“Greed works, greed is right. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and
captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.” This quotation
clearly expresses the “yuppie” lifestyle of many workers in the 1980’s.
Director Oliver Stone greatly exemplifies this, along with many other
1980’s themes, in his movie Wall Street.
One of the themes began while Ronald Reagan was the United States’
President during most of 1980’s decade and released his ideas on
economic policy with his Reaganomics concept. His theory of lowering
taxes to stimulate revenue growth was a popular notion in the 1980’s.
Oliver Stone incorporates much of the 1980’s economic situation into
his movie Wall Street. The obsession in business and involving
oneself in buying and selling stocks became a huge ‘80’s trend and is
also present in the movie.
Many corporations began to transgress, as did Bud Fox when he joined forces with a juggernaut named Gordon Gekko. In the movie, Gekko plays a notorious stock speculator and holds a highly regarded position in the stock exchange world. Fox marvels over Gekko’s success and aspires to become just as lucrative. After a short visit to Gekko’s office, “G.G” hires Fox as his partner and demands that he finds secret and illegal information about good stock buys that will ultimately make him even richer. These kinds of illegal ordeals were taking place all the time during the 1980’s in order to satisfy people’s greed and love of money.
The film reflects the corporate corruption of the time and the
fraudulent activities that many businesses were involved in. Stone uses
the characters Fox and Gekko to portray the economic lifestyle in the
1980’s. Bud Fox learns the corporate takeover maneuvers of Gordon Gekko
and the not-so-respectable manner in which he has become so successful.
As previously stated, this was a common occurrence in the ‘80’s
economic culture. Many powerful businessmen also found ways to
manipulate brokers into lying about the actual prices of stock to their
clients in order to control the way people bought or sold their stock.
Many of these ‘80’s themes were represented in Wall Street through
Charlie Sheen’s stockbroker character, Bud Fox, and Michael Douglas’s
powerhouse business executive character, Gordon Gekko.
Links:
"Wall Street" at Movies Rewind
Top 100 Movies
Wallstreet Review(s)
Insider Trading
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