Written by: Oliver Stone & Stanley Weiser
Starring: Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, Daryl Hannah, Martin Sheen, Hal Holbrook
Rating: [4/5]
Often used pejoratively for a lack of production but rather transactional professionals only hoping to buy and destroy “Wall Street” certainly has a reputation issue. A place where greed thrives far more than any other industry and the film Wall Street certainly does nothing to dissuade this notion. A film that advocates for the inherent goodness of greed and shady dealings, it certainly stands out in its entertainment pursuits.
Trying to cut his teeth as a junior stockbroker, Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) desperately wants to work with legendary Wall Street player Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas). When he uses a bit of insider information to impress him and gain his business, Bud learns he must continue to feed this beast if he wants to live the high-flying lifestyle he wants so badly.
As proven in many stories told over time, getting the smallest taste of the high life can develop an unquenchable thirst that can never truly be satisfied. This drive to continually accumulate to the point where it no longer makes much sense logically other than the sheer fact of wanting to have more. This question gets posed directly to our main antagonist of the film, Gordon Gekko, and the man never has a retort that does not baffle him in such intriguing ways but at the very least this man remains fully honest with himself from beginning to end. He never, for one second, disguises his intentions, or what he demands from others. To play in his arena and with his capital comes with some expectations and the journey of Bud learning everything that comes with it essentially represents the movie. Accumulating wealth through legal means no matter how dubious still falls within the constructs society have built but doing so in the manner in which Bud resorts to in order to work with Gekko through insider trading shows there’s no level too low individuals will go to in order to reach their desires, especially when it’s this easy to do.
Getting his attention through insider trading therefore would lead someone to the rightful conclusion of utilizing this type of information for advantageous trading as the norm. However, Bud gets so sucked into the lifestyle it provides him and the fat commissions he receives by getting Gekko to drop these large buy tickets that it completely shades his moral fabric, which gets directly challenged by his father, Carl (Martin Sheen). It creates a dichotomy between the honest way of making a living with his father as opposed to the man he wants to emulate in Gekko. One lives a modest life while the other gets to live a lifestyle indulging in all of the excesses one could want. The decision becomes quite clear for Bud even if it leads to the trouble explored later on in the film.
Shepherding along this feature we have a good performance by Charlie Sheen but also a legendary one by Michael Douglas who steps right into this despicable role and fuels the fire of what Gordon Gekko represents and how someone one wants to admire the man. It makes perfect sense why the man won Best Actor and the Academy Awards for this role considering how it still gets quoted to this day showing the impact of Gordon Gekko as a character. Douglas helps build out this repulsive figure as the encapsulation of greed that wants to accumulate as much wealth as possible with no regard for others making such a memorable antagonist for this film.
Through his direction, Oliver Stone loves to tell bonafide American stories and the men who make it up whether good or bad. He does not shy away from displaying the least admirable parts of what has constructed his nation and following the success of Platoon, he took his sights away from the battlefield and instead to a completely different arena with Wall Street. He brings his proverbial punch to the narrative in ensuring we get right to the meat of the story and these characters. Teaming up with Michael Douglas in telling this story of greed works out exquisitely well as Stone gets something different out of him that makes the character so captivating as a villain.
Pure greed knows no bounds, which Wall Street illustrates in quite a bombastic style. When done in the right industry and having the proper connections it can lead to a lifestyle one could never even dream about but as seen through this film, the other shoe will eventually drop. Through this film, we experience the rise and fall of this for Bud and how he has examples of the right and wrong ways to approach life, and while he chooses the one that gives him the perception of something greater, it all comes tumbling down eventually. Oliver Stone has yet another winner under his belt with this one.
Films with Josh 
