Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Minahan is Jewish, but he doesn't celebrate Christmas, so he's going to take him to see it right away. But Ronald wants to celebrate with Aunt Karen and Donna, and he's putting on airs and saying he'll talk about it after Christmas.

On Christmas Eve, several shareholders of the leg warmer company, neighbors Theresa and David, and aunt's friend from the veterans club, Bud's mother, Mrs. Davidson, all came to the house to congratulate.

Theresa's child is a boy, and he's two years old. Mrs. Davidson's son, Bud, will also finish his overseas service next year and return home. Ronald promised to find him a job, and Mrs. Davidson was grateful.

Aunt Karen, as the actual person in charge of the leg warmer factory, sent dividend checks to all shareholders. Everyone had a happy Christmas.

In an instant, Ronald felt that the sense of accomplishment of doing business and giving money to shareholders seemed to be no less than the success of his own movie and the success of the movie.

The next morning, Minahan drove the car and waited at Ronald's door. When Ronald went out to take a newspaper for a walk, he jumped out and wanted to pull Ronald into the car.

"Wait for me to talk to my family." Ronald laughed when he saw his pitiful and aggrieved look. He went home and talked to Aunt Karen, took two packs of biscuits baked by his aunt and handed them to Minahan who was smoking in the car.

"Try it, it's baked by my aunt, and bring the other pack to your child."

Minahan started the car, opened a pack and ate a biscuit, "Oh, this is the best biscuit I have eaten since I came to America."

"Yeah, my aunt's secret recipe passed down from generation to generation." Ronald was very happy to hear Minahan's praise. Of course, the so-called secret recipe is probably just adding more butter and honey.

The two went to a small second-wheel movie theater. Minahan paid to book the place, gave the projectionist a few bills as a tip, and played "Sahara", which he actually directed and starred Brooke Shields.

"Ah, hahaha..." Brooke's bright face appeared on the screen. She drove a car like a racing driver and ran on the test track.

"So beautiful... her look from the 1980s." Ronald saw a close-up of Brooke's face on the big screen. Her face had a masculine look and the innocence of a child remained.

"Hmm?" Ronald suddenly saw the editing change, and the screen cut to the second floor of the mansion. Brooke's face turned upside down, and her face changed when she looked down from the spiral staircase. A middle-aged man walked in and reported that the father of Dale Gordon, played by Brooke, the owner of the racing factory, had suddenly passed away.

Ronald kept covering his face. Is this Minahan a thief of classic movie scenes?

He stole a little bit of the composition of Hitchcock's classic movies here, and a little bit of Indiana Jones' racing scenes there. Classic clips of different types, ages, and styles were used by him to pay tribute (plagiarism) at will, and then ignored these overall differences and edited them together.

After the rally began, Brooke's Dale was with the prince of the Arab tribe again, fighting back against the evil tribal soldiers who received military aid from the Germans. Soldiers from both tribes fought with machine guns in the desert, with camels and horses next to them.

"Lawrence of Arabia" Ronald added another classic in his mind.

Then Brooke was turned around by the waterfall in a one-piece white swimsuit.

"Isn't this a copy of Blue Lagoon?" Ronald turned back to look at Minahan, who was giggling and probably thought he had taken a good picture.

"At least make this waterfall bigger, such a thin stream of water, like a sewer." Ronald complained again.

The Germans drove a tank welded with very thin iron sheets and attacked the righteous tribe with machine guns. Brooke bravely rushed forward in the face of machine gun fire and placed a stick of dynamite in the sand.

Apparently Brooke's calculation was very accurate, and the tank was paralyzed when it passed through a land mine.

"This... John Ford's 'Knives Out' shot in 1939 is more exciting and reasonable than his battle scenes.

Resisting the urge to laugh, Ronald watched to the end. Brooke, the female racer, kissed the Arab prince in the end, and the two rode a horse and slowly walked into the sunset.

The picture finally froze on the two people and the horse in the sunset in the desert, turning into a silhouette.

"Ha ha ha...", Minahan was very excited, "How about this ending? Is it worthy of an Oscar for Best Cinematography?"

"Hey..." Ronald patted his shoulder, "Let's play another one."

"Hey, are you more interested in another one?" Minahan went to the back screening room to negotiate, and the projectionist started to play the second movie.

