Big (movie)

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Movie
German title Big
Original title Big
Big Logo.png
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1988
length Cinema version: 104 minutes
Extended Cut: 130 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Penny Marshall
script Gary Ross ,
Anne Spielberg
production James L. Brooks ,
Robert Greenhut
music Howard Shore
camera Barry Sonnenfeld
cut Barry Malkin
occupation
synchronization

Big is an American feature film by director Penny Marshall The from 1988. Fantasy - Comedy arose from an idea by Anne Spielberg , sister of Steven Spielberg and Gary Ross after their eponymous television game. It tells the story of a twelve-year-old (played by David Moscow ), whose wish is fulfilled to grow up overnight through a Zoltar carnival machine. The "child in a man" ( Tom Hanks ) is no longer recognized by most of those around him. With the help of a friend ( Jared Rushton ), the main character tries to find his way around the complicated adult world and briefly makes a career in the New York yuppie world. The film, which was highly regarded by both audiences and critics at the time, produced by Gracie Films and 20th Century Fox , gave Tom Hanks his breakthrough as a film actor.

action

Josh, 12, from Cliffside Park , New Jersey , is in love with the blonde Cynthia. At the fair he overcomes his shyness and speaks to her, whereby he is particularly casual by saying that he has already ridden a special roller coaster several times. But Cynthia and her older friend humiliate Josh, who is apparently too small to be allowed to ride this roller coaster. Disappointed and frustrated, he strolls through the fair until he stands in front of an old slot machine called Zoltar Speaks . He throws in a quarter coin and wishes he was big (film title: "Big"). When he woke up in his bed the next morning, he was a grown man, around 30 years old. He tries to explain to his mother who he is, but she thinks he is a burglar who kidnapped her son and attacks him with a kitchen knife.

Josh's best friend Billy cannot believe that Josh is now a grown man. Once convinced, he helps Josh by getting money and clothes and putting him in a dump in New York City . The next day they try to find out the location of the Zoltar machine in order to transform Josh back. Since this cannot be found, contact the city administration to find out all information about fairs. But it can take four to six weeks or more to get this information, and Billy's money won't be enough for Josh to get a job. In the newspaper they find a job advertisement for a clerk at MacMillan Toys , and Josh gets the job if the application is successful. A few days later, by chance, he met the company boss MacMillan at FAO Schwarz , the oldest toy house in North America, on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue , and he was enthusiastic about Josh's childishly naive manner and his enthusiasm for toys. After both playing Heart and Soul and Chopsticks on the large floor piano , MacMillan promotes Josh to Vice President Product Development, so Josh can play all day and get paid for it. His higher income now enables him to move into a larger apartment, which he furnishes like a children's room.

Josh attends a meeting where a new toy is presented. He is apparently the only one who thinks about the purpose of the new toy. Paul Davenport's presentation on the reorientation of the toy market towards the Gobots and Transformers shows a combat robot that can transform itself into a high-rise building. Josh, however, would like something more exciting, like a dinosaur or a spider, and immediately has the votes of the staff on his side, while Paul's suggestion is rejected. In Paul's eyes, this makes Josh a competitor who must be eliminated. Paul sends his lover, the young, ambitious, and aspiring Susan Lawrence, to Josh to find out his plans. But Susan discovers the friendly and childlike disposition of Josh and is initially confused. Only when he asks her to have fun too does she give up her rigid posture and fall in love with him.

She encourages him to use his affinity for toys and bring them into the company to invent new toys that could bring the company high profits and be fun. But when Josh realizes the amount of work and money involved in such a project, he doubts he can do it on his own. It was only through Susan's persuasion that he developed a digital comic that can prepare several different stories depending on the user application. But all the work means that Josh loses sight of his original goal of finding the Zoltar machine and becoming a child again. He even neglects his best friend Billy. However, he has not forgotten and is constantly trying to establish contact with Josh, which he does not always succeed. When Billy finally learns the current whereabouts of the Zoltar machine from the city administration, he travels to New York, slams Josh the papers on the desk in frustration and accuses him of not recognizing him. Josh is not an adult, but still a child who is even younger than Billy himself. Billy leaves, disappointed by Josh's change.

