Line #8 Film/AnAlanSmitheeFilmBurnHollywoodBurn


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/an_alan_smithee_film_burn_hollywood_burn.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300: They weren't kidding with that {{tagline}}.]]
3
4	''An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn'' is a 1998 American {{mockumentary}} comedy film directed by Creator/ArthurHiller (in his final theatrical film), written by Creator/JoeEszterhas, and starring Creator/EricIdle. It is a satire of the filmmaking business.
5
6	A director (Idle) has been allowed to direct ''Trio'', a big-budget action film starring Creator/SylvesterStallone, Creator/WhoopiGoldberg and Creator/JackieChan (all three of them [[AsHimself played by themselves]]). The studio recuts the film, and when the director sees the results, he wants to disown the film. Problem is, he can't use the AlanSmithee pseudonym used in Hollywood when someone does not want to have their name attached to a bad film, because his name ''is'' Alan Smithee, so he steals the film negative and goes on the run, threatening to destroy it.
7
8	[[OvershadowedByControversy The film is best known for]] how its plot eventually, and ironically, described the film's own production: [[LifeImitatesArt director Hiller requested that his name be removed from its credits after witnessing the final cut completed by the studio]]. The film's creation set off a chain of events [[TropeBreaker which would lead the Directors Guild of America to officially discontinue the Alan Smithee credit]].
9
10	----
11	!!This film contains examples of:
12	* AlanSmithee: Invoked. The plot of the film is about how a director wants his name out of the [[ShowWithinAShow Film Within a Film]], but can't, because ''he really is named Alan Smithee'' in-universe. However, as noted in more detail in the Trivia page, this pseudonym ended up also being applied to ''this'' film in real life.
13	* ArtisticLicenseFilmProduction: Even back during the days when films were shot and edited on celluloid film, Smithee's destroying the master print of ''Trio'' would at best have been a minor inconvenience. Back in those days, the development labs would strike multiple physical film reels from each negative, meaning that all that the producers would have to do would be call up the lab, get them to ship over some spare reels, then use them to re-assemble the film -- a process that would take maybe a couple of days at the absolute most. The plot would ''maybe'' have worked had it been focusing around the production of a low-budget, independent film, which often were directly edited from the camera negative back in those days, but a major studio would never have done anything so risky. If anything, the real problem that the studio would have faced would have been the bad publicity generated by Smithee's actions.
14	* AsHimself: The actors of the film-within-a-film, and many Hollywood figures such as Creator/ShaneBlack.
15	* CaptionHumor: Some of the characters are introduced with graphics with demeaning ("Jerry Glover: President, Challenger Films; Moron; Liar; Nickname—The Dwarf; Wimp") or sarcastic captions ("Sylvester Stallone: superstar, rocket scientist, brain surgeon").
16	* ChairReveal: Creator/RyanONeal gets a pointless chair reveal at one point. It's one of the many things Creator/RogerEbert makes fun of in [[http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/an-alan-smithee-film-burn-hollywood-burn-1998 his review,]] along with it being a reference to the reveal of Music/FrankSinatra in Mike Todd's ''Film/AroundTheWorldInEightyDays1956''.
17	* DirtyOldMan: Veteran producer Robert Evans [[AdamWesting is depicted as]] a creepy whoremonger who insists on being called "Daddy" by his well-compensated partners because "incest turns them on."
18	* DoItYourselfThemeTune: Chuck D, who appears in the film as Leon Brothers, also wrote its title song and various other bits of the soundtrack.
19	* DoubleEntendre: The film is split into three acts, each of which references sex in some way and has a title card related to the literal meaning, those being "Missionary Position", "Whips and Chains", and "Doggie Style".
20	* DownerEnding: If one sides with Smithee, anyway. [[spoiler:Smithee is committed to an insane asylum, and despite him having burnt the only existing print of the film, the studio ends up making a profit anyway when they produce a documentary about how Smithee went crazy.]]
21	* ExecutiveMeddling: In-universe, the director wants to disown his film after he sees the results of the studio having recut it.
22	* HorribleHollywood: As the title bluntly suggests, the film lampoons Hollywood, as it's about a director who first has to contend with prima donna actors, then experiences ExecutiveMeddling in-universe when the studio recuts the film.
23	* LoopedLyrics: One of the soundtrack's songs is "I Wanna Be Mike Ovitz", whose title is also most of the lyrics.
24	* NoodleIncident: We never see or learn anything about the [[ShowWithinAShow film within a film Trio]] aside from the trailer. As such, it's somewhat of a PlotHole that everyone [[TakeOurWordForIt says it's so terrible,]] as, going from the trailer, it actually looks pretty cool.
25	* PlotHole:
26	** It's said that critics enjoyed watching ''Trio'', but it was also stated that the film never got released because of Smithee's actions, so how did critics get to see ''Trio'' if it never got released?
27	** Relatedly, if ''Trio'' ''was'' somehow seen by critics and got good reception, why did the creator think it was so terrible and want his name removed?
28	* RealJokeName: The director can't use the Alan Smithee pseudonym, because his name ''is'' Alan Smithee.
29	* SelfDeprecation: Smithee describes the film after being recut by the studio as being "worse than ''Film/{{Showgirls}}''". This film was written by Joe Eszterhas, who was also the writer of ''Showgirls''.
30	* ShoutOut: For whatever reason, the cards showing the "acts" are scored with the ''Westernanimation/WoodyWoodpecker'' theme.
31	* ShowWithinAShow: ''Trio'', the big-budget action film that the director wants to get rid of.
32	* TakeThat: The film is full of Joe Eszterhas mocking Hollywood and everyone involved with it, from the film press to certain producers he didn't like, in particular Michael S. Ovitz, who he had a very public fallout with.
33	* TroubledProduction: ''[[InUniverse Trio]]'' has this as Creator/JackieChan, Creator/SylvesterStallone, and Creator/WhoopiGoldberg are prima-donnas, and the studio ends editing the film behind the director's back.[[invoked]]
34	* VoodooShark: Smithee's threat to destroy the master copy of ''Trio'' is explained to be such a big deal because he was only able to shoot one take of every single scene, due to the three lead actors all having such SmallNameBigEgo complexes that they each believe their first takes to be absolute perfection and won't do additional takes. Not only would this be a incredibly risky and idiotic way to produce a film -- if there was ''anything'' wrong with any of the takes that wasn't initially obvious during filming, then they'd be screwed -- but Smithee's threat to burn the negative would still have been an empty one, for the reasons described under ArtisticLicenseFilmProduction.

Context Film / AnAlanSmitheeFilmBurnHollywoodBurn