Wall Street
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Oliver Stones remarkable film transports us to 1986, where we meet Bud Fox played by Charlie Sheen, a young executive bored with his tedious job as a trader. He dreams of becoming a heavy hitter in his corporate profession and sets his sights on a famous Wall Street wizard named Gordon Gekko played by Michael Douglas.
Bud sees his future and dream of fortune in Gordon, the epitome of the 80s stock and real-estate speculator. Always the studious and honest hard worker, Bud soon realizes that in order to make it to the top of the corporate ladder and become a power player among the business world elite, he must lie, cheat and steal. Bud stops listening to his conscience and soon becomes lured into the illegal but lucrative world of corporate espionage by his new found mentor and hero, Gordon. In no time at all, Bud assumes the “yuppy” (young urban professional) status he has always dreamed of.
With his posh Upper East Side apartment, equipped with state of the art electronics and gourmet food appliances, Bud has established himself in the business world, and it rejoicing with the celebration of greed. With the seven-digit bank account and the tall blonde played by Daryl Hannah on his arm, Bud has everything he could possibly want, except the ability to look at himself in the mirror or have a good nights rest. Buds moral and ethical choices begin to haunt him, as he is alienated from his coworkers and blue collar father, who already sees the corruption and greed which is common in his sons work.
“Stockwatch,” the organization that investigates insider trading, is soon hot on Buds trail as his monetary empire begins to crumble around him. He has one last chance to save his fathers pride and regain his moral character before all his corporate wheeling and dealing land him in the slammer.
Oliver Stone’s central focus of this film is greed. He shows the highs and lows of greed through Gekko and Fox. The famous quote “Greed is good” plays an important role in the film because it’s what Gekko and Bud live by. Gekko spends all day trying to make as much money as he possibly can, and he cheerfully bends and breaks the law to make even more millions. In his personal life he has everything he could possibly want, wife, family, estate, pool, limousine, priceless art objects and they are all just additional entries on the scoreboard. He likes to win. He’s greedy.
Gekko becomes a sort of twisted mentor to Bud, introducing Bud to the mysterious world of international high finance and the illusory realms of stock and real-estate speculation. Bud takes the slow road to greed, but it doesnt take him long to go from honest protestations that insider trading is illegal to using privileged information to engineer a Gekko takeover of his dads employer, Bluestar.
However while Stone shows the upsides of greed, he also shows what can happen when greed takes over your life. Bud’s taste of the high life, amazing new apartment, drugs, sophisticated girlfriend doesnt last long before everything starts to fall apart, and his betrayals of his family and friends turn around and starts the downfall of everything he created with greed. Bud readjusts his priorities, and escapes the world of illegal activity, deception, and greed.
What Stone is trying to focus on in the film is that