In light of the recent economic crisis, Oliver Stone's 1987 classic Wall Street seems as relevant as ever. While it is not about economic matters in itself, it is easy to see how a market like the one depicted in the film, with people like the ones in the film, could spawn an economic breakdown. Unfortunately, apart from that, there is really nothing remarkable about Wall Street; we have seen the story of a man striving for power and success a million times, if not in this environment.
First of all, Stone's direction is nothing out of the ordinary. The music alternates between interesting song choices like the David Byrne songs and Fly Me to the Moon, and being mildly annoying. The visuals are far from impressive, even though there are some pretty pictures of New York to look at, and the way the camera becomes a bit unsteady when something particularly intense is going on is interesting until Stone takes it too far, like when he turns a scene between Charlie and Martin Sheen that could have been great into something resembling a tennis game. Furthermore, I feel like there is sometimes a fine line between making a film that describes a lack of taste, and simply making a tasteless film that indulge in excess. In other words, Wall Street has aged badly in some aspects.
That being said, the film does feature some highly memorable performances, Michael Douglas' deliciously sleazy Gordon Gekko being the highlight. The dialog might rely too heavily on one-liners, but in a way it makes sense that, in a film that is partly dealing with superficiality, half of all the lines in the film sound like an advertising slogan. And at least some of them are good slogans; surely it is hard not to be swayed when Douglas proclaims that "greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit".
First of all, Stone's direction is nothing out of the ordinary. The music alternates between interesting song choices like the David Byrne songs and Fly Me to the Moon, and being mildly annoying. The visuals are far from impressive, even though there are some pretty pictures of New York to look at, and the way the camera becomes a bit unsteady when something particularly intense is going on is interesting until Stone takes it too far, like when he turns a scene between Charlie and Martin Sheen that could have been great into something resembling a tennis game. Furthermore, I feel like there is sometimes a fine line between making a film that describes a lack of taste, and simply making a tasteless film that indulge in excess. In other words, Wall Street has aged badly in some aspects.
That being said, the film does feature some highly memorable performances, Michael Douglas' deliciously sleazy Gordon Gekko being the highlight. The dialog might rely too heavily on one-liners, but in a way it makes sense that, in a film that is partly dealing with superficiality, half of all the lines in the film sound like an advertising slogan. And at least some of them are good slogans; surely it is hard not to be swayed when Douglas proclaims that "greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit".