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John Simon, a film critic writing for New York Magazine about a hundred years ago in 1983, didn't like the third <keyword id="61596" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Star-Wars">Star Wars</keyword> movie, "Return of the Jedi." He went on Nightline with Ted Koppel to explain why he gave the movie such a horrible review.
"I feel they're so bad because they're completely dehumanizing...they are for children or childish adults," Simon said, clearly out of touch with the millions of presumably mature and intelligent adults who had seen the Star Wars movies over the years.
Luckily, legendary film critics <keyword id="1114671" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Gene-Siskel">Gene Siskel</keyword> and <keyword id="530725" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Roger-Ebert">Roger Ebert</keyword> were on Nightline at the same time to defend "Star Wars." And right off the bat, Ebert catches the essence of what "Star Wars" is:
"I totally disagree..I don't know what [Simon] did as a child, but I spent a lot of my Saturday matinees watching science fiction movies and being stimulated...having my imagination stimulated and having all sorts of visions in my mind that helped me become an adult and still stay young at heart," Ebert said.
"I feel badly that this critic, John Simon, didn't have a good time at these pictures. That's too bad for him," Siskel added.
You can watch the full clip below, which we first spotted <a href="http://www.slashfilm.com/votd-siskel-and-ebert-defend-star-wars-on-1983-tv-show/">on SlashFilm</a>. Ebert and Siskel completely destroy Simon's Star Wars-hating:

Watch Siskel And Ebert Completely Destroy A 'Star Wars' Hater On Live TV In 1983

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image"></div></div>
Apple is famous for its commercials, which usually feature their flawless products against a white background.
In fact Apple <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/apples-new-mac-ad-2014-7">made waves</a> with <a href="https://twitter.com/eileencartter/status/497082919249518592">its latest commercial</a> for showing used MacBooks with stickers on them.
But we rarely see Apple ads held up to a critical lens. 
Luckily, <a href="http://sfist.com/2014/07/30/afternoon_palate_cleanser_apples_19.php">SFist recently unearthed</a> a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzE2HxNtJrY">video</a> of film critics Gene Siskel and Robert Ebert reviewing Apple commercials in 1986.
The critics were invited to an Apple event, where they ranked commercials from 1 to 4 stars, as they did for movies.
A 3-star rating, they explained, was the "critical turning point," signaling their approval of a particular ad.
"A 4-star commercial would be: if you don't own a TV set, buy it, leave it on at all times and watch it with your eyes open at all times," said Siskel.
The first spot - which markets the Mac as an education tool - got 2.5 stars from Ebert but garnered a 4-star rating from Siskel, who called it his favorite.
See what else Siskel and Ebert had to say about Apple's ads:

Here's What Two Famous Movie Critics Had To Say About Apple's Commercials In The '80s

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Getty Images</div></div></div>The late Roger Ebert was America's most famous film critic, as the reviewer for the Chicago Sun-Times and opposite Gene Siskel and, later, Richard Roeper on TV.But most people would not know Ebert had Google stock worth millions of dollars.The critic was a passionate fan of technology. In a <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/wall-streets-dirty-rotten-scoundrels" target="_blank">column</a> about the Wall Street documentary "Inside Job" from 2010, Ebert revealed that he had bought shares in Steak n Shake, Apple, Wholesome and Hearty Foods, and Google. He got a piece of Apple because, he said, "I was a Macintosh fan from the late 1980s, and that's when I started buying."As for Google, he wrote: "I liked Google when it was first introduced." So he became an early investor.A forum <a href="http://www.siliconinvestor.com/readmsgs.aspx?subjectid=56390&amp;msgnum=146&amp;batchsize=10&amp;batchtype=Next" target="_blank">post at siliconinvestor.com</a> reports that Ebert was a holder of 18,000 Class B shares of Google. At the time of Google's IPO in 2004, he held on to shares <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17045-2004Aug19.html" target="_blank">worth $1.8 million</a>. But back then the share price was only $89. Now it's more than $700.Ebert died in 2013 following a long battle with cancer. At the time of his death, he was <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/chaz-eberts-sundance-roger-you-562221" target="_blank">reportedly worth $9 million</a>, a good chunk of it from Google stock. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/reruns-are-sped-up-to-add-commercials-tbs-tvland-hulu-netflix-seinfeld-2015-10">Cable channels are speeding up 'Seinfeld' reruns to squeeze in more commercials</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="F4dzJkeDpgyWlMcJK3weVmk8N5az4Wgq" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

