Wall Street (20th Anniversary Edition) Reviews

• New extras worth double dipping

  
  By A21B2TJBWCSK1R on 2007-09-14
  When Oliver Stone made Wall Street, he was riding high from the commercial and critical success of Platoon (Special Edition). His father, Lou Stone, had been a stockbroker on Wall Street in New York City and this film was a son's way of paying tribute to his father. Almost twenty years later, it has become one of the quintessential snapshots of the financial scene in the United States and epitomizes the essence of capitalism, greed and materialism that was so prevalent in the 1980s.
  
  Michael Douglas owns the role of Gekko and by extension dominates the movie with his larger than life character. He gets most of the film's best dialogue and delivers it with such conviction. There is a scene between Bud and Gekko in a limousine where he tells the younger man how the financial world works, how it operates and lays it all out, pushing Bud hard to go into business with him. It is one of the strongest scenes in the movie because you really believe what Gekko is saying and how Bud could be seduced by his words.
  
  The culmination of Douglas' performance is his much lauded, often quoted, "Greed is good" speech that his character gives to a shareholders' meeting of Teldar Paper, a company he is planning to take over. He concludes by saying, "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 save not only Teldar Paper but that other malfunctioning corporation called the U.S.A." This is one of the best delivered monologues ever put to film as Douglas goes from charming to downright threatening and back again, succinctly summing up the essence of '80 capitalism and greed.
  
  The original DVD did not have many extras but the quality of what was included was excellent. They have all been carried over to this new release (minus the trailers) but do the new extras really merit a double dip?
  
  There is an audio commentary by co-writer and director Oliver Stone. Stone talks about Michael Douglas' early struggles with the huge amount of dialogue he had to deliver and how he dealt with it. The filmmaker is candid with his shortcomings and those of others (i.e. Daryl Hannah, Charlie Sheen, etc.). As always, Stone delivers the goods, offering all kinds of fascinating insights into the making of the film.
  
  The second disc features a new introduction by Oliver Stone that is brief and really should have been put on the first disc.
  
  Another new extra is "Greed is Good," an hour-long retrospective documentary with Hal Hoolbrook, John C. McGinley, Charlie Sheen and Michael Douglas amongst others returning to offer their impressions of the financial world depicted in the movie. This substantial doc examines the appeal of Gekko and why he inspired people in the business world.
  
  Also new to this edition is over 20 minutes of deleted scenes with optional commentary by Stone. There is a nice little scene with Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller as one of Bud's clients. Also included is an earlier scene where Bud and Darian (Hannah) meet in a bar but Stone cut it because the Hamptons scene at Gekko's house was stronger. The filmmaker puts all of these scenes into context and why there were cut.
  
  Finally, carried over from the original edition is "Money Never Sleeps: The Making of Wall Street," a top-notch, 47-minute making of documentary. There is very little overlap with the "Greed is Good" documentary.
  
  If you're a fan of this film and already own the previous edition, the new extras definitely warrant a double dip. They are quite substantial in nature and shed more light on this excellent film.
  
  

• Capitalism at its Finest

  
  By A3I67LIHKV5IE3 on 1999-12-17
  Absolutely fantastic. All you folks in the finance industry out there - watch this movie three times a day, everyday, after meals. Adam Smith ("The Wealth of Nations", ISBN:0879757051, buy it here ! ) would've taken the trouble to rise from his grave to watch this one.

  Douglas was excellent and deserved his Oscar, and Sheen (both dad and son) were terrific. I'm not a great fan of Oliver Stone's other movies, but this is one movie I treasure as much as my MSFT stock certificate !

  The quotes from the dialogue should be printed in bold and stuck up on the wall of every investment bank's office:

  "It's all about bucks kid. The rest is conversation".

  "See this building over here ... it was my first real estate deal ...I made over $900,000. At the time I thought it was all the money in the world - now it's a day's pay".

  Surprised it didn't win the Oscar for best screenplay as well.
  
