#deal of the century

[20th-century-man]

Sigourney Weaver / William Friedkin’s Deal of the Century (1983)

[chtozaepta]

Being a traveling merchant is great fun

[watching-pictures-move]

Movie Review | Deal of the Century (Friedkin, 1983)

Like everyone else with a Criterion Channel subscription, at the beginning of each month I hop on excitedly to see what’s been added, and today I simply could not believe my eyes. Wow, William Friedkin’s Deal of the Century! The movie that nobody liked when it came out, nobody has since (to my knowledge) tried to reclaim, and is widely considered a career worst for the director. So obviously I’d struck gold. Anyway, on one hand, it’s not hard to see why nobody has tried to reclaim it. It’s a tonal mess and very little of it works. On the other hand, judging from the internet, people seem to love unfunny garbage these days, so you’d think they’d be all over this one. Okay, that sounded mean, and I didn’t actually hate this, but I’m trying to channel the caustic spirit of the movie.

I’ve never really associated Friedkin with comedy, although there are probably scenes throughout his classics where he displays some comic timing. So I wasn’t expecting this to send me rolling. But what’s mostly disappointing about this is the absence of his visual style, which was in strong supply in the movies he made immediately before (Cruising) and after (To Live and Die in L.A.). This is largely drab looking, primarily brownish-gray in colour, so that whatever high tech weaponry is on display rarely wows you. I do think there are a few interesting visual ideas scattered throughout. Friedkin is not oblivious to the phallic dimensions of the weaponry, and in one pretty blunt and maybe insensitive but still funny scene, he has two characters loudly make love against a montage of failed weapon test footage. And there are other times where he’s able to juxtapose them with the characters to more sinister effect, like when he has a wheelchair bound mercenary reminisce fondly about committing war crimes against a wall of automatic weapons, or when he has Gregory Hines express his spiritual despair similarly surrounded by weapons in a warehouse.

That you have both those tones in the same movie demonstrates the problem here, in that the movie doesn’t know how to commit to a tone and ends up halfassing most of its tonal and narrative threads. Hines has to piece together an arc of spiritual transformation through an assortment of very clunky scenes (the ones above, and another where he’s menaced by a racist thug played by Tony Plana who he wards off with a flamethrower ; there's a thread about racism here that doesn't work at all), while Sigourney Weaver has almost nothing to do aside from that lovemaking montage. A few of the supporting players make an impression, like Wallace Shawn as a suicidal defense contractor, but William Marquez as a goofy Latin American general makes you wish Richard Libertini had reprised his shtick from The In-Laws and played this role instead of the relatively thankless one he has.

To the extent that this works, it’s as an SNL star vehicle for Chevy Chase. I’ve seen complaints that Chase is too aloof for the movie, but I think there’s something pretty funny about him applying used car salesman shtick to weapons deals and managing to fail up the international arms trade with nothing but bullshit and experience, to paraphrase a wise man and SNL alumnus. A less cacophonous movie would have made more of the tension between his laid back presence and the scale and stakes of the surrounding material, but he got his share of laughs out of me.

[byneddiedingo]

Chevy Chase in Deal of the Century

Cast: Chevy Chase, Sigourney Weaver, Gregory Hines, Vince Edwards, Wallace Shawn, Richard Libertini, William Marquez, Eduardo Ricard, Richard Herd, Graham Jarvis. Screenplay: Paul Brickman. Cinematography: Richard H. Kline. Production design: Bill Malley. Film editing: Jere Huggins, Ned Humphreys, Bud S. Smith. Music: Arthur B. Rubinstein.

Chevy Chase, Sigourney Weaver, and Gregory Hines stumble through the chaotic screenplay of Deal of the Century, not trying very hard to help it create credible characters or even to be funny. Ostensibly a satire of the Reagan-era arms race, it was a critical bomb and a box office dud, and unlike many such double failures hasn't even made it to cult-movie status. Too much of it fails to make sense, like the marriage of the characters played by Weaver and Wallace Shawn, the religious conversion of Hines's character, or Chase's character getting repeatedly shot in the foot. Cheesy special effects don't help, either. 

[therogerquine]

Obviously freud would have a lot to say about this photo

[itcanbefilmed]

Deal of the Century (William Friedkin, 1983)

[cinemajunkie70]

A very happy birthday to Chevy Chase!

