Wall Street
The 1980s must have been a REALLY tough time for Oliver Stone, what with the Reagan era and the booming economy that was going on, and this is certainly his âin the momentâ work from 1987 where he lifted the dark underside on Wall Street fatcats who profited heavily during this time. Charlie Sheen stars as a recent NYU grad who now works as an âAccount Executiveâ at a brokerage firm, in reality a salesman job where he cold-calls clients and harangues them into buying whatever hot stock is being pushed at the moment. Eventually, he figures out a way to get into the office and confidence of his âdream clientâ, who ultimately leads him down a path of corruption in order to get rich at all costs. Certainly the nature of Sheenâs character here is eerily prescient of his own later real-life persona (thereâs even a reference by Charlie in the dialogue to âwinningâ), and while in some scenes he does appear doughy-faced and stiff, the fact that his character goes down the path that involves making lots of money, doing drugs, and sleeping with loose women almost makes it appear that Charlie may have patterned himself in real life after this role, and that makes it fascinating to watch even today. Of course, we have to talk about Michael Douglas (in his only Oscar winning acting role) as Gordon Gekko, the ruthless businessman and corporate raider who leads Charlie down the wrong path. As written, the Gekko character is rather an unrealistic type, a complete caricature made up of all the distinctive qualities we associate with the âfilthy richâ, but Douglas plays him nonetheless with such lip-smacking relish that the viewer canât help but be drawn in, with the irony being not so much that he enjoys dealing in insider trading (which is illegal), but rather when he takes over a company, he prefers dismantling it, costing people their jobs, and selling off the assets piece by piece to line his own pockets (which isnât). Indeed, the iconic âgreed is goodâ speech smacks of the irony which still permeates our culture today: that someone who is truly a wolf in sheepâs clothing with bad intentions can still give a hell of a good speech to convince everyone that he is on the level and âon their sideâ. As for the insider trading itself (a real life big deal at the time), it seems almost quaint that in a cutthroat world like big business, not taking the proper precautions to protect confidential company information (like security cameras) basically makes one wonder if maybe these companies got what was coming to them when they met their downfall. As for the rest of the cast, we get the curious case of Darryl Hannah as the tall blonde interior decorator who settles down with Charlie when the time comes that he can âaffordâ her. Whatâs fascinating here (outside of the fact that if I was a multi-millionaire this would be the LAST person Iâd be attracted to) is that Hannah gives such a monotone, robotic performance that I personally wondered if she just did a bad acting job or if Stone had purposely directed her to play her character as essentially a Soulless Whore who is dead inside. Considering her and Stone did NOT get along on set, it might be a little of both, and helps give the film the distinction of being the only one to win both an Oscar AND a Razzie (Worst Supporting Actress for Hannah); John C. McGinley gets an early role as Charlieâs fellow desk jockey who grows more and more jealous; Hal Holbrook as the head of Charlieâs firm gives a couple of deep meaningful speeches but little else; Terence Stamp redeems the wealthy elite as a rival businessman (and antithesis) of Gekko whose interests lean more towards taking over a company to help it grow and save jobs while making a bit more modest profit; Sean Young gets about five minutes of screen time as Gekkoâs trophy wife; James Spader shows up a lawyer college buddy of Sheenâs who gets in on the fun; and best of all Charlieâs real life dad Martin Sheen nearly walks off with the movie as the father of Charlieâs character, a machinist and union boss who sees right through Gekko and his takeover plans for the airline he works at, and his scenes with Charlie turn out to be the best and most honest acting in the movie, along with getting to deliver the best (and most ironic) line to Charlieâs face (âI don’t go to bed with no whore, and I don’t wake up with no whore. That’s how I live with myself. I don’t know how you do it.â Haha get em!). Overall, not as perfect as other Stone masterpieces, but a fascinating look at the era that is still relevant todayâŚ
8/10