John Hughes Already Explained Everything You Need to Know About Trump's Tariff Plan

In a frighteningly uncanny case of life imitating art, this well-known scene from John Hughes classic Ferris Bueller's Day Off features an economics teacher (real-life economics commentator Ben Stein) monotonously explaining the Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930 to his class.

Though it's now more famous for the lines "Bueller?... Bueller?..." and "Anyone?... Anyone?...", the dialogue in this scene does a pretty tidy job of explaining the tariff, which raised taxes on imports to the United States. The goal was to protect American farmers and businesses by making foreign goods more expensive. This would, in theory, encourage Americans to buy domestically made products and help pull the country out of the Great Depression.

Sound familiar?... This is one hundred percent what the Trump administration is attemptingright now (albeit in a much more clumsy, illogical and random way.) After details of Trump's tariff plan were announced this week, the global economy was disrupted, U.S. markets sank and 401(k) and other investors experienced substantial losses, including significant decreases across portfolios, retirement funds, etc.

As Stein explains in painfully boring fashion, the Hawley-Smoot Tariff did not work. Foreign nations didn’t like it because it made their goods more expensive for American consumers and those nations responded by raising their own tariffs on American goods. This created a trade war and the result was international trade decreased, hurting businesses in both the U.S. and abroad. Instead of helping the economy, the tariffs exacerbated the Great Depression by reducing trade and making it harder for businesses to sell products overseas.

All of this is either explained in (or serves as the backstory for) Stein's dialogue in this scene, so as a student of history, I'll pick up the story from here.

The decline in international trade plunged some foreign nations, including Germany, into economic hardship because they could no longer easily sell their products to the U.S. In Germany, this in turn led to massive unemployment, poverty, and widespread discontent with the German government. Many Germans felt betrayed by their government and turned to extremist political movements, including the Nazi Party, led by Adolf Hitler. Hitler promised to restore Germany’s economy, bring back national pride, and provide jobs for the unemployed and by 1932 (just two years after Hawley-Smoot) the Nazis were the largest political party in the country. In January of the following year, with no other leader able to command sufficient support to govern, President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor of Germany. 

Once in power, Hitler began dismantling his country's democratic institutions and weaponizing the government against all who opposed him. The Enabling Act of 1933, for example, gave him the power to make laws without the approval of the German parliament and he subsequently began manipulating the law to suit his agenda while ignoring any judicial orders that were in opposition to his policies... I'll ask again -- any of this sound familiar?

So when you follow the trail, it's not a stretch to say that tariffs had quite a lot to do with the rise of one of the most diabolical dictators in world history -- one who would go on to persecute foreign nationals and political opponents, threaten to (and successfully) seize strategic territories belonging to other nations, and ultimately ignite the greatest global conflict in world history.

Just something to think about.

Related Posts:
Remembering John Hughes

5 Films Hollywood Needs to Get to Work On

Back in 1990, my friend Steve and I were riding down the New Jersey Turnpike in a rented truck, delivering furniture to his parents' new home in Pennsylvania. The experience was memorable for two reasons. First, an 18-wheeler traveling right next to us blew a tire and scared the crap out of us. And second, we spent a good portion of the two hour drive reminiscing about one of our favorite childhood animated series, Speed Racer. Steve and I then proceeded to discuss how the show was a cult favorite, how the protagonist and premise (a young race car driver with a unique, high tech automobile) were ideal for the big screen, and the chances of us ever seeing a live-action Speed Racer movie. We then shared ideas about casting, including Johnny Depp as Speed (remember, this was 1990), Depp's former real-life girlfriend Winona Ryder as Trixie, Alec Baldwin as Racer X,  Fred Savage (The Wonder Years) as Spritle, Wilford Brimley as Pops and Michael Jackson's pet chimpanzee "Bubbles" as Chim-Chim.

Keep in mind, this was more than a decade before an ACTUAL Speed Racer movie would even take its first steps into production. Which is why, as ridiculous as we know it is, Steve and I still consider the Speed Racer movie OUR baby. So when the the Wachowskis gave us that hot mess of a picture back in May of 2008, we were both sorely disappointed and extremely bitter. A movie that we had wished and waited so long for, had been ruined. 

