It's crazy to me that John Landis directed one of the smartest comedies of the 1980s mere months after killing three people on the set of 'Twilight Zone: The Movie.'Something my friend said about this movie that I found interesting when I first watched 'Trading Places' was that the ending actually taught her a lot about trading. She is totally right. The way the film presents the world of yuppie capitalism is quite informative about the manipulation by the 1% and how they manipulate others to gain the money that shapes them into outlines of people.
I don't want to give John Landis too much credit for this movie (read my blockquote), so I'm going to talk about everything else you could give credit to literally anybody else for.
I was shocked by how great this screenplay was on a rewatch. The characterization of Winthrope, Valentine, the Dukes, and Ophelia is strong, with the series of events having a great flow.
We are first introduced to Winthrope after a great opening credit scene whose editing greatly juxtaposes Winthrope's high-end living style with the poverty of Philadelphia. We get a sense of Winthrope even before we meet him, and it also serves as a good generalization of the rest of the people like him. He hasn't faced a single hardship in his life, and making him like all of the other yuppies makes the social experiment work so damn well at showing the Duke Brothers' complete apathy. This is one of Dan Aykroyd's best performances. He's able to blend so well into this yuppie society, a sense of snobbishness, and a great level of physicality and despair that make his character very fun to watch.
After Winthrope, we get a great sense of how different the Duke Brothers are from Winthrope. The great extreme wide establishing shot, followed by their uniform ascent down the stairs, greatly showed their calculated greed. Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy are so unlikable as these antagonists, successfully getting across the near-sociopathic consequences of greed.
After this, we are shown the opposite end of the wealth spectrum in Valentine. Valentine approaches the Duke brothers, begging for money in a way that, while it's lying, is completely understandable. He's been displaced his whole life, but the movie does a great job at showing why this isn't his fault. The dissatisfaction thrust upon African Americans by the higher, white class has led them here, and the social experiment the Dukes provide for just a single dollar is crucial in showing the abject racism on display in higher society, and beyond. Eddie Murphy does a good job displaying that feeling of betrayal from the people who he thought were helping him, but were using him as a pawn to succeed in life; he's also fucking hilarious.
Finally, there's Ophelia. She might be one of my favorite characters in this movie, not only because of Jamie Lee Curtis' great comedic performance, but also because she's Winthrope's wake-up call to the treatment of the underprivileged. She's strong, and despite having to resort to prostitution, she gives the audience a good display of decency.
The way these characters collide creates some genuinely hilarious situations while managing to display great social commentary that continues to resonate. Unfortunately, some moments have aged so poorly that it takes me out of the movie entirely. While I've tried to rationalize the Dan Aykroyd blackface scene, I just don't think it's that funny; the same goes for the ape business. I understand parts of it can be attributed to the time it was made, but I don't think it truly matters since it was never acceptable anyway (looking at you, F-slurs).
Anywho, I still think this is an essential 80s comedy, from the characters, writing, and great situational comedy that has (mostly) aged well. I think I've simultaneously found my new favorite X-Mas and New Year's movie.
