Wall Street (1987)

comparison of stock market 20 years on

I was reminded of the movie Wall Street mentioned referred to when reading Liars' Poker a book about bond trading scams. I was amazed to see that another market crash, this time Prime Mortgage could re-occur there seems to be someone always ready to seize the opportunity to make a quick buck and not give a damn about the consequences. Just like Michael Douglas's character says "I just move the money around". Very compelling viewing and a warning to where you put your stocks and investments. Here in Australia the lending and valuation legislation is much tighter and harder to get a loan, although there are people now lending money to those who cannot afford it, Difference is the properties are not overvalued and the lending bodies just re-possess the property. May 28, 2008

Classic Movie but Blu ray Quality not impressive

Great movie! Although better quality than a DVD but not that impressive for a blu ray. March 28, 2008

Happy Camper

Awesome seller! I think I received the DVD in the mail about 30 seconds after I ordered it. Very impressed! March 1, 2008

Wall Street Journal/Shuffle

Wall Street is interesting as an entertaining and compelling story, that made for a very enjoyable movie experience; but on a deeper level, there is a message about the dangers of unrestrained capitalism--a message that is unfortunately undercut by the dashing and charismatic character of Gordon Gekko, who delivers a speech that is the centerpiece of the film, a speech that really captured the tenor of the times, the Me Generation ethos of the late 80s, the now famous and still remembered and quoted "Greed is Good" speech:

"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."

Director Oliver Stone wanted this character to be the villain, giving him the name of a lizard. He was meant to be a cold blooded reptilian character, like a dragon hoarding his treasure in a cave. Some young people take him as a role model. He was clearly not supposed to be, but look at another Oliver Stone film, Natural Born Killers, and the same thing happened there. Oliver Stone takes chances in his films, and though they don't always turn out the way he plans, you have to admire the man. This film in particular really captured an era, and he showed tremendous foresight, in fact it was released in 1987, just before one of the biggest stock market melt-downs in history that happened in October of that year. It also shows the power of information, and even though that information is used to manipulate the market and destroy companies, it truly does foreshadow The Information Age. It is quaint to see the crude graphics on the screens of the computers they used, but what insight it showed into what power would be unleashed by the information displayed there.

So, this movie is enjoyable on these two levels, as entertaining drama, and as a serious message about money, capitalism, and the rampant greed of the late 80s, but it is also entertaining just for the behind the scenes drama of the people in it.

First, there is a very strong father/son element to Wall Street. Oliver Stone's father, Louis Stone, was a big trader on Wall Street. The film is dedicated to him. And, Oliver Stone's own son, Sean Stone, plays one of Gordon Gekko's children. Oliver Stone was himself a Vietnam veteran, and he had cast Charlie Sheen in Platoon, a big success for them both just the year before. After Wall Street, he would make another Vietnam film, Born on the Fourth of July, but instead of casting Charlie as promised, Tom Cruise would get the role. Stone didn't even bother to tell him, which led to a falling out and they have never worked together since.

Charlie Sheen's father, Martin Sheen, played Charlie's character's dad, Carl Fox. Charlie was Bud Fox. Father and son both had big success playing soldiers in Viet Nam, and both would have near-death experiences while making them. While filming Apocalypse Now the elder Sheen suffered a heart attack, and while filming Platoon, the younger Sheen almost fell out of a helicopter. I will revisit the father/son theme later when I discuss Michael Douglas, but back to the Sheen's for now. A lot of the drama of Wall Street revolves around the father/son relationship. Bud Fox's dad works for an airline, and he is hard working and honest. Bud uses inside information gleaned from his father to win favor with Gordon Gekko, who uses that information to gain control of the airline, and then try to wreck it and sell off the pieces. This betrayal is the pivotal point of the whole movie.

Martin Sheen's real name is Ramon Antonio Gerard Estévez. He is part Irish, and part Spanish, and enjoys being Spanish almost as much as he does being Irish, and he really enjoys being Irish. Though he has played President of the United States at least 4 times, perhaps most memorably as President Jed Bartlett on the long running TV series The West Wing, in real life he is a life long political activist who has been arrested at protests over 70 times. He also knows all the lyrics and can sing every song that was ever sung by Frank Sinatra. In addition to Charlie, 3 of his other children are also actors. Emilio Estévez is Charlie's older brother, and 2 others go by the Estévez name. But those who know him say that he is closest to his son, Charlie. "No father could ever be prouder of his son," said, Sheen, the Elder. "I hold Charlie's accomplishments dearer than my own. He has been through so much and overcome so much more. Even if he weren't my son he'd still be my best friend."

