Summary

Wall Street (1987) is a film set in New York City about investing through the stock exchange on insider knowledge. The film exposes the ruthless, capitalistic tendencies of businessmen who will stop at nothing to make a fortune. The movie features Charlie Sheen who plays the protagonist Bud Fox, a young intelligent stock broker, alongside Michael Douglas, who depicts Gordon Gekko, an extremely wealthy Wall Street corporate raider. Fox initially approaches his role model, Gekko with pure intentions- Bud proposes stock pitches to the multimillionaire, however Gekko is unsatisfied with Bud’s research. He already has brokers under his wing to research the latest companies and trends, however Gekko wants knowledge he has no access to in order to be surprised. With sheer desperation to impress his hero, Bud provides the powerful man with insider information about Bluestone Airlines, the company his dad has been working in for decades. The information he shares is not yet public knowledge, thus illegal to trade off of. Gekko makes a sizable sum from this knowledge, and proceeds to open an account with Bud though Bud’s work at a second-tier firm.

Once Bud is flagged under Gekko’s wing, he begins to transform from an innocent, honest man striving to make a living on Wall Street into a scheming, money hungry business leech. He spies on CEO Lawrence Wildman, one of Gekko’s competitors, to determine his next move. Bud discovers Wildman is planning on closing a deal on a Steel Company when he finds Wildman’s flight is landing in Pennsylvania. This tip helps Gekko earn a mini fortune, which signifies Bud’s peak success in the movie. He gets a taste of living the lavish, material life of his hero. At this point, Bud rises to become the president trader of his firm, Gekko buys him a penthouse on the Upper East Side, and he shares his glory with his new partner, Darien. After some successful deals, Bud tries to pitch his own idea to Gekko- to buy Bluestone Airlines and help revive the company with his 3-point plan. For Bud, the company possesses emotional value, as his father is a devoted worker for the airline. Gekko deceives Bud and plans to break up the company and sell it instead; the ruthless corporate raider uses Bud as a pawn to gain loyalty and trust with the Bluestone leaders. When Bud discovers he has been used, he finally sees how far he has fallen from his respectable past. He cultivates a plan to use the cheating techniques Gekko taught him to win back the company. After he does so, Gekko outs him to the Securities and Exchange Commision. At the end of the movie, Bud exposes Gekko for the fraud he is, however Bud is still guilty and faces possible time behind bars. Despite his presumable sentence, Bud regains his moral conscious and rekindles relationship with his father, knowing that he must face the consequences for his money hungry actions.

Bud Fox (left) and Gordon Gekko (right), played respectively by Charlie Sheen and Michael Douglas

Production

Wall Street (1987) was directed by Oliver Stone, with him and Stanley Weiser as the writers of this film. Stone was born in New York City to Jacqueline Goddet and Louis Stone, a stockbroker in the mid 1900s. He graduated from New York University with a fine arts degree in film, along with Weiser. Years after they graduated, Stone proposed a film idea that was initially known as Greed, but later became the critically acclaimed Wall Street (1987). Not much is revealed about his motivations for the production of this film, but it is worth noting that his Stone’s father was a stockbroker, which Wall Street (1987) revolved around.

Reception

Wall Street (1987) was overall well received by the general audience as well as the critics. It received a rating of 7.2, 7.4, and 8.7 on Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb, and Metacritic respectively from the general audience. For the most part, critics reviews also favored the film. On Rotten Tomatoes, film critics rated the film at 6.8, which is fairly high considering that it is a more critical rating. Cathy Burke of United Press International, an approved reviewer for the Rotten Tomato publications, described the vibe of the film as “both exhilarating and astounding”. She praises the film for one of its most well known scenes that captures the essence of the film – the speech given by Gekko at the Telder Paper’s shareholders’ meeting. As she described it, Gekko’s perspective on greed was “delivered with such cynical force” that it could “lure the angels into the hostile takeover of heaven”. In short, Wall Street (1987) was immensely successful in portraying the idea of greed and selfishness, and that it should be a guiding force of success in the streets of New York City. However, more critical reviewers have deemed the film and its themes of greed and corruption to be overly familiar. For instance, Vincent Canby of The New York Times criticizes the film as it “simply confirms what we all know we should think”. He adds that the film teases the audience of what the reality is for the wealthy, imposing this tantalizing desire for success on the audience. Ultimately, this lingering desire leaves the audience unsatiated with the overall film.

Seminar Themes

One major theme evident in the actions of the protagonists is greed. Much of this movie’s success attributed to the accurate portrayal of the uniqueness of New York City. With a stable job and income of $50,00 annually, Bud could have slowly worked his way up as a sales manager. But he decided to quit that job and work as a stockbroker instead, hoping to score big with one of the greatest Wall Street players, Gordon Gekko. Deemed as the city that never sleeps, New York City is the home to individuals who desire not only wealth, but immediate and rapid success. Gordon and Bud’s roles in the film accurately embodied this ambition. In the speech Gordon made during a shareholder’s meeting, he described greed as a desire to embrace rather than to condone. Greed is inherent in all human beings, but the fast-paced and energetic lifestyle combined with an immeasurable greed and desire for success is something unique to New York City.

Another evident theme throughout the film was morals and norms. Wall Street follows the inner reflection of a man who decides to break from his normal, humble city lifestyle for the opportunity to make it big. He does so illegally, through the concept known as insider trading. Along the way, he even risks destroying the company his father was devoted to for over two decades. The theme of ethics encompasses the main premise of the move- a man struggling to join with the enticing corporate world, who can only do so at a steep price. The capitalist hunger for wealth and power gets the best of Bud. He sacrifices his honor and goodwill for the hopes of making a fortune in New York City. The seminar theme of morals and norms tackles this issue in Manhattan- people are constantly faced with the difficult task of remaining ethical while others gain success through lying and cheating. It seems as though the norm around him in the elite world is to invest off insider knowledge, which is why Bud succumbs to this practice rather than making his living an honest way. He ultimately pays the price at the end of the movie, when his affiliation with Gekko is exposed and he faces time in prison. The final message of the film states that the cost of ‘making it big’ on wall street is too high, for it interferes with the law and what is morally right.

Bibliography

“Biography.” IMDb, IMDb.com, www.imdb.com/name/nm0000231/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm.

Stone, Oliver, et al. “Wall Street.” Wall Street (1987) – Rotten Tomatoes, 7 Nov. 2017, www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wall_street/.

Stone, Oliver, director. Wall Street. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, 1987.

“Wall Street.” Metacritic, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, 11 Dec. 1987, www.metacritic.com/movie/wall-street?ftag=MCD-06-10aaa1c.