By Paul Costello
This week sees the general UK release of Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street, biography of Jordan Belfort, noted financial fraudster and sex-haver. In honour of this, we turn our attention to probably moviedom’s most famous Wall Street inhabitant: Gordon Gekko.
This week sees the general UK release of Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street, biography of Jordan Belfort, noted financial fraudster and sex-haver. In honour of this, we turn our attention to probably moviedom’s most famous Wall Street inhabitant: Gordon Gekko.
Oliver Stone had several jobs prior to his becoming the filmmaker we know today, and some of those jobs would inspire future classics of mainstream American cinema. His most famous example of using past experience to good filmmaking effect was translating his time as a soldier in Vietnam into 1986’s Oscar-winning Platoon. However, it’s not as well known that Stone’s father, Louis, was a stockbroker on Wall Street, and who suffered serious financial difficulties after a string of bad investments, which ultimately led to young Oliver’s parents divorcing. This, combined with Stone’s time working in the Paris mercantile exchange as a teenager and the rise of 1980s corporate excess, ultimately led to his making the 1987 film Wall Street.
Wall Street remains every bit as scathing and cynical today as it was when it was released nearly 30 years ago. Following the tale of an ambitious young stockbroker, Bud (Charlie Sheen) looking to get in on the action and swing with the big boys, who comes under the tutelage of his idol, the legendary corporate raider Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas). Through a combination of hero worship and huge material gain, Bud falls further into the heady world of capitalistic greed, coming ever closer to the line that separates the good from the corrupt.
Wall Street remains every bit as scathing and cynical today as it was when it was released nearly 30 years ago. Following the tale of an ambitious young stockbroker, Bud (Charlie Sheen) looking to get in on the action and swing with the big boys, who comes under the tutelage of his idol, the legendary corporate raider Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas). Through a combination of hero worship and huge material gain, Bud falls further into the heady world of capitalistic greed, coming ever closer to the line that separates the good from the corrupt.
This is the second time that Michael Douglas has appeared in this series of Movie Monologues, and he shall most certainly be back again (the man knows his way around a good speech), but this is without a doubt his most famous, his most imitated and his most easily summarised in three words: “Greed Is Good”. Indeed, this is regarded as the centrepiece to the film, the moment where the viewpoint of its loathsome but charismatic antagonist are crystallised. Presented as a treatise on corporate moral relativism, the speech is itself a damning indictment of the kind of attitude it takes to get ahead not only in business, but in America. And you have to admit, it sure is convincing.
Douglas works his Gordon Gekko into every aspect of this speech, playing to the crowd as the rationalist, the truth-teller, the one who will tell it like it needs to be told. He plays down or flat out ignores the outbursts of those he decries, giving him that much more command of the room. No dip, no stumble, no weakness in his presentation. And just watch how he doesn’t blink once from the moment the key phrase lands… uninterrupted eye contact with the whole room. Capitalism never seemed so up front and honest.
Setting the scene: Bud is now completely under the spell of Gordon Gekko, accompanying him to the stockholders meeting for company Teldar Paper, which Gekko wants to buy, ejecting the existing management structure. After a barbed and accusatory introduction by Teldar’s chairman Cromwell, Gekko stands out from the crowd, takes a microphone and begins his dissemination of the future of Teldar…
Douglas works his Gordon Gekko into every aspect of this speech, playing to the crowd as the rationalist, the truth-teller, the one who will tell it like it needs to be told. He plays down or flat out ignores the outbursts of those he decries, giving him that much more command of the room. No dip, no stumble, no weakness in his presentation. And just watch how he doesn’t blink once from the moment the key phrase lands… uninterrupted eye contact with the whole room. Capitalism never seemed so up front and honest.
Setting the scene: Bud is now completely under the spell of Gordon Gekko, accompanying him to the stockholders meeting for company Teldar Paper, which Gekko wants to buy, ejecting the existing management structure. After a barbed and accusatory introduction by Teldar’s chairman Cromwell, Gekko stands out from the crowd, takes a microphone and begins his dissemination of the future of Teldar…
RSS Feed
