On the forth day of Christmas-ish movies, we’re watching Trading Places. The classic film from John Landis starring Eddie Murphy, Dan Ackroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis. Keep an eye out for appearances from Giancarlo Esposito, Frank Oz and Bill Cobbs.
First a little bit of a side story.
My aunt, who passed away earlier this year is the reason I’m doing this. She’s the reason I’m a journalist and a photographer but most of all she’s the reason I love movies. She had a collection of Betamax, VHS and then DVD’s that could have formed the start to a respectable rental store. My mom owned a business, and my dad well… he wasn’t that interested in me so my aunt watched me. She loved the movies so we went to a LOT of them. I aw My Life as a Dog in the movie theaters at 5. I saw Die Hard 2 in the theaters. When I was staying over at her place we watched movies, but not just what I wanted to watch, we watched movies like Coming to America, Life of Brian, Spaceballs and what became a defining movie for me, Trading Places.
One of these days I’m going to write a book about my cinema education. You see my aunt was a childhood psych student in college and knew that showing me films at important times in my life would build me into a empathetic intelligent kid that wanted to learn more. But wait, you might ask – Trading Places taught you something? Yeah! Did you watch the film? It teaches you that greed is BAD not good like other movies of the time were telling people – and that poor people aren’t stupid or bad people, they’re just often victims of a system that treats them like shit.
There’s no chance that when I was probably 8 or 9 watching this on my aunt’s zenith on Betamax that I was really grasping it but years later when I was reading about the robber barons of the turn of the century, I understood. They were the Dukes. Then when I started working as a journalist, I recognized that they were the Koch Brothers.
The movies I watched didn’t teach me more than what school or books taught me, but they did prepare me.
ANYWAY. Trading Places is a Christmas-ish movie. Beyond the obvious that it happens during Christmas, there are multiple scenes around Christmas decorations and well… this…
When we think about what we’re supposed to think about the Christmas season, it’s not about money or gifts, but coming together with friends and family. By the end of the film Louis Winthorpe III, Billy Ray Valentine and Ophelia have created their own family – all people outcast by others.
So this Christmas, put on the Santa costume, start up a fire and enjoy some roast beef.
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