"Ninja III: The Doation"

Ronald looked at the movie title on the screen, "Is this the movie you asked Chuck Norris to play? "

Gu Xiu

"Yes and no," Minahan said, "Chuck refused to appear in the ninja mask. He asked to show his face in the movie, so we prepared another script for him. Here he only has a cameo at the beginning."

Ronald continued to watch. Chuck Norris played a storyteller. His poor dialogue skills made the story feel strange. Legend has it that the Japanese ninjas have a secret technique. After death, their souls can still possess other people, so that they can continue to walk in the world, and the possessed person will inherit all the fighting skills of the ninja before his death.

A man dressed as a Japanese ninja was killed by his enemies. His soul came to the street. A female worker wearing jeans and a hard hat climbed up a wooden telephone pole and began to repair the phone lines.

A gust of wind blows and the female worker is possessed by a ninja. Her behavior became more and more strange, and she became a master of fighting, and finally began to seek revenge on the enemies in front of the ninja. In the end, the ninja's revenge was avenged, and the female worker found herself again.

The same shocking plot, the same plagiarized scenes from classic films, this movie has copied many fighting scenes from Bruce Lee's movies. But on a low-budget exploitation film like this, whatever feels right is appropriate.

"Why don't you distribute this movie?" Ronald asked Minahan. "You can make a lot of money with this kind of low-budget movie even if you don't go through MGM."

"But how could I possibly get an Oscar nomination if it wasn't distributed through MGM?" Minahan said bitterly.

"Yes, this Minahan usually doesn't have anyone in the circle to play with. He often takes other people's ridicules and jokes seriously."

Ronald shook his head, "Minahan, we're friends, and I might have to say something that other people in Hollywood wouldn't say to you."

"You said, you said..." Minahan pretended to be listening.

"Wake up, your exploitation films are very good, why don't you continue this promising career? The Oscars are waiting for you to make a lot of money and then find a famous director to make them. As a producer, you can also win the most. Best video.”

"Are you saying that my directorial skills are not good enough?" Minahan asked anxiously, "Why on earth does MGM not like my movies? What's wrong with me?"

"Everywhere is bad." Ronald wanted to say this.

However, he still tactfully said, "I'm not saying that your director level is poor, but that you don't understand American audiences. If you like classic Hollywood movies, you often select classic scenes from them and repeat them in your movies..."

Minahan nodded happily, and Ronald finally got the idea. After all, unlike MGM, he can see his intentions.

"But it's not okay to repeat it like this. These movies include westerns, epics, youth movies, and romance movies. If you cut them together, isn't it nondescript?"

Minahan looked at him in confusion. Putting a classic together like this, it will become a classic soon?

"When the audience comes to the cinema and pays for the ticket, it is equivalent to signing a contract with the director. For example, when they watch John Ford, they know that there will be a western cowboy dueling. When they watch David Lean, they know that there are epic scenery and heroes. Narrative. Seeing Brooke Shields..."

Ronald paused, "I knew it was a movie that showed off the beautiful body of youth."

"You put them together, and the audience sees everything but sees nothing."

Minahan blinked twice. He seemed to understand, but he seemed not to understand.

Ronald was amused by him, "I think in this 'Ninja 3', the audience knows very well that they will see ninja fights, and many weird Eastern legends, which are standard features of this kind of exploitation film. They are here just to have fun."

"You might as well just release this one. 'Sahara' is really not suitable for the North American market."

"Not suitable for the North American market?" Minahan reacted. "You mean, he may be suitable for the European and British markets?"

"Well..." Ronald thought to himself, you are really good at making connections, "Maybe, I don't know."

"No, you know clearly, you are right, I want to premiere this movie in Britain." Minahan jumped up happily, "Ronald, you are really a genius, the British people just love to watch their American cousin. Failure, their beauties were taken away by Arab princes, and their cause in Africa was thwarted by the British Empire."

"Moreover, Mrs. Thatcher's son disappeared for two weeks while participating in the Paris-Dakla Rally last year, and troops were sent to find him. The British audience is interested in the Desert Rally..."

Ronald was dumbfounded by Minahan's ability to understand.

"Okay, do whatever you want. But this ninja movie is good, and the actress is quite talented."

"You mean Lucinda Dickey?" Minahan said the heroine's name.

"Ronald is optimistic about her, so we have to find her back and sign a long-term contract with her. I thought she had no talent, so I asked her to go back to Arizona to work as a nanny."