Film critic Roger Ebert owned millions of dollars worth of early Google stock

<div class="image-container float_right click-to-enlarge" style="width:400px"><div class="image"><a title_source="Stephen Shugerman / Getty Images" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/515e5b49ecad04973800000c-960/roger-ebert-12.jpg"></a></div>Stephen Shugerman / Getty Images</div><keyword id="530725" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Roger-Ebert">Roger Ebert</keyword>'s <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/roger-ebert-has-died-2013-4" target="_blank">death at the age of 70</a> shocked <keyword id="2370" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="hollywood">Hollywood</keyword> Thursday.
Just a day prior, Ebert <a href="http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2013/04/a_leave_of_presense.html" target="_blank">announced a recurrence of his cancer</a>. As a result, he would take a "leave of presence" from film reviews, writing only of those he wished to reflect upon.
Actors, directors, writers, friends, and even President Obama took to <keyword id="6354616" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Twitter">Twitter</keyword> to reflect on the life and loss of the film critic great. 
Some shared memories and reflections.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
we lost a thoughtful writer, i remember my first review from him, pi (i got his and siskel's thumbs) it was a career highlight. <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23rogerebert">#rogerebert</a>
— darren aronofsky (@DarrenAronofsky) <a href="https://twitter.com/DarrenAronofsky/status/319902623178305537">April 4, 2013</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Roger Ebert RIP. I never grew tired of his opinions...on everything.Great man, great guest and great sense of humor.I will miss him.
— Howard Stern (@HowardStern) <a href="https://twitter.com/HowardStern/status/319944332872404992">April 4, 2013</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Roger Ebert was an excellent writer, a gifted artist, and as nice a guy as you'll ever meet.Sad he's gone.
— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) <a href="https://twitter.com/jimmykimmel/status/319901947215888384">April 4, 2013</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I Miss My Dear Friend Roger Ebert.Roger Was One Of The 1st Major Movie Critics To Support My Joints,Especially Malcolm X And DTRT.-R.I.P.
— Spike Lee (@SpikeLee) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpikeLee/status/319949676969353216">April 4, 2013</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Ever a class act, @<a href="https://twitter.com/ebertchicago">ebertchicago</a> made me love <keyword id="406" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Movies">movies</keyword> even more. <a href="http://t.co/utJZXX7U7O" title="http://bit.ly/Y0z147">bit.ly/Y0z147</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23RIP">#RIP</a>
— Seth Green (@SethGreen) <a href="https://twitter.com/SethGreen/status/319899749367042048">April 4, 2013</a></blockquote>

Tom Hanks' son, Colin:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Great memory of Jake Kasdan &amp; I meeting &amp; talking with Roger Ebert during the OC junket. He was very kind to us. He felt more like peer <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23RIP">#RIP</a>
— Colin Hanks (@ColinHanks) <a href="https://twitter.com/ColinHanks/status/319928333267779584">April 4, 2013</a></blockquote>