So there's nothing left for me to do now but move on and as I do, consider the other fantastic properties we need to see made. It's baffling to me how the Hollywood studios can't seem to get out of their own way and ink the deals needed to get these films into production. If they ever do, each of the following is a potential blockbuster that could earn huge dollars at the box office.

The Six Million Dollar Man

  

The premise of the 1970's series starring Lee Majors sees a test pilot/astronaut critically injured in a crash, fitted with bionic implants and turned into a government operative. I'm thinking Ryan Gosling -- who coincidentally recently starred in the movie adaptation of another Lee Majors series (The Fall Guy) -- for the role of Colonel Steve Austin.

Status Update: Several years ago, there were rumors of a Six Billion Dollar Man (Inflation's a bitch -- ain't it?!) being developed by the Weinstein Company, directed by Bryan (X-Men) Singer and starring Leonardo DiCaprio. More recently, there have been ongoing efforts to create a movie version with Mark Wahlberg attached to star. That project has been in development for almost a dozen years. Despite various delays and changes in filmmakers, Wahlberg remains committed to the project, stating that he's "still grinding every day to get it made."

The Warriors remake

The 1979 original was a low-cost surprising moneymaker for Paramount. Though the idea of New York City gangs dressed as mimes, wearing Yankee uniforms and Kiss-like makeup, and sporting silk purple vests and fedoras is light years beyond hokey, subsequent to its initial theatrical release, the film garnered huge cult status via cable and home video. In 2005, we even got a Warriors video game. As we near its 50th anniversary, a proper, more modern big-budget remake would be spectacular in the hands of a master of gritty violence like Breaking Bad writer/producer/director Vince Gilligan.

Status Update: Plans for a remake go at least as far back as 2005, when the Scott brothers (Ridley and Tony) were reportedly set to produce and direct. In 2016, the Russo brothers (The Avengers) were reportedly developing a TV adaption for Hulu but that project seems to no longer be on the radar.

The Donner Party

The Donner Party was a group of American pioneers in the 1840's who set out to California from Missouri. Through an incredible series of circumstances and misfortunes, the group was trapped by snow and forced to winter in Sierra Nevada, where members of the party succumbed to starvation, exposure, disease, and trauma before resorting to cannibalism. It's an absolutely riveting story and although the disaster movie genre that gave us classics like The Poseidon Adventure, Towering Inferno and Airport, has largely died out, here's a perfect opportunity to bring it back. I'm thinking an all-star cast featuring Kit Harrington, Emma Stone, Tom Holland and Tobey Maguire in key roles.

Status Update: In 1978, there was a TV movie titled Donner Pass that recounted the story and in 2009, Crispin Glover starred in The Donner Party, a straight-to-DVD thriller in the vein of Alive, that takes certain liberties in retelling the actual events. Then in 2011, a feature film also titled Donner Pass was released. Billed as "a twisted take on the legend of the Donner Party", it was a historically inaccurate and pedestrian slasher pic about teens stranded in one of the Donner Party's old cabins who (rather predictably) get mysteriously killed and eaten one by one. There have also been multiple documentaries and made for TV movies about the Donner Party, such as Dead of Winter: The Donner Party (2015). 

The last real attempt to tell this story onscreen seems to be an adaptation of the novel The Hunger which purportedly incorporated the story of the Donner Party with a "Walking Dead-style twist." That project was being developed by 20th Century Fox, with Luke Scott (son of Ridley) set to write and direct -- but that was nine years ago and since then, nothing.

Logan's Run 

The 1976 thriller Logan's Run is set in a future dystopian society where people live a care-free, hedonistic lifestyle... until they're ceremoniously death-rayed at the age of thirty in order to control the population. As science fiction, the film has a cheesy, 1950's-type perspective of life in the future. But at the same time, it offers sobering Orwellian perspectives on totalitarian rule, how much humans should entrust to technology, and the dangers that come with blindly accepting the status quo.

