Samantha McCarthy
Professor Luke Vasilelou
Eng 103
24 May 2011
Based on the movie Look Who’s Talking NYC in the 1980s portrayed how realistically New York City was compared to now, whether it was social, political or economic at the time. NYC has always been known to be a fast, busy and always stuck in traffic type of place. People travel from many different countries still though to make a better living condition for their families. Mid 80s the violent crime in NYC had decreased in the last 15 years. The crime rate spiked in the 1980s and early 1990, when crack came to the city. The train fare was only fifty cents per ride. Jobs were easy to look about and it all depended on the experience you had. Housing was hard to find because you had several abandon housing more than apartment or housing to rent.
At the time Ronald Regan was in office and he was the oldest president to be elected as the 40th president. Clubs, schools and restaurants were reasonable to attend but even back then there were some hustling and bustling going on in the city. That’s to show you how NYC hasn’t changed much since the 1980s. Segregation was already over so it wasn’t an issue at the time for blacks & whites to be in the same location. The boom on Wall Street caused the real estate market and unemployment numbers to dropped extremely. the city got rid of discrimination between gays and lesbian people within the employment and housing matter in 1986.In the last two years of Edward Koch was major homelessness became a serious issue during 1978- 1990. The world trade center on September 11 made a huge impact on the city.
Into the 90s women were becoming more independent .They had high class jobs and could provide for themselves. For example, the taxi cab driver (john tavotte) made reference to the NYC traffic. The business man neglected to give molly the cab when she was in labor because he was in a rush. Men in the corporate world like to have power and control over things.
At the time the taxi driver assume she had a husband or boyfriend because she was pregnant. But off the back by hear saying she didn’t have either and she was arterials inseminated people thought it was either because she was ugly or a lesbian. In life now maybe your partner can not produce and you have to get frozen sperm in order to produce a baby and that’s understandable.
Having a Family was important that the time. It was custom to have a two parent household. Shown in the movie molly had a strong desire to find a father for her child, even though she was independent enough to take care of her child on her own. The movie can come unrealistic because it happened so fast so we don’t get to see a day to day progress .for instances in the movie it seem like just two days ago little mikey was born and she met the taxi driver while rushing him to take her to the hospital. The next sense mikey is big and that taxi driver is in the house putting molly to bed and taking mikey for a ride in his cab.
The movie also depicts the class structure and the means of survival within the city. James the cab driver has two different jobs and is very creative in finding ways of meeting his financial needs. Making $1100 a month in comparison to what molly is an accounting makes a significantly difference. We also see where as a single mother, molly is able to provide a comfortable atmosphere as hiring a babysitter in the charter of James. This was a clear indicator of the class and economical structure of the society at the time.
The Mets is represented like a symbol because molly mom is wearing the sweat shirt and most times when you see the Mets people think NYC, So it a identifications of NYC. Accounting was use by a paper based method which was causing NYC to lose $600 million a year in uncollected taxes. As evidence in the movie molly is manual typing in the numbers and doing the calculations from out her head manually. (Stated from the New York Magazine may 14, 1984) From 1989 to 1922 the city suffered loss in mandatory growth. In this day in age everything is computerized so accountants have an easier task to get the job done quicker and faster.
In Manhattan the medium price for homes “dropped by more than a quarter, construction declined by a third, and the city lost one-tenth of its jobs”. (Stated from the New York magazine.)The market was further destabilized by bond bedding and jacked up interest rate. Employees were made redundant; there were various merges acquisitions, and buyouts of companies. “Wall street alone saw 16,000 layoff in the two years before the recession even began”. Referring back to the movie when James went to his second job to get his schedule, nothing was on it and Carrie informed him that they had to lay him off because of the recession.
In 1989 New York City was financial different regarding the salary for certain jobs, the rent to live in certain locations and the cost of certain items. For instance a paralegal would make around 28,000 a year, a register nurse would make 20,000 a year and a computer programmer would make an average of 27, 00 per year. Housing range for a new house cost around $68,714.00 and by 1989 was $120,000.00. A gallon of gas was $1.19 and a year later was 97 cents. During those times pricey was really reasonable. A new car was just $7,210.00 but soon rose by 1989 to $15,400.00. A pair of Nike air force shoes was $54.99. Milk was 85 cents for ½ gallon. Bunk beds with mattress were $148. In the movie Molly was an accountant and she made enough money per year to be a single mother and raise her child. James only drives a cab which therefore he wasn’t able to afford everything that he would have like to. For instance in order to make a long distance phone call to call his mother & family, he would pretend he was a lost messenger. Go to huge corporation and the receptionist would allow him to use their phone. He also knew how to get free lunches in 20 different restaurants.
Look who’s talking is a 1989 film produce in New York City directed and written by Amy Hecrkling.the stars were John Travolta( James), Kristie alley(Mollie) and Olympia Dukakis( Mollie mom). The release date was October 13, 1989. The budget was $7.5 million but after gross revenue the movie made $296,999,813.
Mollie is a single mother who is on a mission to find a reliable and normal boyfriend. Her son mikey seem to find the job easier because he has a better clue of which one of the guys his mom goes out with would make an excellent father figure in his life.mikey is only a baby so Mollie isn’t able to understand mikey when he makes the decision for her. Mollie lives and works as an accountant in New York City.mikey father is her latest Clint, He is married and stills embarks on having an affair with her. He even made a promise to leave his wife for her. Deep down Mollie feels that the relationship need to stop because it is wrong but then continues to have sex with him and becomes pregnant. When giving Albert the news he took it well and said “he would always be there for his baby and raise him with her. Meanwhile Mollie decide to keep it a secret ad tell her parents that there is no father and there was a sperm donor. She finds out that Albert is seeing another woman, she gets upset and it causes her to suddenly go into labor. James is her taxi driver, realized her situation and tried to get her to the hospital as soon as possible. A few days later James brought Mollie her purse she left in his taxi. Mikey & Him starts to enjoy each other company. When she offered him a job to babysit mikey this causes them to become even closer. When Mollie was arguing with the manger where James grandfather stays, Mikey escaped from James grandfather.Mikey then notice a taxi outside and thought it was James, so he followed it. He then ends up standing in the middle of NYC traffic while still trying to look for James. James and Mollie finds him and reuse him from the street, when suddenly mikey calls him da-da. Mollie then realized that James is the perfect father figure for her son and for herself.
In my belief life in the movie was very realistic political, economic and social. Relating to the movie women was in the working field and very independent. The average salary at the time was reasonable because nothing was as expensive that the people were struggling to meet ends meet. The average rent was good enough of money because molly as a single mother was able to work, take care of her baby and still have money to go out and look a boyfriend. NYC has always been known to be a fast going, busy and always traffic type of city. James had trouble getting to the hospital, which was prime example to show the reality of NYC. People travel to NYC to make a better living ennovriment for their families. Relating to the movie you can tell moly had more money than James because she didn’t have to sneak in places to feed her child and James always had a way of getting around things in a mysterious way. Economical Back in the 1980s violent crimes was get a very high peek and as time moved on it started to increase. NYC will always have crimes because you have your lower class and upper class. The upper may be afford to pay for such things but the lower class may not but still want to have it , so that’s when they would steal.
Worked Cited
(n.d.). Retrieved from www.thepeoplehistory.com
New York Magazine, May 14, 1948
The Wall Street journal
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