Most shared condolences.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Sad to hear about the passing of Roger Ebert, he was a grand man &amp; in my opinion the dean of American film critics-he will be sorely missed
— Larry King(@kingsthings) <a href="https://twitter.com/kingsthings/status/319902336510214144">April 4, 2013</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
RIP Roger <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23Ebert">#Ebert</a>. We lost a passionate and broad minded force for cinema of all shapes sizes and genres. A fine courageous writer and man
— Ron Howard (@RealRonHoward) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealRonHoward/status/319981914960318464">April 5, 2013</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Very sad over news of Roger Ebert's <keyword id="6355784" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="death">death</keyword>.Will miss his tweets and reviews-- his love of movies.
— Judy Blume (@judyblume) <a href="https://twitter.com/judyblume/status/319935160441266176">April 4, 2013</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
RIP Ebert.
— steven yeun (@steveyeun) <a href="https://twitter.com/steveyeun/status/319915784602267649">April 4, 2013</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
So sad. RIP @<a href="https://twitter.com/ebertchicago">ebertchicago</a>
— Elizabeth Banks (@ElizabethBanks) <a href="https://twitter.com/ElizabethBanks/status/319915865384554497">April 4, 2013</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
I'm saddened by the death of dear, longtime friend, film critic Roger Ebert. He will be missed.
— Hugh Hefner (@hughhefner) <a href="https://twitter.com/hughhefner/status/319971650152050688">April 5, 2013</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Words fail me. Is it unusual to talk about loving a film critic? In this case, no. I truly loved Roger. And can't believe he is gone.
— errolmorris (@errolmorris) <a href="https://twitter.com/errolmorris/status/319996431849099264">April 5, 2013</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Goodbye Roger Ebert, we had fun. The balcony is closed.
— Steve Martin (@SteveMartinToGo) <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveMartinToGo/status/319913174751129601">April 4, 2013</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Roger and Gene together again. End of an era.
— Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) <a href="https://twitter.com/Oprah/status/319925017754341379">April 4, 2013</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Reading Ebert's critique of @<a href="https://twitter.com/spikelee">spikelee</a>'s 'Do The Right Thing' exemplifies the importance &amp; relevance of the form <a href="http://t.co/7XqR1DLZWP" title="http://bit.ly/XgIE1h">bit.ly/XgIE1h</a>
— Joseph Gordon-Levitt (@hitRECordJoe) <a href="https://twitter.com/hitRECordJoe/status/319984674548092928">April 5, 2013</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
RIP Roger Ebert - whose great love of cinema inspired us all. He will be missed.
— zooey deschanel (@ZooeyDeschanel) <a href="https://twitter.com/ZooeyDeschanel/status/319954435876982786">April 4, 2013</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Thanks Mr. Ebert.
— Steve Carell (@SteveCarell) <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveCarell/status/319904262899515392">April 4, 2013</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Roger Ebert was the real deal! He loved movies, for real! Great guy, good friend. Always made me smile. Thanks for all you were!
— Samuel L. Jackson (@SamuelLJackson) <a href="https://twitter.com/SamuelLJackson/status/320017746870030336">April 5, 2013</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Roger Ebert. Millions of thumbs up for you. RIP
— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) <a href="https://twitter.com/MMFlint/status/319897819978817537">April 4, 2013</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
"The movies won't be the same without Roger." —President Obama
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) <a href="https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/319916599631044608">April 4, 2013</a></blockquote>

Obama also came out with the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/movies/roger-ebert-film-critic-dies.html" target="_blank">following statement</a>:
“For a generation of Americans — especially Chicagoans — Roger was the movies. When he didn’t like a film, he was honest; when he did, he was effusive — capturing the unique power of the movies to take us somewhere magical.”
Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Harvey Weinstein <a href="http://insidemovies.ew.com/2013/04/04/roger-ebert-death-spielberg-scorsese/" target="_blank">released their own statements</a> on Ebert's passing as well.
Spielberg: 
“Roger loved movies. They were his life. His reviews went far deeper than simply thumbs up or thumbs down. He wrote with passion through a real knowledge of film and film history, and in doing so, helped many movies find their audiences. Along with Gene Shalit, Joel Siegel, and of course Gene Siskel, Roger put television criticism on the map. Roger’s passing is virtually the end of an era and now the balcony is closed forever.”
Scorsese:
“The death of Roger Ebert is an incalculable loss for movie culture and for film criticism. And it’s a loss for me personally. Roger was always supportive, he was always right there for me when I needed it most, when it really counted – at the very beginning, when every word of encouragement was precious; and then again, when I was at the lowest ebb of my career, there he was, just as encouraging, just as warmly supportive. There was a professional distance between us, but then I could talk to him much more freely than I could to other critics. Really, Roger was my friend. It’s that simple.
Few <keyword id="6360040" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="people">people</keyword> I’ve known in my life loved or cared as much about movies. I know that’s what kept him going in those last years – his life-or-death passion for movies, and his wonderful wife, Chaz.
We all knew that this moment was coming, but that doesn’t make the loss any less wrenching. I’ll miss him — my dear friend, Roger Ebert.”
Weinstein: 
“Roger Ebert was a passionate critic who understood that he needed to not only appraise films but be a champion of cinema. He was always on the side of movies that needed that extra push. The only thing that tops him as a writer was his kindness as a human being. I will miss Roger very much and my heart goes out to Chaz and the entire family.”
Here's Ebert's last Tweet from April 3:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
My Leave of Presence: An updatehttp://<a href="http://t.co/aFWKEpKn3Y" title="http://j.mp/YRRHq8">j.mp/YRRHq8</a>
— Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago) <a href="https://twitter.com/ebertchicago/status/319316948045422593">April 3, 2013</a></blockquote>