Status Update: A proposed Logan's Run remake has bounced around Hollywood for years with various above the line talent attached, including screenwriter Will Beall (Justice League) and directors Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) and Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick). Ryan Gosling was once rumored to star but he's far past 30 now. I'm thinking Timothy Chalamet, with directorial duties handled by Christopher Nolan, if you want to go big screen, but I can also picture Logan's Run as a multi-year Max or Netflix series that takes its time revealing the backstory of how exactly our culture and society went so far off the rails.

The Go-Go's 

The fact that a Runaways biopic was produced and released and we're still waiting for a Go-Go's movie is bizarre. Yes, when it comes to girl bands, the Runaways were trailblazing female rockers but the Go-Go's sold more records, were the first to have a number one album, had more hit singles, are members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, are still performing together forty-seven years after they formed, and quite simply, are more iconic.

I had the idea for a Go-Go's film no later than 2001, and even started work on an extended treatment. For casting, I suggested the following (at the time) young, up and coming actresses: Christina Ricci as Jane Weidlin, Eliza Dusku as Kathy Valentine, Leelee Sobieski as Charlotte Caffey, Tara Reid as Gina Schock, and Charlize Theron or Kate Hudson as Belinda Carlisle.

Status Update: Over the years, the band has kicked around the idea of commissioning a script, but it's never happened largely because members of the band are hesitant about relinquishing rights, giving up creative control and airing their dirty laundry. Additionally, on multiple occasions, disagreements over compensation and royalties owed have created issues within the group. None of this seems to matter anymore though, as the poor performance of The Runaways all but killed any chance of a Go-Go's film ever seeing the light of day. Still, it's fun to imagine Lily-Rose Depp as Carlisle and Jenna Ortega as co-founding member Weidlin.

Belinda Carlisle and Lily-Rose Depp

Related Posts:

Beauty and the Beat Turns 40

Go-Go's Rock the Sunset Strip

Belinda Carlisle on Arsenio Hall

More Belinda

Great Album Covers: The Score, Head Games & Vacation

Go-Go's Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (About F**king Time!)

Happy New Year (from Belinda Carlisle!)

Shout Out to: Sidney ("Woim") Kibrick

Former child actor Sidney Kibrick is one of the last living cast member of the Our Gang (aka, "The Little Rascals") comedy short film series. He is among a handful of surviving cast who appeared in the classic Hal Roach productions and is certainly the only one who had significant screen time or would otherwise be remembered. 

The freckle-faced Kibrick primarily played the character of "Woim" (perhaps a Brooklyn pronunciation of "Worm"), sidekick to bully "Butch," played by Tommy Bond. After threatening or clashing with the main Our Gang characters (usually Spanky and Alfafa) Butch would make his exit and deliver the catchphrase, "Come on Woim!" The Butch-Woim duo were recurring antagonists in the series and in total, Kibrick appeared in approximately 27 Our Gang shorts between 1933 and 1939. Kibrick later stepped away from acting and pursued a career in real estate and today he is 96 years old. Notably, just three years ago, he attended an exhibit at the Hollywood Museum honoring the 100th anniversary of the Our Gang series.

Related Posts:
Shout Out to: The Sorels
Shout Out to: Dara Torres
Shout Out to: Lippy the Lion
Shout Out to: Found Item Clothing
Shout Out to: Force M.D.'s
Shout Out to: Dian Parkinson

Shout Out to: The Payback

Defining Films of the 70's

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

The 80's Will Never Die #6 (Hellman's Mayonaisse/When Harry Met Sally)

Super Bowl commercials always lean heavily into pop culture and this year's crop was no exception. Check out this parody of the iconic deli scene from 1989's When Harry Met Sally featuring the reuniting of Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan.

Related Posts:

The 80's Will Never Die #5 (Roxette/Repatha)
Super Bowl Ads Lean Heavily into Pop Culture... Here's the Reason Why.

