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flick pick | Wall Street 1983 Directed by: Oliver Stone Written by: Stanley Weiser, Oliver Stone Starring: Charlie Sheen, Michael Douglas, Daryl Hannah, Martin Sheen Language: English Look for it under: Drama Watch it when you’re in the mood for something:  serious  The critic says: / 5 the rating system explained Fun factor: / 5

Plot synopsis Rookie broker Bud Fox is a small time player with dreams of making it big on Wall Street. Brought up in a working class family that provided a strong moral foundation but no financial base, Bud’s definition of success is simple: it’s all about money, and the power that goes along with material attainment. To make his dreams come true, he thinks he needs to get into the office of Gordon Gecko, a multi-millionaire deal-maker and one of the most powerful men in the financial world. When he gets a tip from his father, a blue-collar union man who works for a small upstart airline named BlueStar, about a big announcement for the airline the day before Gecko’s birthday, Bud uses it to get Gecko to give him a chance. Before long, Bud’s part of Gecko’s exclusive circle, and enjoying the life he had previously only dreamed about – a gorgeous apartment on the East Side, loads of money, and a beautiful girlfriend that would have always remained out of his reach, had it not been for that little bit of inside knowledge he’d gleaned from his dad. His father is suspicious, but Bud just doesn’t realize how much his dreams are costing him until some of Gecko’s mergers and acquisitions start to hit a little too close to home.

Review Wall Street is a great example of what can happen when things come together in the right place at the right time. Made in 1987 at the height of 80’s excess, it’s both an examination of the times, and a pointed look at how greed and morality can play off of each other. As directed by Oliver Stone, it’s a classic story about the battle between the seductive evils of materialism on the one hand, the good old ethics and morals of humanity on the other. Michael Douglas (who won the Best Actor Oscar for this film) is amazing as the decidedly amoral Gordon Gecko, and Charlie Sheen does a great job portraying Bud Fox as the bumbling rookie who uses whatever he can to make it to the big time, then questions whether he’s paying too great a personal price. Daryl Hannah and Martin Sheen add great depth as Bud Fox’s girlfriend and father. Although some of the fashion, investing, and home decorating tips are almost laughable now, Wall Street’s message – a warning against the potential for greed to replace ethics and morality -- is still amazingly current.
—reviewed by Jeanne Neumann

Jeanne Neumann is currently living in Western Massachusetts and working in Hartford, CT (the insurance capital of the world). She dreams of being able to afford to move to Boston or Manhattan and have fabulous digs there, also.

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