"That's a nice-a donut."

Thursday, October 20, 2005

Wall Street (1987)

Wall Street is Oliver Stone's opus on the high-stakes, dog-eat-dog world of 1980s New York and the financial industry. The movie has since been sort of deconstructed into a single, very familiar line from a speech by the infamous Gordon Gekko ("greed is good"), but it goes deeper than that. A sure-footed script, along with some steady performances, and a nice soundtrack help turn it into a success.

Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) is a young go-getter who works for a stock brokerage in Manhattan and is constantly trying to get a meeting with Mr. Gekko (Michael Douglas), whom he believes is his ticket to the big time. After much persistence, they eventually meet and Bud convinces him to buy some stock through him. It's actually an inside deal, as Bud's blue-collar father Carl (Martin Sheen) is a mechanic with Blue Star Airlines, which recently was on the side of a favorable ruling by the FAA. Sure enough the stock goes up and Bud is on the fast track to success, courtesy of Gekko's mentorship. He is quickly winning sales records for his office, buying a coveted high-rise condo, and schmoozing with rich men and alluring women.

Many of the business scenes, such as on the floor of the stock exchange or on the phones in the brokerage offices, are among the best in the movie. Some of the movie became instantly dated with the liberal use of 80s fashions and the now-hilariously old computer models, but the frenetic Wall Street office environments and the visible stress that many coworkers show defy time, and are very relatable. What may be more striking for many viewers though, is the lust for money and status that these sharks have and how easily people can become seduced and overcome by greed. Stone builds much of the movie on this premise. It works for the most part, but the ending is rather sudden and a little too audience-friendly.

Douglas is very convincing as Gekko, and has more or less built his subsequent career on playing the role of the upper-class wealthy middle-aged man. He won the Academy Award as a lead actor for this, though it should be noted that (a) his Gekko plays more of a supporting role to Bud, and (b) he won solely based on his scene-stealing greed speech. Charlie Sheen more than holds his own though and, watching this again, I am left to wonder why his career took such a downward path. He was a bit of a bad boy for a period, but certainly nothing worse than what Russell Crowe does on any given night. In any case, he brings an innocent charm to the role that helps to identify with his character. You might be angry with him for turning to the dark side, but you can at least go along with it and try to understand it.

I wish that Stone had spent more time on the relationship between Bud and his father. Foreshadowing his tenure in The West Wing, Martin's Carl is a working man with an idealistic mind, and it would have been very interesting to learn about what drove Bud to Wall Street and about how it affected Carl. What drove Bud to buy into the lifestyle of greed? You'll just have to answer that on your own. And, by the way, the quote is actually: "greed, for lack of a better word, is good." Do you agree?

The Verdict: B+.

Michael Bentley 1:04 PM

"That's a nice-a donut."

Thursday, October 20, 2005

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