Some of the film critic's final written words were, "see you at the movies."

Hollywood Mourns The Loss Of Roger Ebert

<div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image">Netflix</div></div>
In June of 1983, "Trading Places" was released in theaters. It remains the greatest Wall Street movie ever made. 
Thirty years later, most regard it as part of the canon of American comedies, having launched, revived, or defined the careers of many of its cast and crew.
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trading-places-the-best-christmas-movie-2013-12">We also argue</a> it's the great Christmas movie ever made.
If you haven't seen it yet, you should probably repent to your local pastor, then log into your nearest Netflix account.
But as a courtesy, we'll summarize the plot: Two septuagenarian brothers who run a successful commodities brokerage in Philadelphia get into an argument about whether a person's character is shaped by nature or nurture. They decide to make a bet: They will frame a top executive (Dan Aykroyd) with drug possession and soliciting a prostitute (Jamie Lee Curtis). Meanwhile, they will promote a street beggar (Eddie Murphy) to the executive's former role. They will then observe whether the beggar and executive still act like their old selves. 
To celebrate the 30-year anniversary of this film, we reached out to some key principals behind the film - sadly, many are no longer with us, though their collective experience at the time of the shooting helped make the movie as good as it was - to talk to us about how it got made and what it means today. 
<h2>ORIGINS</h2>
JOHN LANDIS, director: I got a call from Jeff Katzenberg, the executive at Paramount at that time, asking if I would read a script called 'Black And White,' which I thought was a lousy title - ironically black or white was something I did with Michael Jackson several years later.
It was very old fashioned, a social comedy very much like the screwball stuff done in the '30s. Hollywood made a series of movies - Preston Sturges, Frank Capra - these comedies that really were about society at the time, and were fairly political, but wonderfully funny and with strong characters.
TIM HARRIS, co-writer: There were these two brothers who were both doctors who I would play tennis with on a fairly regular basis, and they were incredibly irritating to play with because they had a major sibling rivalry going, all the time about everything.

So they always had to be separated, you know, play on the other team.
And they were very wealthy but also incredibly cheap - we would play on public courts where it was like a couple of bucks for four guys for an hour.
And they'd have arguments about who was coming up with 50 cents, and I think one very hot day I played with them, and I just came home and was fed up with it, and I just thought, 'God, I just don't want to play with these people, they're awful.'
And I had the idea of them betting on a nature/nurture situation with somebody in their company, and I'd pretty much worked out the whole thing, and went over to Herschel's and told it to him and he thought it was fabulous.
At the time I was living in what was a fairly run-down part of L.A. near Fairfax Avenue that was completely crime ridden. I lived in an apartment complex where everybody either had a gun held to their head or been raped or whatever - just a very criminal environment - that was part of it I suppose as well.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image">NetflixEddie Murphy as homeless Billy Ray Valentine</div></div></div>
HERSCHEL WEINGROD, co-writer: The truth is that the only way that a screenplay can really be judged, by definition, isn't on the page, it's by watching the film that was made from it. It can certainly be read and enjoyed, but the inescapable fact is that it was written in order to be seen.
<h2>THE CAST</h2>
LANDIS: The script was developed for Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor. And when I was sent the script, Richard Pryor, unfortunately, had his accident where he burnt himself rather badly, and they sent it to me and said, 'What do you think?'
'48 Hours' hadn't come out yet, but they'd previewed it, and Eddie Murphy had previewed very well, and they thought, 'Ah this kid's going to be a star,' So they said, 'What do you think about Eddie Murphy playing the Billy Ray Valentine part?' And I of course said, 'Who's Eddie Murphy?'