[plitnick]

Brad Sherman models the perfect pro-Israel Democrat

This piece, written late last week, takes on a new importance in light of the Israeli massacre in Jenin and the Palestinian lone shooter attack in Neve Yakov. More to the point, the importance it’s magnified by Antony Blinken’s contemptible tour of Middle East criminals, from Cairo and al-Sisi to Jerusalem and Netanyahu. The article examines the words of Brad Sherman, one of the most zealous…

[uboat53]

For the last several months now we've been given an often unwilling front row seat to Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter. We've gotten to see in oddly minute detail the specifics of his managerial style both due to intense media coverage and his own desire to constantly speak about whatever is on his mind. With all of this insight, I think I've figured out who his management style most reminds me of.

It's Donald Trump.

Hear me out here. Trump was always a public relations hound, eager to speak constantly through whatever outlet he could find that he thought would give him the best coverage. More to the point, though, was his propensity to take business disputes that would normally be negotiated quietly out into the open.

In the 1980s Trump managed to acquire one of the largest stretches of unimproved real estate in Manhattan, the West Side Yards, a stretch of abandoned rail yards running along the Hudson River from W 59th St. to W 72nd St. at a bargain price. It was described as the deal of the century and, in many ways, it was. If someone could take a massive chunk of Manhattan real estate like that an develop it up to even a minimum standard the potential profits would easily be in the billions.

His plan was to create what he called "television city" and part of his planned involved luring NBC from their location at 30 Rockefeller Place to set up in his new development. Trump and the city as a whole were largely in agreement on the plan, but Trump tried to use that to get the city to approve a huge tax abatement and zoning changes. Instead, the city offered tax incentives to NBC directly.

After that, Trump began attacking the mayor, calling him a "moron" and "a disaster". Needless to say, he not only didn't get the tax abatement he was asking for and he also didn't get the zoning changes that would have been necessary to properly develop the site. In the end, after purchasing the site for approximately $115 million and holding it for 12 years, Trump sold his controlling interest for $82 million dollars. Today the site, mostly developed, is worth over $3 billion.

Now, why does that remind me of Musk?

Well, think about it. He announced his plan to give "official" checkmarks to paying users for $20 a month and then reduced it to $8 after a tussle with Steven King. He accused Apple of preparing to limit Twitter in its app store and threatened to sue before actually verifying it.

In other words, he's adopted Trump's precise "attack first and think later" strategy that got him in trouble with the West Side Yards. We'll see if it works any better for Musk with Twitter.

[20th-century-man]

Sigourney Weaver / publicity photo for William Friedkin's Deal of the Century (1983)

[aesthetically0b5essed]

I can offer you awkward conversations and unlimited shrimp.

[alewaanewspaper1960]

حول موقف إسرائيل المعادي للمحكمة الجنائية الدولية - بين مخاوف المساءلة والعقاب ونتائج انضمام فلسطين إلى نظام روما الأساسي

حول موقف إسرائيل المعادي للمحكمة الجنائية الدولية – بين مخاوف المساءلة والعقاب ونتائج انضمام فلسطين إلى نظام روما الأساسي   حول موقف إسرائيل المعادي للمحكمة الجنائية الدولية – بين مخاوف المساءلة والعقاب ونتائج انضمام فلسطين إلى نظام روما الأساسي On Israel’s Hostile Position To The International Criminal Court: Between Fears Of Accountability And Punishment, And The Consequences Of Palestine’s…

[amereid1960]

حول موقف إسرائيل المعادي للمحكمة الجنائية الدولية - بين مخاوف المساءلة والعقاب ونتائج انضمام فلسطين إلى نظام روما الأساسي

حول موقف إسرائيل المعادي للمحكمة الجنائية الدولية – بين مخاوف المساءلة والعقاب ونتائج انضمام فلسطين إلى نظام روما الأساسي   حول موقف إسرائيل المعادي للمحكمة الجنائية الدولية – بين مخاوف المساءلة والعقاب ونتائج انضمام فلسطين إلى نظام روما الأساسي On Israel’s Hostile Position To The International Criminal Court: Between Fears Of Accountability And Punishment, And The Consequences Of Palestine’s…

[whipp-slash]

I've always wanted to wear a can of WD-40 with the flexible nozzle, wow! Thanks, Amazon!

[itcanbefilmed]

Deal of the Century (William Friedkin, 1983)

[hussyknee]

People declaring the Pope should excommunicate Joe Biden for genocide has me like??? Bro...what do you think the Catholic Church was built on...