To the cultural and racial aspect, there were many scenes with language or jokes that just wouldn’t be acceptable now. I think the kind of contrast shown on screen in Trading Places would make us very uncomfortable now. Especially in post-Great Recession times, inequality in America is one of the most contentious issues in the country. But what I thought was interesting is the choice to demonstrate the stark contrast: Winthorpe wakes up Gossip Girl-style with a butler and breakfast in bed, a scene that comes directly after a glimpse of a homeless man sleeping on the street.
Eddie murphy trading places movie#
I’m not sure the racial or economic stereotypes in the movie would fly now, even as a plot device. But it also serves to prime the viewer to note that extreme wealth and excess and disturbing, abject poverty often exist within mere footsteps of each other in American cities.īourree Lam: Not only does that montage set up the landscape of inequality in urban cities, it also shows the economic contrast of black and white Americans that’s necessary for the plot.
The point is, of course, to set the scene for the movie. The opening montage is a long stretch of scenes that jump from the swanky home of Winthorpe to iconic Philadelphia landmarks to impoverished neighborhoods and homeless people. Gillian White: I hadn’t seen this movie in a really long time and I have to say, it hammers home the theme of economic inequality immediately. Below, Atlantic editors Gillian White and Bourree Lam talk about the film and its relevance three decades later. The film is often seen as a combination of Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper and The Million Pound Bank Note, but it also touches on insider trading and the culture of poverty. On the other hand, they wager, if they take away all that Winthorpe has, he will turn into a homeless, jobless, thieving degenerate. The premise of the bet is that if they elevate Valentine from poverty, giving him all the things that Winthorpe has (money, a job, a network, and social status)-he will soon begin to act like a wealthy, entitled, successful elite. After a run-in between Winthorpe and Valentine, in which Valentine is falsely accused of trying to steal Winthorpe’s briefcase, the Duke brothers make a bet on whether nature or nurture is the determining factor in an individual’s life. The plot centers around a grotesque bet made by Mortimer and Randolph Duke, brothers and the owners of Winthorpe’s firm, Duke and Duke. The 1983 comedy stars Dan Aykroyd as Louis Winthorpe III, a wealthy managing director at a Philadelphia commodities-trading firm, and Eddie Murphy as Billy Ray Valentine, a beggar. But the trappings of a great holiday movie are there: It does, in fact, take place around the holidays, include a company Christmas party that features a drunk and disgruntled Santa Claus, and focus on themes of generosity (or lack thereof) and redemption. There are no carolers or large family gatherings. Trading Places isn’t exactly a traditional Christmas film.
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