Because I didn't watch Saturday Night Live since John [Belushi] had died.
So I read the script, and I saw Eddie's tapes, and went to New York and met with Eddie. And they wanted - I won't tell you who they wanted me to cast - but the studio was very unhappy with almost everybody they wanted me to cast.
John Belushi had died, and [Dan Aykroyd's] movie without John was called 'Dr. Detroit,' which was a failure, so conventional wisdom was that Aykroyd without Belushi was like Abbott without Costello, and that his career was over.
Now I knew Danny well, having worked with him, and I knew Danny was a fine actor, and he could easily play this guy. Danny, he's an actor: You tell him what you want, and he delivers. And I thought he'd be wonderful. So he reduced his price quite a bit, and I got him, so I had Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy, and they were upset because Danny hadn't - his last couple of pictures hadn't done well, and Eddie was still an unknown really. '48 Hours' came out while we were shooting...
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image">NetflixDan Aykroyd as Louis Winthorpe III, after losing his job and girlfriend.</div></div></div>
The only character in the script I had a problem with, because she's such a fantasy, is Ophelia. The classic 'hooker with a heart of gold' - she's such a fantasy that I thought how the fuck am I going to get away with this?' I had met Jamie Lee Curtis - I shot a documentary on horror stuff, and she was host of it - she was a 'scream queen.' And I met her and she was so funny and smart and sexy, and I thought, 'Oh she'd be terrific.' 
She had just made 'Halloween 2,' for which she'd been paid I think a $1 million, and we paid her probably $70,000. When I cast her the studio went nuts. I was called into the head of the studio's office and he said, 'This woman's a B-movie actress,' and I said, 'Not after this movie!' But boy they really didn't like the fact that I cast Danny and Jamie.
JAMIE LEE CURTIS, 'Ophelia': I had made a conscious effort to actually stop doing [horror movies]. I knew that that would not allow me a full career - that at a certain point it would get limiting. And I met John when he was doing a short - a documentary about horror movie trailers from the '50s called 'Coming Soon.' He needed somebody to narrate, so he hired me for that; that's when I first met him. And during the course of that, he must have had some sense that I would be good. So he handed me that part.
He clearly went against every one of the studios. The casting people all thought he was crazy, and he single-handedly changed the course of my life by giving me that part.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image">NetflixJamie Lee Curtis as Ophelia, a prostitute; Denholm Elliott as Coleman, Winthorpe's butler; and Murphy and Aykroyd as they plot revenge.</div></div></div>