Josh, however, doubts more and more whether his adult life is what he actually wants. He sees children playing and carefree on the way to work, while he is under deadline pressure, stress and loads of responsibility. He wants this freedom back so that he can find out where the Zoltar machine is. During the presentation of his interactive comic, which was received with great benevolence, Josh leaves the room after a few minutes. Susan realizes something is wrong with him and follows him. Josh had previously confessed to her that she was a 13-year-old child, which she didn't believe him. Susan follows Josh to the port, where he goes to the Zoltan machine and wishes he was little again. Susan is disappointed, but Josh explains to her that so far she has been the only reason for him to remain an adult, while he can think of a thousand reasons to want to be a child again. He asks her to come with him, but she doesn't want to be 13 again - maybe he could contact him again in ten years. After driving him home and wistfully letting him get out of the car, she sees Josh has turned back into a child and drives away sadly.

The film ends with the happy reunion of young Josh and his mother.

background

Director Penny Marshall originally wanted Warren Beatty to play the lead role. But he had asked for a fee of 7.5 million US dollars. Because Tom Hanks was busy shooting the films Schlappe Bullen Don't Bite and Punchline - The Banging Effect , he was to be replaced as the first cast by Robert De Niro , who, however, received his salary of 6 million US dollars (according to other reports he should be three million . have asked) felt too low. De Niro also took three months to consider the offer. Hanks was later given the opportunity to shoot the film again, but for a salary of two million US dollars. To ensure the authenticity of the scenes, Marshall had all scenes with Tom Hanks first played by David Moscow so that Hanks could observe how the boy behaved in the scenes so that he could later imitate the child's behavior better.

The big piano

The floor piano in FAO black

One of the most famous scenes in the film is the dance performance of Hanks and Loggia on the floor piano in the FAO Schwarz department store . According to Robert Loggia, dance doubles were available for the famous piano scene if both had not been able to play the scene in sync. This scene not only found its way into the film's trailer, but was also frequently adopted, mentioned, and parodied by pop culture . For example, Homer Simpson played in the fourteenth episode of the fifth season, with the German title Lisa versus Malibu Stacy , the Simpsons also on a floor piano.

After the first floor piano with eight keys that emitted different tones was developed in 1968, it was Remo Saraceni who developed the piano used in the film in 1976. The piano is actually a synthesizer and was $ 3,500 in the one- octave version and $ 15,000 in the three-octave version when the film was released . According to Saraceni, he wanted to take the piano as a conventional instrument from all seriousness and severity and turn it into a playful instrument that a three-year-old can jump around on just as a 90-year-old could walk over it (I wanted to take the piano, a conventional instrument that was invented by another Italian, and remove all its seriousness and austerity and make it an instrument that you can walk across, […] I wanted to make technology playful and utilitarian at the same time. A 3-year-old can jump on the piano, and a 90-year-old man can walk on it.) .

Motif of role reversal

Every year in Hollywood a wide variety of comedies with the topic of role reversal are produced and published. In addition to gender swapping ( Hot Chick - crazy chickens ), the most common topics are swapping roles, in the sense of father and son ( I am you , like father, like son ), mother and daughter ( Freaky Friday - Ein crazy Friday , a crazy Friday ) or other relatives of the family, such as grandfather and grandson ( Finally 18 again ). Different comedies were also filmed about the role reversal between animals and humans ( a heaven dog from a sniffer ).

In films in which the role reversal is shown by the different ages of one and the same person, magic ( 17 Again - Back to High School , 30 Overnight and Big) and seldom technology ( a fateful invention ) are cited to justify the role reversal . The role reversal is also rarely associated with a journey back in time ( Peggy Sue got married ) or into the future (30 overnight).

Between 1987 and 1989 a total of five other films with the same basic theme were released parallel to Big with Ich bin Du , Wie der Vater als Sohn , Finally 18 Again , A Disastrous Invention and Dream a Little Dream . This led to the fact that individual rumors about the film about alternative scenes were circulating, which, however, only reproduced the storylines of the other five films.

publication

The film was released on June 3, 1988 in the US cinemas and was already able to bring in 8.2 million US dollars of its 18 million US dollar production costs in 1132 theaters on the opening weekend. Overall, the film came to a grossing of 151.6 million US dollars, of which 114.9 million US dollars in the USA alone. Director Penny Marshall was the first female director of a film that grossed over $ 100 million at the box office. Big reached second place as the highest ranking in the American box office. Previously, the similarly set films Finally 18 again and Like the father, so the son could not establish themselves on the market. Big , also distributed by 20th Century Fox , was the second most successful summer film after Crocodile Dundee II . With over 60 million US dollars in the first six weeks, the comedy also managed to place itself ahead of Rambo III .

