This article is about the 1983 comedy film. For other uses, see Trading Places (disambiguation).
Trading Places
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
John Landis
Written by
Timothy Harris
Herschel Weingrod
Produced by
Aaron Russo
Starring
Dan Aykroyd
Eddie Murphy
Ralph Bellamy
Don Ameche
Denholm Elliott
Jamie Lee Curtis
Cinematography
Robert Paynter
Edited by
Malcolm Campbell
Music by
Elmer Bernstein
Distributed by
Paramount Pictures
Release date
June 8, 1983 (1983-06-08)
Running time
116 minutes
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$15 million
Box office
$120.6 million
Trading Places is a 1983 American comedy film directed by John Landis and written by Timothy Harris and Herschel Weingrod. Starring Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy, Ralph Bellamy, Don Ameche, Denholm Elliott, and Jamie Lee Curtis, the film tells the story of an upper-class commodities broker (Aykroyd) and a poor street hustler (Murphy) whose lives cross when they are unwittingly made the subjects of an elaborate bet to test how each man will perform when their life circumstances are swapped.
Harris conceived the outline for Trading Places in the early 1980s after meeting two wealthy brothers who were engaged in an ongoing rivalry with each other. He and his writing partner Weingrod developed the idea as a project to star Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder. When they were unable to participate, Landis cast Aykroyd—with whom he had worked previously—and a young but increasingly popular Murphy in his second feature-film role. Landis also cast Curtis against the intent of the studio, Paramount Pictures; she was famous mainly for her roles in horror films, which were looked down upon at the time. Principal photography took place from December1982 to March1983, entirely on location in Philadelphia and New York City. Elmer Bernstein scored the film, using Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera buffa The Marriage of Figaro as an underlying theme.
Trading Places was considered a box-office success on its release, earning over $90.4 million to become the fourth-highest-grossing film of 1983 in the United States and Canada, and $120.6million worldwide. It also received generally positive reviews, with critics praising both the central cast and the film's revival of the screwball comedy genre prevalent in the 1930s and 1940s while criticizing Trading Places for lacking the same moral message of the genre while promoting the accumulation of wealth. It received multiple award nominations including an Academy Award for Bernstein's score and won two BAFTA awards for Elliott and Curtis. The film also launched or revitalized the careers of its main cast, who each appeared in several other films throughout the 1980s. In particular, Murphy became one of the highest-paid and most sought after comedians in Hollywood.
In the years since its release, the film has been reassessed both positively and negatively. It has been praised as one of the greatest comedy films and Christmas films ever made, but retrospective assessments have criticized its use of racial jokes and language. In 2010, the film was referenced in Congressional testimony concerning the reform of the commodities trading market designed to prevent the insider trading demonstrated in Trading Places. In 1988, Bellamy and Ameche reprised their characters for Murphy's comedy film Coming to America.
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screen, receiving BAFTA awards for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for TradingPlaces (1983), A Private Function (1984) and Defence of the Realm (1986), and...
political activist. He was best known for producing movies including TradingPlaces, Wise Guys, and The Rose. Later in life, he created various libertarian-leaning...
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