Charlie Sheen's real name was Carlos Irwin Estévez. He was born on September 3, 1965, in New York City. He was born a "blue baby," and the doctor who saved him was named Irwin, and hence the middle name. Though he was only 2 years old when Danny O'Keefe wrote "Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues" in 1967, it really could have been written about him. One of his nick names is Good Time Charlie, and the other is The Machine, which is partly due to his name being Sheen. At the trial of Heidi Fleiss he testified under oath that he spent over $50,000 on her high priced call girls. He is a notorious womanizer, boozer, and druggie, who has perhaps finally settled down, at least with regards to drugs and booze. At one point he almost died of a cocaine overdose, and he was in and out of rehab. Once he checked in for only a day.

"One of my fondest memories is when Slash, from Guns N' Roses, sat me down at his house and said, `You've got to clean up your act.' You know you've gone too far when Slash is saying, `Look, you've got to get into rehab, you have to shut it down. You're going to die.' He's a terrific guy and I love him, he's a buddy of mine, but I had to step back from that situation and go, `Yeah, but you're Slash. Whaddya mean?' We'd been up for about four days. But I still heard him because a part of me was saying, `This isn't as much fun as I thought it was going to be. Something's missing.'"

Platoon and Wall Street are so far his best film roles, but he has settled into a cozy career as a sit com actor, first on Spin City, and currently on Two and a Half Men, which is already in syndication, playing reruns twice a day Monday through Friday, while still making fresh episodes. The character is loosely based on himself, though one would think it is a very much watered down version. As with his role in Spin City, his characters always seem to be named Charlie.

Continuing the father/son theme, actor Michael Douglas is the son of well-known actor Kirk Douglas. The elder Douglas is best known for his role as Spartacus.

"I am Spartacus."
"I am Spartacus."
"I am Spartacus."

Michael Douglas had a breakthrough role as Inspector Steve Keller on the TV cop series The Streets of San Francisco. He played opposite veteran actor Karl Malden. He played some comedies and even played Zach in the movie version of A Chorus Line before playing in Fatal Attraction, in 1987, the same year as Wall Street, and Basic Instinct, in 1992. Recently there was a series on NPR (National Public Radio) of the most memorable characters from film and fiction, and Gordon Gekko was profiled. Premiere Magazine had a list of the 100 most memorable characters from film, and Gordon Gekko was #25. Michael Douglas won an Oscar for the role. Besides being married to the much younger (25 years) Catherine Zeta-Jones, his role as Gordon Gekko in Wall Street will no doubt be his legacy:

Gordon Gekko: If you need a friend, get a dog.

Gordon Gekko: The most valuable commodity I know of is information.

Gordon Gekko: Greed captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

Gordon Gekko: I look at a hundred deals a day. I pick one.

Gordon Gekko: Lunch is for wimps.

Gordon Gekko: You're walking around blind without a cane, pal. A fool and his money are lucky enough to get together in the first place.

Gordon Gekko: Ever wonder why fund managers can't beat the S&P 500? 'Cause they're sheep, and sheep get slaughtered.

Gordon Gekko: [at the Teldar Paper stockholder's meeting] Well, I appreciate the opportunity you're giving me Mr. Cromwell as the single largest shareholder in Teldar Paper, to speak. Well, ladies and gentlemen we're not here to indulge in fantasy but in political and economic reality. America, America has become a second-rate power. Its trade deficit and its fiscal deficit are at nightmare proportions. Now, in the days of the free market when our country was a top industrial power, there was accountability to the stockholder. The Carnegies, the Mellons, the men that built this great industrial empire, made sure of it because it was their money at stake. Today, management has no stake in the company! All together, these men sitting up here own less than three percent of the company. And where does Mr. Cromwell put his million-dollar salary? Not in Teldar stock; he owns less than one percent. You own the company. That's right, you, the stockholder. And you are all being royally screwed over by these, these bureaucrats, with their luncheons, their hunting and fishing trips, their corporate jets and golden parachutes.
Cromwell: This is an outrage! You're out of line Gekko!
Gordon Gekko: Teldar Paper, Mr. Cromwell, Teldar Paper has 33 different vice presidents each earning over 200 thousand dollars a year. Now, I have spent the last two months analyzing what all these guys do, and I still can't figure it out. One thing I do know is that our paper company lost 110 million dollars last year, and I'll bet that half of that was spent in all the paperwork going back and forth between all these vice presidents. The new law of evolution in corporate America seems to be survival of the unfittest. Well, in my book you either do it right or you get eliminated. In the last seven deals that I've been involved with, there were 2.5 million stockholders who have made a pretax profit of 12 billion dollars. Thank you. I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them! 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.

Gordon Gekko: Greed is good.