The film celebrated its German theatrical release on September 29, 1988 in West Germany . ProSiebenSat.1 Media has the rights for broadcasting on German television , which is why the film has been shown alternately on ProSieben , Sat.1 and Kabel eins in recent years . Big has also been broadcast on the Disney Channel .

synchronization

criticism

source rating
Rotten tomatoes
critic
audience
Metacritic
critic
audience
IMDb

The film received extremely positive reviews. The Rotten Tomatoes website counts 51 positive out of 53 professional reviews, which corresponds to a value of 96%. The film was also received with positive reactions from the general public, as 73% of 370,601 viewers rated the film positively. This in turn is confirmed by the online film archive IMDb , another platform on which the audience can submit their film reviews, because 54,588 viewers there gave the film an average of 7.2 out of 10 possible points (as of May 17, 2011). The predominantly comedy Tom Hanks celebrated his breakthrough as an actor with Big and Punchline - The Knalleffekt , which should pave the way for him to serious roles.

English language review

Janet Maslin praised in the New York Times that Hanks' acting performance was striking and that he was a joy in the film because of his open eyes, his excitement and his wonderful innocence (Mr. Hanks's performance, Big also has a distinct edge. Wide-eyed, excited and wonderfully guileless, Mr. Hanks is an absolute delight) .

James Berardinelli also concluded, 20 years after its release, that the film was still funny, cute and a little nervous. In addition, the conveyed feelings seem real and would not be presented so blatantly (The film is funny, sweet, and even a little edgy. It's also emotionally honest and almost never crass) . He also found it relaxing that there was no real villain in the movie (There are no true villains in the movie, which allows the plot to unfold in a natural, relaxed manner.) , That the movie was happy and not necessarily stupid Laughing would give (Although Big is generally lighthearted, it rarely plays for stupid laughs.) .

In the Washington Post , Hal Hinson praised Hanks for not only being ideal for the role, but also of the potential he has and that he could be a great actor (Hanks is just boyish enough (and just goofy-looking enough) to be the ideal actor for this role. And he shows us what a generous, likable performer he can be) . He also liked that the scriptwriters had written different layers into the film. On the one hand there is the level at which the child wants to get away from its parents so that it can play in peace, and on the other hand the level at which women can fall in love with the child within the man again and again (The screen writers Gary Ross and Anne Spielberg have built several layers of fantasy into their script, and on one level the movie is a realization of every boy's wish to get away from his parents and do whatever he please […] another dimension, and for women who've felt that they were in relationships with men whose emotional development hovered somewhere around the 12-year-old level) .

Big was voted number 42 on the 100 Years ... 100 Laughs list by the American Film Institute in 2000 and ranked 10th in the best fantasy films of all time in June 2008. The film was also voted 190 of the best 500 films of all time by Empire magazine.

German language criticism

Lothar R. Rust wrote in the yearbook Film 1989 : “A wonderful comedy, sensitively staged by one of the few Hollywood women, Penny Marshall. Josh's trip into the future and the gentle way back brings any déjà-vu moments with humor, pep and lovable brio. "

The film service called Big by far the most charming and well-composed of all role-swap films in recent times and praised the comedic talent of its director Penny Marshall. The film seems "funny and touching at the same time". The viewer sees a world “which is technically highly developed, but emotionally threatens to remain at the level of the Stone Age”. The character of Tom Hanks is used rather counterpoint against career addiction in business life, while "the return to feelings is offered as a desirable alternative to reckless" elbow thinking "".

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung noted that a summary of the contents of Big sounded "dreadfully teasing and cozy", but in fact director Penny Marshall skilfully avoided all "pitfalls of sentimentality" and occasionally smuggled "a pinch of social criticism" into the film. The main actor Tom Hanks was praised, who managed to let the viewer foresee the child in man at every moment without appearing infantile. At the same time, the film would have sparked a heated debate in the USA about the “child in the American male world”.

The lexicon of international films saw the film as "a briskly staged and credibly played entertaining role-swapping comedy that breaks a lance for the child within the man and for real feelings."

Awards

The film received nine awards and was nominated for eleven more. Mainly leading actor Tom Hanks, the screenwriters Gary Ross and Anne Spielberg, as well as the film itself were considered. Among other things , Big received :

Extended cut

On May 8, 2007, 20th Century Fox released the Extended Version of Big, which is 26 minutes longer, on DVD . The Blu-ray release with the same content took place on May 12, 2009. In Germany, the Extended Cut was only released in early 2014.

