Wall Street, Cinema Style

It's often said that life imitates art (and vice versa) and no one know this better than Hollywood. The cinema has long had a love affair with stories of finance, power, and big business, acting as a mirror and social chronicler of the times. With the financial shenanigans of the past year and bonus receiving hedge fund titans about as popular as those who club baby seals, one wonders how filmmakers will treat the once glamorous subject.

As the greed from Wall Street once again rears its ugly head this past week, filmmaker Oliver Stone's timing couldn't be better as he works on the highly anticipated and even more highly secretive sequel to his brilliant tome of morality versus greed, 1987's Wall Street. This time Gordon Gekko returns to public life from jail twenty years later -- will he atone for his sins and live a life of redemption and volunteer work? Or will he still prescribe to the prophetic theory "Greed -- you mark my words -- will save Teldar, and that other malfunctioning corporation, the U.S.A."? A lot can happen between now and the film's April 23 release so stay tuned.

In the meantime, I thought I'd revisit a few other noteworthy films:

Wall Street (1987): Still the quintessential film by which all others are judged. Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko received an Academy Award for his portrayal of the corporate raiding titan who both mentors and corrupts a young broker (Charlie Sheen). Everyone from Martin Sheen's dad with integrity to Sylvia Miles as an Upper West Side realtor is top notch.

Barbarians at the Gate (1993): Made for television, the Emmy-winning film chronicles the leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco lampooning the actual players themselves from Ross Johnson (played exquisitely by James Garner) to Henry Kravis (Jonathan Pryce). Even Teddy Forstmann, Peter Cohen, Jim and Linda Robinson and Carolyne Roehm-Kravis do not go unscathed. I am still trying to get the vision of Fred Thompson (Robinson) in a Halloween Superman costume out of my head.

Working Girl (1988): From a secretary masquerading as her boss with a "head for business and a bod for sin" and falls in love with the investment broker she is doing a deal with, the romantic comedy triangle nails ambition, ruthlessness and captures the times perfectly -- right down to the power suit with Adidas and crew sox look. Harrison Ford and Melanie Griffith play the unlikely lovers and Sigourney Weaver the stiletto wearing villain boss in Mike Nichols 1988 film.

Boiler Room (2000). High-pressured life in a brokerage firm is highlighted as a college dropout discovers work is not all it is cracked up to be. The film stars Giovanni Ribisi and Ben Affleck and yet another telling tale of the times.

From the Terrace (1960) Paul Newman turns in a stellar performance as an ambitious executive on the fast track who compromises his happiness with an unfulfilling marriage (with real life wife Joanne Woodward) for his career. He eventually falls in love with a younger woman and is eventually forced to choose between love and Wall Street.

 

 

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Comments

[3fingerbrown]

When you think of "It's a Wonderful Life" the themes of money and power might not immediately come to mind, but few films depict more vividly the corrosive effect of unchecked greed on an entire community. Many of us are living in "Potterville" today because no George Baileys came forward in the banking industry when we really needed them.

[SILVANUS]

Uh, "American Psycho" should be No. 1.

Satire, but really a documentary of the yuppie miscreants I had the displeasure of working with during my days in the Corporation as an undercover agent for Interzone studying candidates for full-time residence in Hell.

[Cathy Whitlock - Huffpost Blogger]

I agree and actually thought about that one yet it is so over the top!

[SILVANUS]

Well, yes and no, Cathy! Did you ever have the pleasure of getting close to one of them?

[henryberry]

I'm seeing that Wall Street has been and continues to be a paradigm for crime and corruption relating to greed. It's apt, and it is the concentration of this in American society--but still, it's partly a paradigm too, and as such limited in revealing the full picture. The way I'm beginning to look at the situation of the broader society is differences between historical and genuine attachment to the country and by contrast weak or merely nominal attachment. Differences between attachment to America as "place" and binding community spirit and by contrast sheer exploitation and recklessness tearing the society apart are broader and more fateful developments (or literary or cinematic themes). In contemporary society, the struggle between unconscionable, ruinous greed and opposed to this, self-control (both as personal discipline and regulation) is only one part of this larger struggle. Greed is a permanent part of human nature, but it is not often in history where greed alone has wrecked a country. This is the theme I am hoping to see taken up by some ambitious filmmaker.

[jhNY]

What could be next? Bonfire of the Venalities?