Winter Films - 10

Is winter beginning to get to you? Can you just not stand one more minute? Well, here’s a film to lift you up—Trading Places [1983]. And if you’re thinking about writing your own winter film, lifting your audience up and letting them have fun in the process may be the way to go if you’re into writing comedy.

It’s winter in Manhattan and we see two people dealing with that winter—Louis Winthorpe III, a powerfully successful commodities broker, who doesn’t have to worry about slipping on the icy cold streets because he has a driver who drives him everywhere he wants to go. And then there’s Billy Ray Valentine, a con artist who scoots around on a flat board with wheels on it, pretending that he’s lost his legs as well as pretending to be blind. Louis and Billy Ray collide outside a fancy men’s club. It’s Louis’s fault, but he blames Billy Ray and screams for the police saying that Billy Ray tried to rob him and Billy Ray is taken to the police station. This is all witnessed by the Duke brothers, Louis’s bosses—and it ignites an old argument about nature vs. nurture.

So the Duke brothers make a bet with one another. In order to do this, they plant evidence that disgraces Louis and they get Billy Ray out of jail and give him Louis’s house, job and life. Will the successful Louis be able to survive when he has nothing and will Billy Ray be able to overcome his criminal tendencies if he has everything he could want?

There’s a coldness to life that is often mirrored by our economic status—and we see this very clearly in Trading Places. Louis actually gets ill from being exposed to the elements of a cold, NY winter—being the pampered executive whose only exposure to winter is moving from the car door to his office. And Billy Ray, initially so free with his new house and possessions, turns cold on his former friends who he realizes are only sponging off of him.

The result for both of our characters? They’re very cold. And how do things warm up—when they come together and pool their resources to get the Dukes.

In the process of all of this taking place, Louis is so angry and so poor that he dons a Santa Claus costume to crash his former company’s Christmas party. He’s drunk, he’s surly, and he’s hungry and in one of the more ludicrous and hilarious moments of the film, he stuffs a whole salmon down his pants.

Trading Places starts in the cold but it heats up when the two main characters come together to take on the big bosses who put them in this unfair situation—and [slight spoiler alert] how do they celebrate after they’ve won? Well they head for a tropical island, of course, where the cold is very far away.

That contrast between winter and summer--between the cold and the heat, the rich and the poor, the haves and have-nots—all add great texture to the film. Think about how you can do that in your own film, how contrast can lead to a more interesting film.

Copyright © Diane Lake

27Jan19

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