Brandon Miller
11/16/10
Dr.Vasileiou
ENG103
Major Research Paper
New York city. To some, it is a smelly, filthy, rude, and crazy place. But to most of us who live here, only some of that is true. We also see so much more to it. Throughout history, many have either come up with what they think New York is like, but for the people who actually live in New York we know the truth. Such is true in films and other such mediums. They either go with what the truth of the New York is, or create their own version. In the case of the movie The Producers, the directors of the film try to keep it about their film and nothing else. They have a few things right about the times but for the most part it is almost as if the director went out of his way to make it not have anything to do with New York or even the world for that matter.
The Producers follows two men by the names of Max Bialstock and Leo Bloom. Max was once a great Broadway play producer, who has now fell on hard times with some of his more recent plays 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 hyperactive 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 finds that there is $2,000 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 $2,000 from somewhere else. As he does this, he realizes 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. 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 play about World War II and Hitler, that treats them as heroes. With it, 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 play, 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 try to convince him to help them find their Hitler for the film. They set up auditions and go through an entire day and lots of Hitler’s 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, thigh 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 hires him on to play Hitler. As the play is being prepared Max takes the time to celebrate his definite successes as he starts buying a fancy new suit 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 expensive 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 wont 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 there were assassination, riots, protests, and 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 has its hands full with the amount of chaos going on.
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 its 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 vandalism. There was a large cry for justice felt all throughout the nation.
The other major assassination of the year was Robert F Kennedy, who was shot 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.
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 takes place in, being in the middle of the war with 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. However 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 one of the lucky successes, unfortunately for them. ( http://www.1960sflashback.com/1968/economy.asp )
According to ( http://www.1960sflashback.com/1968/economy.asp ) the average cost of living was still pretty cheap. A full gallon of milk cost $1.07 and a gallon of regular gas cost $0.34. When combined with the fact that the average cost of living was around $7,743, it is possible to consider the fact that living in terms of income was due able.
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 tries’ 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 governments 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.
Another huge event that happened in New York was the huge spike in crime in New York in 1968. According to ( http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/nycrime.htm ) there was a huge increase in crimes from 1967 to 1968. In 1967 the numbers of deaths was around 996 and with the last two years bring around 880, the jump was not that significant. But in 1968 the murder rate was 1,185 a 200 person increase from 1967. But murder was not the only jump; there was also an increase in lots of other crimes. Robbery went up from 40,202 in 1967 to a huge 59,857 and assault rose from 31,261 to 34,946. But probably the biggest jump was in burglary. In 1967 the number of burglarizes was around 219,157 but in 1968 that number skyrocketed to 250,918. The reason for these large spikes in crimes is over the death of Martin Luther King Jr. Many people were outraged and many acts of violence such as the riots in Washington D.C., Louisiana and Chicago had a big impact on the rest of America including New York. ( http://brainz.org/riots/ )
Also many people took the news differently and acted upon those almost as if to fit in. White children and adults were hoping he really was dead once they first heard the news. While African Americans tended to hit any white men/women who said anything wrong about his death. There was mixed emotions during one of the speeches given after his death as well. (http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2010/04/what_it_was_lik.php ) As well with the fact that .
But the movie does not talk about any of these things what so ever. There is no hint of turmoil or social distress anywhere in the movie in terms of society. There is no talk of the war or politics or poor living conditions or even racism. In fact there are no African Americans in the film at all not even on the side. The movie stays focused on the Leo and Max as they try to get this scam to work. It is an escapes film for the sole purpose of teaching the world to laugh again. With all of the violence death and hate going on around the world and America it was nice to have a film that takes away their worry if only for a few hours.
However the movie does acutely portray one of its traits accurately with New York. According to http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:hippie&sa=X&ei=RKzyTMPFJcP98Aavu7inDA&ved=0CBcQkAE ) A hippie is “ someone who rejects the established culture; advocates extreme liberalism in politics and lifestyle.” Hippie's had a philosophy of spreading peace and love and so where against the Vietnam War and believed strongly in peace and love and would carry flowers as a sing of peace. In 1968 the theme of the hippie moved down to the youth of America decided to join in on the craze and dress and act like hippies to the point where it was now mainstream. These young hippies or “Yippies” went down to Grand Central Station. 3,000 of them went down to get more attention from the media, and to show the world they were serious about their believes. About 61 of them were arrested. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippie#Revolution_.281967.E2.80.931970.29 ) a lot of hippies were found of using drugs such as Marijuana and LSD. It said they took these drugs in order to calm themselves and to see the big picture of the universe and bring about a sense of unity and connection to others ( http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_did_hippies_do_drugs ) ( http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_drug_did_hippies_do )
The movie does a great job of showcasing the hippie and their believes. In the movie L.S.D is first seen singing about peace and how the government destroyed his peace and his flower. His friends called him his name is Lorenzo St. Dubois, but is called LSD, a common used drug used among Hippies. He has long hair which was a long boots which were common styles for hippies to future remove themselves from the establishment. Hippies were becoming a bigger and bigger trend and many people not only in New York but around the world as well. He uses hippie slang in the play such as “You're putting me on.” was slang for your lying to me. He has a laid back and calm approach to life. The movie shows all of the aspects of the hippie during that time with how they lived and behaved towards other and them self's.
The Producers is clearly an escapist movie. With the rise in death's and assassinations, inflation and war, civil rights or lack thereof, riots and rise in crime, drugs being everywhere, and hippies on the rise, living in the city were hard on everyone. They needed a movie that could put their minds at ease and have them forget what was going on outside in New York. It was created to make people laugh and smile and that's all it does. It focuses solely on its plot, story, and characters with only a few real world references. It is a very good film that does its job very well.
Sources
(http://www.1960sflashback.com/1968/economy.asp )
(http://www.answers.com/topic/gun-control-act-of-1968 )
(http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/nycrime.htm )
( http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_did_hippies_do_drugs ) http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_drug_did_hippies_do )
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippie#Revolution_.281967.E2.80.931970.29 )
( http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:hippie&sa=X&ei=RKzyTMPFJcP98Aavu7inDA&ved=0CBcQkAE )
( http://brainz.org/riots/ )
( http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2010/04/what_it_was_lik.php )
