We live in a society that places a heavy importance on media, just think about all the people who watch Keeping up with the Kardashians. We allow ourselves to be influenced by what a certain type of person has to say; these people are media creators. We turn on the television every morning or pay fifteen dollars to sit in a mediocrely comfortable chair for two hours and open our minds to allow them to be infiltrated by their ideas. While we take everything they say with a grain of salt, we are paying them to plant their thoughts in our minds. So I do believe that artists, specifically directors, producers, and sometimes actors can play a large role in depicting class structures.
In his movie Wall Street, Stone portrays the social structure of a city of vast diversity. Bud Fox comes from a middle class family and is willing to work hard to climb his way up the social-financial ladder. Fox has two role models in his life; his father and Gordon Gekko. Gekko is an affluent man who had climbed the same ladder in his day. Fox’s interaction with the two characters is mean to depict the difference in class. When Fox meets with his father they meet in a local bar in Queens; they are surrounded by men of the working class who appear to be relaxing after a long day on the job. When Fox meets with Gekko for a drink it is in his home that is covered in expensive paintings and filled with clearly rich people. Fox’s elevation on the ladder is depicted by a transformation towards a life similar to Gekko’s. What’s interesting to note about both Bud and Gordon is that they are “new money”. Gekko made his first large sum of money on a real estate transaction and since then has continued to look for opportunities to make money. Gekko stops at nothing to make money, he will make promises and then hurt people in breaking them. Fox was so desperate to escape the middle class he was willing to go against the law and risk the security of his family. In making Gekko the representative of the upper class and Carl Fox the representative of the lower class, Stone was clear in his depiction of the classes—the upper class ruthless and the lower class hardworking. These stereotypes don’t allow any room for a gray area; Stone didn’t give the characters another dimension that would allow them the opportunity to be multifaceted. They were either bad or good.
Scorcese’s film, Taxi Driver briefly depicts a relationship between a woman in the upper middle class and a man of the lower class who is disgusted by it. Travis Bickle works the night shift and parts of the city that are best seen in the dark. He sees pimps, drug dealers, hookers, and thieves. Travis and Betsy are attracted to each other and can’t help but “follow an impulse”. Betsy ends things with Travis when he takes her to watch a pornographic movie on their date. She sees their class distinction and can’t find a way to get past it despite all the flowers he sends her. In the end of the film when Travis has gained public attention for his heroic act she attempts to get in contact with him again and he turns her down. Like Stone, Scorcese intends to depict the upper class in a disdainful manner. Betsy had avoided Travis when he appeared to be like the rest of the lower class but as soon as he makes it to the papers he appears to be worth her attention again. Another relationship developed in the film is between Travis and a twelve-year-old prostitute name Iris who ran away from home in hopes of liberation. Unlike Stone, Scorcese breaks the lower class in two—heros and pimps.
Both directors had intentions of defacing the upper class and the difference between them is that Stone tried to generalize the lower class as good. Scorcese added to the lower class a dimension that showed that money wasn’t the sole unit on the good-evil meter.