Individual alternative scenes were inserted, for example where Josh and Billy are sitting in the pipe or waiting for the bus to New York City. Several scenes have been extended by a few seconds and individual dialog scenes have been added. The story intensified around the alleged kidnapping of Josh with the police, the relationship between Paul and Susan and Billy's attempt to contact Josh during the course of the film. New scenes were also shown. Here's how Josh tries to buy a tailcoat to shine at the company party. Susan reluctantly attends a staff birthday party at the beginning of the film, and Billy's family is shown. Josh's father, played by actor Josh Clark , appears, whose scenes have been completely cut from the original theatrical version.

"Big" musical

Big had in 1996 as a musical based on the text by Richard Maltby Jr., the book by John Weidman and music by David Shire for the first time in January in Detroit its first performance before April 8 to October 13 193 performances at the Shubert Theater on Broadway experienced. It was panned by the criticism and was also quite unsuccessful. Even so, it was nominated for four Tony Awards , received one Theater World Award nomination, and won seven awards out of 10 Drama Desk Award nominations. Only after the musical was revised again and went on tour, it became both a hit with the public and a musical appreciated by critics.

Four years after its premiere in the New York Times , Alvin Klein wrote that Big can no longer be viewed as a failure because it was pleasantly good (Big 'cannot be cavalierly dismissed as a failed musical that was no match for a blockbuster movie. It is satisfyingly good - and it was shortchanged.) .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b cf. Company credits in the Internet Movie Database (accessed May 18, 2011).
  2. ↑ a b c cf. O'Toole, Lawrence: NY CLIPS Hey doctor, tell me the prognosis . In: The Globe and Mail , February 27, 1987 (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft )
  3. ↑ a b c d James Berardinelli: Big on reelviews.com from July 20, 2009 ( English ), accessed May 17, 2011
  4. ↑ a b c Trivia about the film on imdb.com , accessed on May 17, 2011
  5. ↑ Information about the film on presseportal.de from May 17, 2005 ( German ), accessed on May 17, 2011
  6. ^ Matt Groening: The Trivial Simpsons 2008 366-Day Calendar . Harper Collins Publishers, 2007, ISBN 0-06-123130-4 .
  7. ↑ See Design News, 1988 (photocopy of the article on flickr.com , accessed on May 17, 2011)
  8. ↑ Elaine Louie A Piano You Can Walk On on nytimes.com of 29 September 1988 ( English ), accessed May 17, 2011
  9. ↑ Big on boxofficemojo.com , accessed May 17, 2011.
  10. ↑ cf. Big . In: The large TV feature film film lexicon (CD-ROM). Directmedia Publ., 2006. - ISBN 978-3-89853-036-1 . P. 1419.
  11. ↑ Big on ofdb.de , accessed on May 17, 2011
  12. ↑ a b Big at Rotten Tomatoes , accessed October 22, 2014
  13. ↑ a b Big at Metacritic , accessed October 22, 2014
  14. ↑ Big in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  15. ↑ Big on rottentomatoes.com , accessed May 17, 2011.
  16. ↑ cf. Tom Hanks . In: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 49/2010 of December 7, 2010 (accessed via Munzinger Online ).
  17. ↑ Janet Maslin : Review / Film; Tom Hanks as a 13-year-old, in 'Big' on nytimes.com from ( English ), accessed May 17, 2011
  18. ↑ Hal Hinson 'Big' on washingtonpost.com, June 3, 1988 ( English ), accessed May 17, 2011
  19. ↑ 100 Years ... 100 Laughs list on afi.com , accessed on May 18, 2011
  20. ↑ Top 10 Fantasy List on afi.com , accessed on May 18, 2011
  21. ↑ The 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time on empireonline.com , accessed May 18, 2011
  22. ^ Lothar R. Just: Film Yearbook 1989. Heyne, Munich, 1990 ISBN 3-453-03012-5 >
  23. ↑ cf. Review by R.-R. Hamacher im film-dienst 19/1988 (accessed via Munzinger Online )
  24. ↑ Uthmann, Jörg von: Kind im Manne . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, August 2, 1988, p. 21.
  25. ↑ cf. Awards at imdb.com (accessed May 18, 2011).
  26. ↑ Data on Big's musical on ibdb.com , accessed May 18, 2011
  27. ↑ Hughes, David-Edward. "Big Changes For Seattle's Big Premiere Tonight at the Paramount" ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. playbill.com February 17, 1998 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.playbill.com
  28. ↑ Alvin Klein: The Good News: 'Big' Is Back on nytimes.com of 20 August 2000 ( English ), accessed May 18, 2011