HARRIS: The casting is very much to John's credit, he just cast the movie brilliantly, and all the minor parts really shine. It's actually one of those movies, where it changes a lot of the participants' careers forever. It got Jamie Lee Curtis out of horror movies. It got Herschel and I to a much more prominent level. The two old guys - it completely revived their careers. It catapulted everybody's careers in a positive way.
LANDIS: The most remarkable story, casting wise: I thought, 'Well, I need someone who was a movie star in the '40s, who never has never really played a villain, and I was thinking, 'Hey, what about Don Ameche?' And the casting woman said, 'Don Ameche's dead.' And I said, 'I don't think so, I would know if Don Ameche is dead.'
And so we called the Screen Actor's Guild, and his residuals were being sent to his son in Phoenix, Arizona. And I thought, 'Well that's not a good sign.' And he didn't have an agent, and I thought, 'Shit, goddamm, who else could we get?' when one of the secretaries said, 'I heard you're looking for Don Ameche.' We said 'Ya.' She said, 'I see him all the time walking on San Vicente in Santa Monica.'
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image">NetflixRalph Bellamy and Don Ameche as the Duke brothers, hatching their scheme.</div></div></div>
So I called information, and I said, 'I there a Don or D Ameche on San Vicente in Santa Monica?' And there was! So I called him. And you know he has that unmistakable voice, and you realize, Don was a huge star, in the late '30s, definitely a big star in the '40s - I mean he was Alexander Graham Bell for chrissakes! - a major star in the '50s, Broadway star, radio star, movie star, television star.
And I said, 'Mr. Ameche?' 'Yeeessss...?' 'My name is John Landis, I'm with Paramount Studios, and I'm making a film and I'd like you to consider a part.' So I had a script sent over. 'And could you please read this and can you come in tomorrow?' And he said, 'Yes.' Would you like us to send a car?' He said, 'No no, I can drive.' I said, 'Great.'
And he came in and was prepared to read for me. I was so shocked. I said 'You don't have to read for me.'
He hadn't made a movie in 14 years, he'd been doing dinner theater.
While we were shooting later in Philadelphia - he was so wonderful - I said, 'Don, may I ask a question? How come you haven't worked in 14 years?' And he said, 'Well, nobody called!'
The great upshot of this is after Trading Places came out, the next movie he was in was 'Cocoon,' which he won an Oscar for. He never stopped working the rest of his life - he made like 10 more movies - I worked with him twice more.
<h2>ON LOCATION</h2>
HARRIS: [Philadelphia] has a connection with the founding of the country, the constitution, everybody being entitled to the pursuit of happiness, all the idealism that's built into America. I thought it was a good way to highlight that, especially in the opening scene when you see the legless black guy.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image">NetflixThe Heritage Club scene was actually shot inside an abandoned New York City building.</div></div></div>
LANDIS: A lot of the interiors that are supposed to be in Philadelphia are actually New York. The exterior and interior of Duke Brothers, the big floor, was Philadelphia. But the offices were upstairs at the Park Avenue Armory, they had these beautiful Stanford White interiors. In fact, there was a real Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington - I said 'Can I use that?'
[<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mkwilliams/2942837821/">The Heritage Club location</a>] was an amazing find. <a href="http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2012/06/1902-chamber-of-commerce-bldg-65.html">It's an old Chamber of Commerce</a> building, it was empty - a spectacular room, we just put the table in there.
<h2>SCAMMING THE SCAMMERS</h2>
LANDIS: It took me a long time just to understand the con, what was going on. It's just so funny, it's so long ago now, the chicanery is so much more arcane now. At least in 'Trading Places,' at the end of the day, there was the commodity.
HARRIS: I asked some people who were in that business to kind of walk me me through it, and when I was writing it - it was like studying for an exam, you know, you kind of understand it the day of, and then 24 hours later you can't remember how anything works.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image">NetflixMurphy and Aykroyd go long orange juice futures.</div></div>
LANDIS: It was actually in the script that the final scenes were in Chicago at the commodities exchange, but they would not let us shoot there. We really had tried every which way to get permission to shoot there, and I think truthfully once they saw we had a clear understanding of how it worked, it was like, 'No!'
So we ended up at the commodities exchange in New York which was at the World Trade Center at the time.
About 90% [of the floor traders in the movie] were actual traders, and a great deal of it I shot during actual trading hours. They were into it - if anything they were less rough. I was quite taken aback at how physically rough it was - they really elbowed one another ... It was like a contact sport.

They were basically trading like 8 or 9 hours a day, so we were in there for 3 to 4 hours on two days between opening and closing, and we got a lot done. I actually shot some 'guerrilla' stuff there that I used in the movie.
I also remember that the commodities market, it was in one of the towers at the World Trade Center on the 50th or 60th floor - no windows, and 3 to 4 stories high. That was very strange, to take an elevator up 50 or 60 floors, and then you thought you were underground.
<h2>AN INSTANT CLASSIC?</h2>
WEINGROD: The film got extremely good reviews from the major film critics at the time - Vincent Canby at the New York Times; Siskel &amp; Ebert, both on their TV show and in the Chicago Sun-Times; Richard Schicikel in Time Magazine; Sheila Benson in the L.A. Times; even People magazine. There were some negative reviews as well, but we were hopeful that the good ones would help audiences go and see the film. They did and, fortunately, they liked it a lot. I just looked it up, and it was the fourth highest grossing film in a year where 'Return Of The Jedi' and 'Tootsie' were first and second.
HARRIS: It didn't have a huge opening, but it just kept going and going and going. I had a call from an agent saying he was getting calls asking if it was true that the whole film had actually been the producer Aaron Russo's idea, and that he'd just paid us to write it. Then I got another call saying Jeffrey Katzenberg at Paramount was going around saying it had all been his idea. Being by then already a Hollywood cynic, I knew it was a hit, because people were trying to steal credit for it already.
CURTIS: Some people will pretend they knew it. Paramount maybe felt like it had something. In the middle of the process, you never anticipate that it's going to be off the charts. ... It's just a really funny movie. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxgQYdjMQi8">'Motherfucker? Moi?'</a>
WEINGROD: If you write an original screenplay that becomes a commercial and critical success, you suddenly have a certain amount of legitimacy. No one's risking their job hiring you to do a writing assignment or even making another of your original scripts because you've already made money for a studio; you're in the club, as it were. ... Hiring writers whose films have been successful helps mitigate this essential absurdity of the screenwriting process for the buyer.
LANDIS: Movies have a life of their own.
<h2>AN "INSPIRATIONAL" FILM</h2>
HARRIS: It was probably just on the cusp of it becoming incredibly trendy to be absolutely rich. We played into that at the end of film: Tdream is achieved because these two guys, a black guy and white guy, both got filthy rich. I think that's why the film is successful - it's a satire on greed and social conventions, but it had a satisfying happy ending. They both got what they wanted.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image">NetflixRandolph Duke reacts to getting a margin call.</div></div>
CURTIS: Old money still has the power - nothing has changed. It's shocking to me, but it's not surprising. It's shocking that you would think people would be held accountable, but I just don't think that's reality today.
LANDIS: The sheer enormity of the dishonesty that's rampant in the banking industry and securities business ... This all extends from deregulation - just the cowardice and corruption of the Senate, it's just ... you can't exaggerate this stuff. You really can't.
HARRIS: Somebody came up to me recently and said it was because of 'Trading Places' that he'd gone into the world of finance, which is like a huge paradigm turn - that a film written as satire of that world ends up inspiring somebody to go into that world and make a lot of money. But it just shows how times change since that film was made.
WEINGROD: Bernard Madoff, former chairman of NASDAQ, had been investigated by the SEC since 1999, but the scandal didn't break until 2008. 'Nuff said.
<h2>WHITHER WALL STREET COMEDIES?</h2>
HARRIS: The movies that have come out about Wall Street, none of them are funny. They're all melodramas, they take themselves very seriously. I think they're constrained, they have to be automatically liberal in their disapproval of it.
I was sort of disappointed with that. 'Trading Places' is a sort of backward-looking film, that owed more to the films of the '40s and '50s than it does to anything that was going on at the time it was made.
'Brewster's Millions' was a social comedy about money and greed and what it does to people, but after that, there were no films like that being made anymore.

Comedies were being directed at a specific groups of kids - teenagers - and that seemed to take over a great deal. 
I think it's probably an American thing - they're not interested in looking at that stuff particularly. I don't think Hollywood is either - it's awkward for them. The important people in Hollywood are really, really, filthy rich. They don't want to see that made fun of particularly, I don't think.
CURTIS: Comedy is all about character and conflict. There's certainly enough conflict in banking, and there are certainly enough characters. Someone who's clever could come up with a good hook.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image">NetflixElliott and Murphy celebrate their triumph with some friends.</div></div></div>

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