This movie also had some other interesting characters/actors and character actors. John C. McGinley plays Marv, one of the other stock traders who works alongside Bud Fox. He is familiar as Dr. Perry Cox, the anti social doctor on TV sit com Scrubs. And Hal Holbrook is working there, too. Sylvia Miles plays a crass Real Estate Agent. She was nominated for an Oscar for Midnight Cowboy, and has been on the Hollywood/New York party scene for like ever. The best line about her was when someone name dropped that she would be at an art gallery opening, someone, can't remember who but if anyone does, please help me provide them with the proper credit, quipped: "Sylvia Miles would go to the opening of an envelope." James Spader (Sex, Lies & Videotape) plays a lawyer friend of Bud's. He currently plays a lawyer on Boston Legal. Daryl Hannah plays a designer who is Bud's girlfriend, once he starts making money. She is secretly in bed with Gekko, though. Her biggest tabloid moment was when she was a back-up singer and girlfriend to Jackson Browne, and he allegedly got rough with her. Then John F. Kennedy Jr. reportedly came to her rescue. Daryl's breakout role was as the acrobatic, beautiful replicant Pris in Blade Runner (1982); Pris was the vixen who wanted to live beyond her allotted years.

Segue to Sean Young, who was also in Blade Runner. What a classic movie, and was she ever great in it. I have always liked her, but she seems to attract ugly rumors like a magnet. She plays Kate Gekko in Wall Street, Gordon's wife. Her role was bigger at first, but during filming she rubbed Oliver Stone the wrong way. Whether that story is true or false, she is barely on screen long enough to register.

In 1988, Young appeared in The Boost with James Woods. Woods later sued her for harassing both him and his then-fiancée, alleging that Young left a disfigured doll on his doorstep in addition to other disruptive behavior. Young denied the allegations and claimed that Woods filed the lawsuit out of spite. Young stated, "It was a crush being turned down, that's all.... So sue me! And he [Woods] did." The suit was settled out of court in 1989.

In 1989, she was cast as Vicki Vale in Tim Burton's Batman. During rehearsals, she broke her arm after falling off a horse and was replaced by Kim Basinger. In an unsuccessful attempt to win the role as Catwoman (which ultimately went to Michelle Pfeiffer) in the sequel Batman Returns, Young constructed a homemade Catwoman costume and attempted to confront director Tim Burton and actor Michael Keaton during production.

Young was fired from the 1990 movie Dick Tracy. Cast as Tess Trueheart, she was officially fired for not appearing maternal in the role. Young later claimed she was fired because she rebuffed Warren Beatty's advances (a claim Beatty denies).

Sean Young appeared in Fatal Instinct, a parody of both Basic Instinct and Fatal Attraction--take that, Michael Douglas.

In January 2008, Young checked herself into rehab for alcohol abuse the day after an outburst at the Directors Guild of America awards in Los Angeles. Young was removed from the awards ceremony after repeatedly heckling director Julian Schnabel, who was onstage giving his remarks regarding his Best Director nomination for his work on the film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

I hope Sean Young recovers from her problems. But if Charlie Sheen could do it, so can she.

Even as we speak a writer is working on a sequel to Wall Street. Oliver Stone isn't involved, but Michael Douglas has agreed to reprise his role as Gordon Gekko. The title, which was used already for a documentary about the making of Wall Street, is Money Never Sleeps.

Thanks to the Internet Movie Database and Wikipedia for the quotes and other biographical information. The contents of these sites are created by users, and it is not screened or verified by IMDb or Wikipedia staff.

Platoon (Special Edition)

Two and a Half Men - The Complete First Season

Fatal Attraction

Basic Instinct

Streets of San Francisco - Season 1 (Vol. 1-2)

Apocalypse Now

The West Wing - The Complete Series Collection

Spartacus

Blade Runner - The Final Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Fatal Instinct


February 19, 2008

Nice transfer

Upon the moment of arrival I popped it into the Blu-ray player, eager to see how the transfer to HD faired. All in all, a decent transfer. The audio could have been remastered in some parts where it's clear there were some audio issues in the original (uneven volume, out of sync with actors...both those were in the original film though). The open and closing credits look like they were shot with a dirty camera lens, barely conveying the idea it *might* have been an "artistic choice", but the rest of the film looks pretty good. The film grain is definitely visible, but not to the point where it's intrusive or gives the impression it was a bad transfer.

The movie is a great one and the extras are a great addition to this HD upgrade. A documentary talks about the making of the film (and the inter-personal conflicts between the actors...Daryl Hannah was very unhappy with her role and Sean Young clashed with Charlie Sheen so much they had to be separated). Oliver Stone's commentary is insightful and there are little gems all throughput the film. February 6, 2008

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