking with... in cell number four on the ninth floor."

"I can see! I can see! I have...I have legs. I have... Oh shit, look at this. Legs! I can walk."