Review of The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) by Brian S — 15 Jan 2015

The setting of the movie starts off close to Black Monday, the day in which the stock market crashed and confiscated the jobs of many people, including the job of a character named Jordan. Jordan Belfort, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, is the perfect exemplification of innocence turned malicious with the influence of reality.

After losing his job with the stock market crash, Jordan learns that in order to survive and live the lavish life he's always dreamed of, he's got to become a wolf, a thirsty beast in constant hunt for prey (which here is the money).

With a brand new mind set to succeed no matter what, Jordan works his way up from selling penny stocks under a shabby company to creating his own company, Stratton. With the help of many friends and associates such as the character named Donnie, his right hand man, Jordan takes a company that started in an empty storage-like room to a multimillion dollar corporation.

With success, money, and a change of mindset to a hungry wolf, Jordan is introduced to all the perks money comes with in society. His life is centered on the malicious and lustful things of the world such as drugs, women, and sex.

His daily routines changed from working hard every day to rather smoking a line of cocaine daily, having sexual relations with hookers, lying, and influencing others to live this so called lavish life he lives.

With money came massive power, a status in which seemed to allow Jordan to do whatever he practically wanted to. But sooner than expected, Jordan finds himself as a target amongst the police as they begin to invest in the illegal activities he had been involved with such as money laundering and keeping hidden accounts with a Swiss banker.

I guess you can say that he received consequences for his actions, as he loses his Duchess wife Naomi and their child, his position as the CEO of Stratton, his partners, and his business deal with the infamous shoe company Steve Madden, and is sentenced to a few years in prison.

But, it was neither the introduction nor the climax of the story line that interested me the most; it was the ending that struck me the true reality of the movie. Even though to the public's eye Jordan seemed to have lost everything he could, in reality he's still smiling at the end of the day as he maintained the two most precious things in his life, money and power.

Because with money and power, Jordan proves to us that reality is not the reality everyone seems to have witnessed as the movie ends with him in a different high class level prison, allowing him to play tennis in luxurious joggers.

So with that being the ending, the honest catch I got out from this movie was that society is cruel, but because it is also shallow, those with money and power can still win the heart of society and reality.