  

• The movie that helped to end the Cold war

  
  By A330XFRJKS3APU on 2005-03-19
  To watch this movie in Moscow in 1988 as a student was a liberating and exhilarating experience. Here is the capitalism close-up, warts and all. And we loved it. In three more years the Soviet communism will be dismantled, free market hurriedly introduced, and some of my friends and fellow students will proceed to become very rich people themselves. I did not know then, that Gordon Gekko, a villain who incidentally was much admired by me, was a thinly veiled portrait of Ivan Boesky. Boesky, who incidentally was a son of Russian immigrants, became a center of the biggest insider trading scandal and government investigation in the 1980s, which let to the collapse of junk bond powerhouse firm Drexel Burnham. However, I knew that Gekko must be much more than a villain, otherwise how this ugly character could be so attractive? Of course, a huge part of it was a superb acting by Michael Douglas. But watching this film now, 17 years later, gave me an opportunity to ponder more on the subject from a different perspective. I think now that Gekko's character is archetypal and has the same qualities as Bulgakov's Woland from `Master and Margarita'. He is the Wall Street Mephistopheles, the Grand seducer, not just some greedy upstart and `faux bonhomme'. But one of the qualities of Lucifer is that he `brings out the light', he helps to illuminate things, partly because of his own darkness. Untimely, in the movie it was his turbulent encounter with Gekko, which helped Bud Fox to find his character and, in a way, redeem himself. So in some strange way, the movie is a Wall-Street-version of age-old story of Faust.
  
  

• Pure Inspiration For Succeess - A True Classic!

  
  By AGJICTJD7E9G4 on 1999-12-08
  I have seen this movie over one hundred times and each time I watch it, it gets even better. This movie will inspire you to go after whatever it is that you want out of life - love, wealth, power, or whatever - with a vengeance! It's about being 'poor, smart, and hungry' and 'winning a few, losing a few, but you keep on fighting'. No 'Ivy League schmucks' wanted here! It's about starting out with nothing and fighting and scratching your way to the top - despite outside obstacles and the elitists trying to keep you out. Rugged American capitalism - work hard, work smart - and be richly and justly rewarded. Our free market is what has made our country #1 and the envy of the entire world. In America, anyone can succeed! I know it's only a movie, but it contains so many real world lessons. This movie is a true classic which captured an entire era - the 80's. Great lines, great scenes, this is my favorite movie of all time!

  PLEASE E-mail FOXMOVIES@FOX.COM and demand that they put this movie out on DVD immediately!
  
  

• Should've been called ANTI-WALL STREET

  
  By A3ONXROYIY2OKX on 2000-03-30
  Director Oliver Stone, the quintessential American left-winger, delivers a nasty critique of Wall Street. Indeed, this movie is vociferously anti-capitalist. Oliver Stone clearly had an agenda with this one, as he has with many of his movies. Stone is more concerned with the agenda than he is with the actual film.

  Stone delivers a number of myths with this film, for instance that wealth is a "zero-sum game", or that America is a "second-rate power". Gekko's allegedly pro-capitalist arguments are done so poorly that you have to realize that Stone had a major agenda with this movie. It's amazing that American corporations produce this stuff.

  Note that Martin Sheen's character is Stone's mouthpiece. Stone agrees with everything he says.

  Oliver Stone hates Wall Street, he hates capitalism, and he hates America.
  
  

• powerful tale zeroing in on greed and backstabbing in the world of business
  By APN6DO7VHDLTN on 2005-10-17
  Michael Douglas delivers a dynamite performance here as the ultra-rich, heartless, stop-at-nothing stock broker Gordon Gekko. Perhaps at the time people thought the Gekko role wasn't suited for Douglas, but in retrospect, it seems like a role that couldn't be more up his alley, and he really goes to town with it.
  
  Charlie Sheen does an excellent job as well playing the role of Bud Fox, a younger stock broker who finds himself drawn like a magnet to Gekko's world... ...at least for a while. Bud Fox's dad Carl is played by Charlie's real-life dad Martin Sheen, and the conflict of interests that occur between Gekko, his British rival Sir Larry Wildman (played by Terence Stamp), and the two Foxs, provide the movie with a healthy amount of edge-of-your-seat drama. Daryl Hannah's character is rather secondary, kind of like window dressing, but it works well in that respect and she does get the job done.
  
  Interestingly, the ending of "Wall Street" has something of an "evil will prevail" vibe to it which is an unsettling, but chillingly effective way of wrapping up this supremely entertaining 1987 movie.
  
  
• The Lure of Power, Greed and Financial Wizardry
  By A23SB6VGGB9E8U on 2002-12-23
  Oliver Stone captures Wall Street in the 1980s in this film.

  Looking back from the perch of 2002, Gordon Gekko's "greed is good" speech is a precursor of today's accounting scandals. Not that Wall Street has changed. The sales manager in this film is perfect. He personifies the "what have you done for me lately" attitude that pervades transaction-based finance.

