WALL STREET

What would you do for money? Would you sell your own Grandma? Would you strip bare naked and then waggle your wobbly bits in public? Or would you, like the people in this film, work in the... gasp... stock market? This film Directed by Oliver Stone; and Starring: Charlie Sheen, Martin Sheen, Michael Douglas, Terence Stamp, and Daryl Hannah. It was made in 1987, and lasts for 127minutes.


Wall Street


THE STORY:
Although Carl Fox (Martin Sheen) thinks that is son, Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen), is merely a salesman, in actuality, he is a junior stockbroker at 'Jackson Steinem and Co'. Moreover, when Bud firsts meet corporate mogul, Gordon Gekko (Michael Doughlas), Bud’s work becomes so much more!

You see, Bud has a proposition for Gordon that should make him a lot of money. Yep - that's right - I said 'should' - because initially this deal does splash some cash for all in sundry. But ultimately it takes a nose dive and plunders some pennies.

Still, Gordon being the type of man he is, he gives Bud an opportunity to redeem himself, by helping him out-manoeuvre his arc-rival, Lawrence Wildman (Terrence Stamp), in a business deal.

Well, what Bud has to do, is to follow Lawrence during his daily travels, and with the information that he gleams from this task, he and Gordon will then corner Lawrence in a up and coming transaction.

Thankfully, this ploy pays offs at a party in which Gordon hosts at his house – where Lawrence has to pay through the teeth so that he can stake a clam on his acquisitions.

Great news, right? Plus what is even greater news, is that Bud's life drastically changes under Gordon’s guidance. He moves up in the world within his job. He moves into a bigger apartment in the East Side of Manhattan. Plus he even finds a new love interest at Gordon’s party, Darien Taylor (Daryl Hannah).

Saying all this though, Bud still has some work to do. For example, he help’s out Gordon in a somewhat successfully talking over of a paper merchants. And then, he and Gordon try to salvage the airline that Bud’s father, Carl, works at.

Opps! Bad idea.

Regrettably, things don’t go according to plan all in all. Because Bud thinks that he and Gordon are trying to buy out this airline to help the business. But what Bud does not know, is that Gordon buys out this business so he can liquidate it.

Worst still, is that there is nothing he can do about it.

Oh! Maybe that is why what next transpires is a right economical affair all in all? As lives change - business is strange - Gordon goes green - and life can be mean.

Sometimes, anyway.

THE REVIEW:
'Wall Street' is a classic eighties movie that in a very blatant way represents the time in which it was made in. Well, for those of you who do not know, this decade was a very decadent era. Where cash equaled power, and power was held by men like Michael Douglas' character, Gordon Gekko. Moreover, these men had no scruples in how to do business.

In someway, this film is a morality tale, and explains the low virtues of ‘big business'. Whilst, in another way, this film illustrates ‘a way of life’ that is somewhat alien to the everyday man. For instance; the mentality of how corporations work, and the attitudes associated with this. But, personally speaking, I like to think of this film as an acting class on how people in this trade behave: by talking loudly – wearing loose fitting shirts – sporting side partings – and overall becoming dick heads. Here, watch this clip to see what I mean...

That was funny, huh? But was this film funny? No – no it's not. Instead, it is a well acted piece of eighties cinema, firmly directed by the big kahuna himself, Oliver Stone.

Granted, not every part of this film works well within the whole. As the love triangle between Darryl, Martin, and Michael, seems to go nowhere, and some of the montage sequences were rather over the top acting wise. But the general story in itself is very good, because it manages to amalgamate all the different components together quite nicely.

You see, the reason why I say this, is initially I thought that the Terrance Stamp character was just a cameo role – but he did find his way back in the end. Also, Martins Sheens character – though sparsely used – was also central in grounding Martins character to ‘finding himself’.

However, out of all the cast, this is a two man movie – Martin and Michael – because together, they were able to captivate, exhilarate, and on occasion, titivate 'Wall Street' into becoming the best that it could be. Just look at the facts: (1) The director, Oliver Stone, first two choices for Gordon were Richard Gere and Warren Beatty. Whereas Charlie Sheen was his first choice to play Bud, although Tom Cruise wanted this part. On a side note though, Oliver regretted casting Daryl Hannah in her role, and said that he should have chosen Sean Young instead. Daryl mirrors this sentiment, because she did not like working with Oliver. (2) The story is loosely based on the junk bond / insider trading scandals of the '80s. (3) The working title of this flick was 'Greed'. (4) Daryl Hannah won a Razzie for her role, whilst Michael Douglas was a Oscar for his. (5) Oliver gave Charlie the choice of having either Jack Lemmon or his Dad, Martin, to play his father. Pop's obviously won. (6) Michael modeled his performance on his friend and the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, Pat Riley. And Terence Stamp modeled his performance after Sir Gordon White of Hanson PLC. Plus (7) This was the first film to demonstrate the use of a cordless portable phone.

Now if you are a fan of eighties cinema and people talking very loudly for no apparent reason, ‘Wall Street’ is defiantly a film for you. Highly recommended.

THE RATING: A