Racism And Classism In Trading Places By Eddie Murphy And Dan Aykroyd

Trading Places is a film that starred Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd. The film debut was in 1983, and it discussed topics of racism and classism. Using the plot line of a rich white person losing all his fortunes and living like an impoverished black person he then sees the era of his ways. He overcomes his opposition by teaming up with other unfortunate people to help reclaim his riches that he once had in the begging. The film shows us that even though we live in the modern era we still carry the racial stigmas that was placed on people by the many generations that came before us. The film takes place in the early 1980s in Philadelphia. We first are introduced to a white man who is inherently wealthy. He has everything anyone could have ever …show more content…
The movie was mainly about classism, but it was laced with racial undertones, especially since the two are typically intertwined in real-life society. Louis and Billy Ray were in two different social classes and had different outlooks on life. Then with the switch the two switched outlooks and became the very thing they either did or did not want to become. Billy, who was once a con artist, started looking at what he once was as something beneath him. He viewed people in those situations as if they chose to be in those predicaments and he had no sympathy for them. Louis went from riches to living in someone else small apartment to help pay rent. He once thought not too highly of working class or poor people but with the help of Ophelia guiding the way he saw that a lot of people could not help the situations that they were in. Granted, this is a movie and in movie world anything is possible, but no one can overlook the fact that Billy Ray and Louis swapped placed in a matter of a day it seemed. No one could erase basically everything Louis has from his riches to anything else. Things like that do not happen in the real world. Louis ' money would have been in the bank and his credit cards would have not been canceled. Also Billy Ray, with zero knowledge of the stock market would have been able to make just the right decisions and know how to make profits for the company. …show more content…
Though a lot of movies dealing with social oppression are very gloomy, this movie was light hearted and made people think as well. I was surprised at the amount of nudity in the film because I was not expected that for a long period of time. I feel like it really did not add anything to the story, but since they were loose women at a bar, the part fit well. It just did not have to have about 5 minutes of full on nudity with the progress of the movie not moving forward. I did like the fact that the author symbolized the old men as nature versus nurture. Whether that was intended or not, that is what I interpreted while viewing the movie. Though the older men on the outside seem to have nice spirits, it is on the inside when talking amongst each other that their prejudice shows. It goes to show that even though people are very nice, you never know what is being said amongst others when you are not around. I wonder what possessed the author to come up with the type of film. Was it the hardships they faced? Did they mean to throw satire into the film? Was the film about oppression with comedy in it or is it a comedy film with classism as the story line? The film still holds true in regarding classism in America. Most people from either class view themselves differently in their lives. The upper class looking down upon the lower class and the lower class trying to do what it takes to survive. The film let us take a glimpse into the