Yesterdays Movies on Tuesday: Wall Street 1987
"The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you very much."
That quote spoken by Michael Douglas' Gordon Gekko is one of the most memorable lines in film history. It's the performance that one Douglas an Oscar but it is also a performance I haven't seen in a very long time. With the recent news that Michael Douglas and Oliver Stone were going to once again hit Wall Street for a sequel, I wanted to go back to the original film and remind myself why it is such a good movie.
Coming off the success of Platoon, director Oliver Stone went on to create Wall Street. Apparently, he had some issues when filming this picture which included Daryl Hannah not being able to handle the part and Sean Young being very unprofessional. To read about the interesting production problems plus early casting choices for Gordon Gekko, head on over to wikipedia.
Re-watching Wall Street after not seeing it for years was interesting because I remembered a lot from this film but it never registered until now. As a young guy I never really would pay attention to the story and filmmaking qualities but now that I study film, as a hobby, I'm able to pay more attention and appreciate it more. The sequel will be interesting to see especially since our economic climate is not in the best shape - it'll be cool to see recently released from prison Gordon Gekko deal with those problems. That is, however, not what I want to talk about here. In this article I want to quickly talk about some of the things I liked in Wall Street.
"Bud Fox is a Wall Street stockbroker in early 1980's New York with a strong desire to get to the top. Working for his firm during the day, he spends his spare time working an on angle with with to approach the high-powered, extremely successful (but ruthless and greedy) broker Gordon Gekko. Fox finally meets with Gekko, who takes the youth under his wing and explains his philosophy that "Greed is Good". Taking the advice and working closely with Gekko, Fox soon finds himself swept into a world of "yuppies", shady business deals, the "good life", fast money, and fast women; something which is at odds with his family including his estranged father and the blue-collared way Fox was brought up." [IMDB] Written by Stanley Weiser and Oliver Stone who also directed, Wall Street stars Michael Douglas as Gorden Gekko, Martin Sheen as Bud Fox, Martin Sheen as Carl Fox, Daryl Hannah as Darien Taylor and Sean Young as Kate Gekko.
Be it in the 80s or today, Michael Douglas' performance as Gordon Gekko is still awesome. He really plays a bad ass villain - greedy, tough, and very intelligent. The chemistry between his character and Charlie Sheen's Bud Fox is outstanding. Both actors perform very well off each other. What I don't understand is why everyone is down on Daryl Hannah for her performance. I honestly didn't see a problem - let's be honest, there have been worst performances from actresses. Apparently, Hannah's performance won her a Razzie that year, haha. As for Sean Young, she basically was the same as she is in real life - a crazy bitch. Both girls were hotties back then - just thought I'd mention it. I love that Martin Sheen was in this film - he's a fantastic actor and I've enjoyed seeing him in many films. I especially liked how both real life father and son played father and son in the film - it's cool watching them play off of each other, some of which might have been uncomfortable to do.
The story most of all is important considering all we've seen in corruption of business, especially today. There's so many Gordon Gekko's out there today it's kind of scary. Without getting into a political conversation, it's an interesting subject when it comes to big business and the simple regular folk that is effected by big business. With all of the corruption today, I'm interested in seeing how the sequel will handle that subject. Although I've never been one for messages in film, this one captures my interest. Wall Street is a definite must see among movie fans.
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