Review of Wall Street (1987) by Matt K — 28 Jul 2014
While Oliver Stone's 1987 classic "Wall Street" presents itself as anti-wall street/anti-stockbroker in reality it could be set in any large multinational corporation. The overriding point is the wrongness of corporate greed and the actions of the Gordon Gekkos of this world.
Imagine the same (slightly less glamorous) picture being set in modern day amazon - a corporation so large it can afford to lower prices to levels where it makes a loss on products in order to beat competitors and then raise them to monopolistic levels once competitors such as independent book stores have been crushed.
As with all films that feature Wall Street and a glamourous life of greed (remember "greed is good") the viewer enjoys watching the young protagonist make more money in a year than others do in a lifetime, however what Stone does expertly is making the viewer feel guilty about thoroughly enjoying the films first act.
The best and most personal scenes of the film are those with Charlie and real life father Martin Sheen with the emotional climax being Bud visiting his father in hospital after he suffered a metaphorical heartbreak.
The way in which Bud brings down Gekko; through using the tricks that Gekko himself had been using to metaphorically eat up the insects of the business world is the real triumph of the film. Finally we cannot sympathise more with Fox sr.
when he says a stint in prison will do his son good, we accept that our protagonist has done wrong and we know he deserves punishment.
This review of Wall Street (1987) was written by Matt K on 28 Jul 2014.
Wall Street has generally received positive reviews.
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