Chapter 488 Strange understanding ability

  Minahan is Jewish, but it’s Christmas, and I’m going to take him to see it soon. But Ronald is going to spend the holidays with Aunt Karen and Donna, put on airs and talk about Christmas.

   During the daytime on Christmas Eve, several shareholders of the leg warmer company, neighbors Tereza and David, friends from the Aunt Veteran’s Club, and little Bard’s mother, Mrs. Davidson, all came to the house to congratulate.

  Teresa's child is a boy, already two years old. Mrs. Davidson's son, Bard Jr., will soon 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 shareholders. Have a merry Christmas everyone.

  In an instant, Ronald felt that the sense of accomplishment of doing business and distributing money to shareholders seemed no less than the successful release of his own film, which was welcomed by the audience.

  Early 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 asked Ronald to get into the car.

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

   "Try it, it was baked by my aunt, another bag for your kids."

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

   "Yeah, my aunt's ancestral secret recipe." 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 of them arrived at a small second-run movie theater. Minahan paid for the place, gave the projectionist a few banknotes as a tip, and played "Sahara", which he actually directed and starring Brooke Shields.

   "Ah, hahaha..." Brooke's bright face appeared on the screen, and she drove the car as a racing driver, galloping on the test track.

   "It's so beautiful...the appearance of the 1980s." Ronald saw a close-up of Brooke's face on the big screen. Her face was masculine and heroic, with the innocence of a child remaining.

   "Huh?" Ronald suddenly saw the editing change, and the scene cut to the second floor of the mansion. Brooke's face was turned upside down, looking down from the spiral staircase, her face changed. A middle-aged man walks in and reports the sudden death of Brooke's Dale Gordon's father, the owner of the race car factory.

  Ronald couldn't help covering his face. Is this Minahan a thief in a classic movie scene?

Here he stole a bit of the composition of Hitchcock's classic movies, and there he stole a bit of Indiana Jones' racing scenes, classic fragments of different types, ages, and styles, which he used to pay homage (plagiarism) at will, and then ignored the whole on the difference, clip together.

  After the rally started, Dale, played by Brooke, was with the prince of the Arabian tribe again, fighting back against the evil tribal soldiers who received German reinforcements. The soldiers of the two tribes fought with machine guns in the desert, next to camels and horses.

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

   Then Brooke, wearing a one-piece white bathing suit, takes a bath under the waterfall. The righteous tribal prince stood aside like a gentleman in an Arabian robe and turned his back.

   "Isn't this copying the blue coral reef?" Ronald turned his head to look at Minahan, who was giggling, and he probably thought he had taken a good shot.

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

  The Germans drove earth tanks welded with thin iron sheets, and came over with machine guns to attack the righteous tribes. Brooke bravely rushed up against the machine gun fire and put a stick of dynamite in the sand.

  Obviously, Brooke's calculations were very accurate. The earth tank was paralyzed when it happened to pass by the land mine.

   "This...John Ford's 'Guanshan Fit' in 1939 is better and more reasonable than his fight scenes.

   Resisting the urge to burst into laughter, Ronald saw the end. The female racing driver played by Brooke finally kissed the Arabian prince. The two rode a horse and walked slowly into the sunset.

  The picture finally freezes in the sunset of two people and one horse in the desert, turning into a silhouette.

   "Quack quack...", Minahan was very excited, "How about the ending? Is it worthy of an Oscar for Best Cinematography?"

   "Hey..." Ronald patted him on the shoulder, "Let's play another one."

   "Hey, are you more interested in the other one?" Minahan went to the back projection hall to negotiate again, and the projectionist started showing the second movie.

   "Ninja III: The Domination"

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

   "Yeah and no," Minahan said, "Chuck refused to wear a ninja mask, and he asked for his own face in the movie, so we gave him another script. Here he only has an opening cameo."

   Ronald continued to watch, Chuck Norris played a storyteller, and his poor line skills made the story feel strange. Legend has it that the ninjas in Japan have a secret technique. After death, the soul can 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.

  A man dressed as a Japanese ninja was killed by his enemies. His spirit came to the street. A female worker in jeans and a hard hat climbed up a wooden telephone pole and began to repair the telephone 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 ninja's former enemies. In the end, the ninja's vengeance was avenged, and the female worker also found herself.

  The same ridiculous plot, the same plagiarized classic movie scenes, this movie has copied a lot of Bruce Lee's movie fighting scenes. But on this low-budget exploitation film, whatever you look at is appropriate.

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

   "But, how can I be nominated for an Oscar if I don't distribute it through MGM?" Minahan said bitterly.

   "Well, this Minahan usually has no insiders to play with him, and he often takes other people's ridicule and jokes seriously."

  Ronald shook his head, "Minahan, we are friends, I might say something that other Hollywood people won't say to you."

   "Say it, say it..." Minahan pretended to be listening attentively.

"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 director to shoot. As a producer, you can also get the best Great movie."

   "Are you saying that my director level is not good?" Minahan was anxious, "Why, MGM doesn't like my movies, what is my difference?"

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

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

   Minahan nodded happily, Ronald had hit the point. After all, he is different from MGM, and he can see his intentions.

   "But it's not okay to repeat 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 bewilderment. If you put the classics together in this way, isn’t it also a classic?

"When the audience comes to the movie theater 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 cowboy duel. When they watch David Lean, they know that there will be epic landscapes and heroes. Narrative. Seeing Brooke Shields..."

  Ronald paused, "I know it's a movie that shows the beautiful body of youth."

   “You put them together and the audience sees everything and sees nothing.”

  Minahan blinked his eyes twice, he seemed to understand, but he didn’t seem to understand.

Ronald was laughed at by him, "I think this 'Ninja III', the audience is very clear, they will see ninja fighting, and there are many strange oriental legends, which are also standard for this kind of exploitation film It’s a fool’s errand, they’re 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?"

   "Eh..." Ronald thought to himself that you really know how to think, "Maybe, I don't know."

"No, you know, you're right, I'm going to release this movie in Britain." Minahan jumped up happily, "Ronald, you are a genius, the British people love to watch their American cousin Failed, their beauties were taken away by Arab princes, their careers in Africa were thwarted by the British Empire."

   "And, last year, Margaret Thatcher's son disappeared for two weeks while participating in the Paris-Dakar Rally, 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 what 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, then we have to get 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 as a nanny."

  (end of this chapter)