Flashdance: The Surprise 80's Hit...That Would Never Get Made Today

April of 1983 saw the release of Flashdance, a film that became a sleeper hit and finished as the third highest grossing movie of the year. Artistically, Flashdance's visual style, combined with its music video-style editing and presentation of key scenes, established a paradigm used throughout the decade in hits like Footloose, Breakin', Beverly Hills Cop, Rocky IV and Dirty Dancing. Yet despite Flashdance's unquestioned appeal, success and influence, it's safe to say that this is a movie that would never in a million years get made today. 

To begin with, the star of the film, Jennifer Beals, was a student at Yale and a complete unknown at the time. Co-star Michael Nouri had only a thin resume with mostly soap opera credits. With no big names in supporting roles or cameos, Flashdance, essentially had zero star power -- something that would be a big strike against getting any film project off the ground in modern Hollywood. Additionally, today's film industry execs would likely judge Flashdance's potential at the global box as being quite limited. This is because the film offers a story that appeals mainly to American sensibilities. For example, Flashdance is set in what is one of our nation's most distinctive metropolises -- the blue collar, steel city of Pittsburgh. Plus, if there's one thing blue collar Americans love, it's an underdog story. That beloved "I've probably got no shot and no one believes in me but I'll just work harder than everyone else and show them all" theme. Rocky III, which was a massive hit just a year earlier is a great example. That film, maybe not so coincidentally, was also set in a uniquely American Pennsylvania city,  Philadelphia. Flashdance's Alex offers that same Rocky-esque type protagonist who bucks the odds, rises from anonymity and finally realizes their dream. 

Also contributing to Flashdance's Americentric feel is its music. Flashdance's dance scenes are some of the most iconic in cinema history. The music featured in those scenes (tracks like "Maniac" and "What a Feeling") epitomized the very contemporary and rapidly growing American synth-pop genre of the early 1980's. The Flashdance soundtrack, incidentally, would spend six weeks at #1 in the U.S. and earn a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. "Maniac" and "What a Feeling" both went to #1 and both were nominated for Record of the Year.

On top of this, the scope and story of Flashdance, though appealing, are both very small. Sure there could have been a sequel exploring what happens after Alex joins the dance company, but the source material is certainly not expansive enough for today's Hollywood execs to view it as something that could birth a franchise or a streaming series -- something that's practically required to get a film greenlit these days. Studios simply do not make small budget movies like Flashdance anymore, instead opting for stories with far larger scope. "Can it be a trilogy?... Or better yet a Netflix series?... Or better yet, a franchise that will let us crank out multiple movies AND provide source material for a streaming series?" These are questions that need to be answered in the affirmative before a major studio shows interest nowadays. Indeed, if you examine the smaller budgeted movie that do manage to get made today, you'll find they are typically pet projects championed by big stars or other power players in the industry. In these cases, such films are usually only backed in order to appease said big star and/or fulfill a multi-picture contract with them.

Despite Flashdance earning $90 million at the box office (a 13x return on investment), today's studios wouldn't be interested in that kind of a take. A $10 million movie that makes $100 million doesn't interest them. They're looking to make a $100 million film, pour another $100 million into marketing, and then gross a billion worldwide. (That's right, I'm looking at you Barbie!) Flashdance was in fact a studio pic, but 40 years later, small budget films that make it to the big screen are almost always independently produced and financed. Sure, an indy that happens to catch fire at a SXSW, Toronto or other prestigious film festival can still gain a studio distrubution deal, but small projects are much more often viewed today as having no pathway to the kind of paydays studios require. Thus, they have little or no chance of gaining production deals.

Despite Flashdance's stellar office performance, Beals chose to return to college and couldn't be persuaded to star in a follow-up. A stage musical based on the film debuted in the UK in 2008 but to this day as a film property Flashdance remains a one-off. Even so, I wouldn't put it past the "geniuses" who run Hollywood today to come up with the brilliant idea to produce a sequel -- one that effectively misses its window by decades. (That's right, I'm looking at you Gladiator II!) A better course, however, would be to forget about sequels or remakes and simply appreciate those more, open-minded days long ago when artists and executives had more vision and a small project like Flashdance could gain the development and backing it needed to be successfully realized on the big screen.