Blog 14: Draft of ENG 103 Research Paper

Brandon Miller
11/16/10
Dr.
ENG103
Major Research Paper


New York, to some, it is a smelly, filthy, rude, and crazy place. But to most of us only some of that is true, but we also see so much more to it. Through out history, many have either come up with what they think New york is like, but for the people who actually live in New York know what the truth of New york living is really like. Such is true in films and other such mediums. They either go with what is the truth of the New york or create their own version. In the case of the movie The Producers, the director decided to keep it authentic for the most part, with only a few exasperation of some aspects of New York live. The Film does a good job of showing the social aspect but leaves some things out.
The Producers follows two men by the names of Max Bialstock and Leo Bloom. Max was once a great Broadway play producer, who as now fell on hard times with some of his more recent films being flops. He is a bit of a con man, being that he tricks several old ladies into giving him money for his next big play, due to him not having any. He is constantly trying to convince others and himself of his great play writing powers. He is a bit of a brown noser and will convince others to do his biding. Leo Bloom, is tax accountant that is a bit strange. He gets very hyper over simple situations and carries a blue blanket he had since a child he uses to calm himself down. He is kind hearted and generally wants to do the right thing. When the duo first meet, Leo goes over Max's finance books and find that there is $200 missing from his last play to which Max says he spent it on himself because the play was a flop anyway. Leo says this is fraud and he could go to jail, but Max is able to sweet talk Leo into making up the $200 from some where else As he does this he relises that a producer can make more money from a flop than a hit. Hearing this of course Max immediately plans to make a flop to make a lot of money. And after treating Leo like a child to convince him to join him. (Literally, he takes him to the park to get a hotdog and go boat riding.) The two set at to make a surefire flop and run with the money. They go through dozens and dozens of plays to find one that will fail, when they stumble across one entitled “Spring time for Hitler” A movie about World War II and Hitler, they are sure to fail. They go about finding the writer Frank Liebkind, an actual German soldier now living in an apartment watching over a flock of pigeons on his roof. With his permission the three team up to make the movie, with Frank unaware of Leo and Max's plot. Next, they set about gaining the money with Max once again coning old woman to giving him the money, which eventually turns out to be over 600% of what they needed for the play. Lastly they go to see a 'colorful' pair of men Roger De Bris and Carmen Ghia get actors for their production for the play. Roger is a transvestite who is trying to win a contest for wearing female clothing. He is strait forward, but has a bit of a short temper. Leo and Max talk convince him to help them find their Hitler for the film. They set up auditions and go through an entire day and lots of Hitlers but in the end come up short. That is, until, a hippie named Lerenzo St. DuBois, also known as L.S.D. He has one ear ring on his right ear, tghie high boots, flowers, and a can of Campbell soup as a necklace around his neck. He says 'baby in a lot of his sentences and even sings a song about his flowers and peace. The group instantly hire him on to play Hitler. As the play is being prepared Max takes the time to celebrate his definitely successes as he starts buying a fancy new and a female Polish assistant. Leo warns him not to spend too much money, just in case the play turns out to be a hit, but Max won't hear any of it and continues to smoke his exspensive cigar. Finally, the play is ready for opening night and if all goes well, it will close half way through. Max bribes one of the reviewers who want accept it to finish the deal. The curtain rises and the play starts with a song about Germany coming to power with such great lines like “Look out, here comes the master race.” and “Spring time for Hitler and Germany. Winter for Poland and France.” and “Don't be stupid, be a smarty, come and join the Nazi party.” Rather understandably, people start to leave and grow upset with such an offensive play. No one cheers when it is over. It looks like smooth sailing for Leo and Max.

Until.

LSD comes on stage and starts acting like a 'Hippie Hitler' The crowed loves it and decided to stay with it. Leo and Max come to the office to find many positive reviews and congratulations. With the successes of the film, Leo and Max get desperate and decide to blow up the theater. But things go wrong and they end up getting caught and thrown in jail. Now in prison, they still decide to stay together and try to make a new play.
The movie show cased New york, and America in generally calm and happy time. The real 1968 however, was nothing like this for every. Assassination, riots, protests, war. None of these aspects are disused let alone mentioned. In the movie, The city is very clean and the people, while some are quite the character, are for the most part going about their day as if nothing is going on at all out of the ordinary. When in reality New York is dealing with inflation, assassination, riots and war.
For one thing. America was in the middle of a war in Vietnam. A war in which many citizens protested about, saying we had no business being there to begin with. Many started to riot in the streets. Many people, mainly Hippies, tried to convince those for the war to 'Give peace a chance'. That the world was to violent as is. But unfortunately, due in part to that many hippies where doing on illicit substances or another, many choose to ignore them or say they were just freeloaders. With war reaching it's mid way point of the war and has taken many lives, the people were becoming more angry and wanted it to end soon.
Another thing was the assassination of both Martian Luther King Jr, and Robert F. Kennedy. MLK was the leader of the civil rights movements for African Americans. There were many African Americans trying to gain equal rights and were struggling to get respect. There were speeches, marches, violence and police brutality and just general chaos. When MLK was assassinated, this caused an uproar, not only in New York but all over America. Crime increased in New york as there were more break ins and and vandalism. There was a large cry for justice felt all through out the nation.
The other major assassination of the year was Robert F Kennedy, who was shoot after winning the primary for becoming the next presidential candidate for the democrats. His body was laid in New York at St. Patrick's Cathedral for people to mourn until it was later buried. It was because of his death that they created the secret service.
With the trials African American's had to go through to get their equal rights, many woman decide to strike while the iron and tried to gain rights for themselves. Mainly in trying to gain the right to vote. Many woman died during this time in order to help liberate woman from the shackles of oppression.
The movie however does not cover any of these topics. It stays focused on the plot and nothing else. But it probably was because they wanted it that way. With the time period the film, being in the middle of the Vietnam, they could have very easily done the same topic of the play but have it focused on that war, rather than the second world war. The play would have been easier for the audience of both the play and the movie to connect to. But they most likely decided to avoid any touchy subjects, and with world war II over for twenty years, it would have been easier and less risky.
But the film does do a good job of showing a realistic view of how much money people had during that time. The average home costs about $26,000 with the average salary being around the $7,743. How ever it is different with a play producer because it comes down to how much money they need for the play and how long the play runs for. Ironically, only about 10% of plays and musical on Broadway make any money so it was really interesting that they decided to make a flop anyway. But even so their movie ended up being on of the lucky successes, unfortunately for them.
Another change was at the end. When Frank finds out what a mockery Max has made of his beloved Fuhrer, he goes on a rampage and try's to to shoot down Leo and Max in their office. After he calms down a bit, the three of them set out to blow up the theater to prevent the show from continuing , with failed results. However, if this were to actually happen, it would have not have come that far. After Martian Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy's assassinations, the government called for stricter gun control laws, and set up ways prevent just anyone from getting a fire arm. It would have been much harder for him to have that gun to begin with. Not only that, but it would have been impossible for him to get any kind of dynamite.