EC MOVIE SAMPLE

(Point Value:  10 pts)

Student Name
Business 100
Extra credit Movie Review

TRADING PLACES

 

In your opening paragraph: state the title of the movie and a brief synopsis of it contents and how it relates to the topics covered in our text.

Trading Places stars Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd in a satirical comedy about money, breeding and revenge. This movie is reflected in several different chapters in our textbook ranging from Ethics, Motivation, Stocks, Human Resources, Banking, and Securities & Exchange.

In your following  paragraphs: try to relate (or tie in) how the contents or chapters in our textbook relate to certain plots or segments of the movie.  Note: you don't have to do the entire movie, only enough to establish a relationship between the course content and the movie you selected.

The first chapter I believed this movie hit on was Chapter two involving Ethics and Ethical Behavior. The main plot of the movie is that Murphy and Aykroyd are used as pawns in a friendly wager between the ultra-rich, extremely stingy and totally greedy Duke Brothers. The friendly wager concerns the classic dilemma of the "nature-nurture" theory that motivated so many stories in American literature. The fabulously wealthy but morally bankrupt Duke brothers, Mortimer Duke, (Ralph Bellamy) and Randolph Duke, (Don Ameche) make a one-dollar bet over heredity vs. environment.

It is obvious that the Dukes were not ethical people and their morality was in much question throughout the movie. Even the brothers were not always in the same mindset. Don Ameche tried to plant money for Valentine to take but that backfired on him when the money was returned to him. An ethical behavior does not destroy people’s life for the shear joy of a wager. Nor does an ethical behavior steal reports to benefit monetarily in a business community.

As the movie opens consider Chapter 11 Motivating and Satisfying Employees, Louis Winthorpe (Dan Aykroyd) is a snooty rich commodity broker, surrounded by his Ivy League friends enjoying his country club lifestyle. Winthorpe has clearly never worked a hard days work in his perfect life. He has the perfect job, perfect friends, perfect fiancé, and perfect home. Contrasting this seemingly perfect life is that of con man Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy) who is begging in the Philadelphia street corner, imitating a disabled Vietnam veteran.

Curious as to what might happen if different lifestyles were reversed, the Dukes decide to test there ongoing debate about nurture vs. nature and arrange for impoverished con artist Billy Ray Valentine to be placed in the lap of luxury and trained for a cushy career in the stock market. Simultaneously, they set about to reduce aristocratic yuppie Louis Winthorpe III to poverty and disgrace.

At the same time, Valentine is provided all the luxury items he could want and begins his accent to the posh lifestyle of a high-level commodity broker. Surrounded by the finer things in life, Valentine begins to elevate his lifestyle to one appropriate for his new found wealth. (Ties into Chapter 11 Motivating and Satisfying Employees)

Winthorpe becomes despondent over his fall from grace, and, attending the Duke & Duke Company Christmas party dressed as Santa Claus, he attempts to frame Valentine for drug possession. Valentine, having witnessed that the decline of Winthorpe, and discovers that the Dukes alternative motive for promoting him. Together the pauper-turned-prince and prince-turned-pauper plot an uproarious revenge. With the good-hearted prostitute and Winthorpe's faithful butler, Coleman (Denholm Elliot) as their accomplices, they set about to hit the brothers where it really hurts: in the pocketbook. (Ties into Chapter 2 Ethics & Socially Responsibility)

Another chapter that I feel this movie ties into would be Chapter twenty. This chapter covers the Securities Markets and Investments. This shows how securities are bought and sold. It also describes the high-risk investments techniques. Such risky investments as the Duke and Duke Empire found out the hard way. This also touches on the illegal aspect that the Dukes were involved in by trying buy a preview of the crop report. Just a Note:  The Securities Markets and Investment depicted in this movie could be a write up all in itself.  For example, just explain the format on how they pulled together revenue and re-invested it, and explain how they knew when to sell, when to buy, and the margin call.

Together Winthorpe, Valentine, Coleman and Ophelia figure out that the Dukes have the security agent for the orange crop report on Duke & Duke payroll for the purpose of stealing the report and cornering the frozen concentrate orange juice market. The group intercepts the report and uses it to their own good, making a small fortune along the way. Inadvertently, the Dukes are ruined and their seat on the commodity exchange is sold in a margin call. In a twist of plot, Valentine and Winthorpe explain to the Dukes that they made their fortune at the expense of the Dukes in response between Valentine and Winthorpe, for one-dollar.

In your closing paragraph: Sum it up!  Tell me why you choose this one over the others!  Did you view the movie in a different perspective?

Professor Henry, thank you for the exposure here. I’ve probably seen this video a dozen times (and with all your students, you’re probably reading it ten fold) and this was the first time I had to really breakdown the fine points of the movies plot and apply it to a business atmosphere.