  This great film transcends time.
  
  

• The world according to Oliver Stone
  By A3R19H1V9ESRWQ on 2001-07-30
  Bud Fox (Martin Sheen) is a young, naive, wall street trader who will do anything to get to the big leagues. This means showing up every day to Gordon Gekko's (Wall Street mogul played by Michael Douglas) office to beg Gekko's personal secretary to let him inside. Finally, she takes pity on him and lets him in to see Gekko. Amazingly Bud has little to offer but the same spiel he uses for his cold calls. Then he remembers - a piece of inside information about his father's airline. Gordon finds Bud a bit green but takes a liking to a reminder of his younger self. After the first deal Gekko trains Bud to be the ruthless expert inside trader. "Information" is what Gordon has a monopoly on. And novice traders, company employees and their management are "victims" of Gordon's insider game. Of course here is where Oliver Stone shows his own naivete. Is this the only way to make money on Wall Street?

  One would think that like Bud Fox we would have to secretly shadow a billionaire investor to the ends of the earth and engage in industrial espionage to get in on his next deal before it went public. Well would it not be easier to have walked around a few cities in the western US and witnessed people lining up for Starbucks coffee. Had you acted on this observation six years ago and purchased the stock you would be quite wealthy today. Perhaps a little honest effort and common sense might be a more effective strategy.

  Really though the movie is a feel good film for Stones liberal audience - which is apparent in many of the reviews. It is certainly nice to believe that the only way to make money in this world is to assume a ruthless posture and evil plan for taking from others (unless of course you're from Hollywood and your money is the sweetest smelling on the planet). That way Stone's liberal audience can feel good about themselves. Imagine having to think that many wealthy people exhibit strong personal disciplines like hard work, courage, and initiative and that these people have created wealth for themselves and others through legitimate means. Of course then you have little excuse for your own pathetic life. You might have to get up off your lazy rear end and actually do something for yourself.

  I certainly don't apply these comments to Stone. Stone is simply a hypocrite. He works hard and makes money capitalist style by selling a movie that attacks capitalism. In any case the movie was entertaining. So three stars to Stone who talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk (to his credit).

  P.S. If you want to see a good movie about Wall Street that fairly treats both sides of the issue try "Other People's Money."
  
  

• misleading and untrue
  By A11MQ1444YBXDI on 2001-08-21
  Making money in the movie market is good and honest while making money at the financial market is a crime? That is why "greed is good" is a phrase that can only be said by someone who does not have any ability to deal in the financial markets and so has to practice fraudulent insider information? That is not capitalism, that is crime. But I guess that in Mr. Stone's eyes it's the same. If you are a socialist you'll love this movie. If as in my case you are a libertarian, and you are looking for a true vision of HONEST stock market entrepreneurs you will not find it here. "Other People's Money" is a much better, and truthful insight.
  
  
• Our thoughts....not Oliver Stones
  By A9QSM7DDWQ9ZH on 2000-10-07
  Sure, Oliver Stone is a typical Hollywood left-wing liberal and he wants you to think that anyone who would take part in the wonderful REAL world of true capitalism is evil. But, maybe he should realize that he is grossly rich. Why is that ok? And not making a career out of being a Wall Street entrepreneur? I enjoyed the movie for what I thought of it, not for what Stone was trying to say. Yes, there are those of us out here who enjoy getting rich investing other people's money! So stop pointing the finger and realize that it's what makes our country great! RUGGED INDIVIDUALISM and the true spirit of capitalism. AND FOR ONCE STOP TAKING SHOTS AT ONE OF THE GREATEST PRESIDENTS THIS COUNTRY HAS EVER SEEN!RONALD REAGAN
  
  
• "Now let me show you *my* charts." (cue lightning)
  By A2HII4U9WQ0XUV on 2005-10-17
  "Wall Street" is iconic.
  
  But let's step back a second: I'll beging with a little Wall Street habit called Full Disclosure: Oliver Stone's stunning, iconic "Wall Street" is an amazingly hard movie for me to review, in part because it was, for me, one of those rare watershed events that shaped my futue and changed---even charted---my career.
  
  One of Oliver Stone's best movies, it was intended as a morality play in which Stone's mouthpiece, played by Martin Sheen as a stoic airline mechanic who has seen it all, condemned the helter-skelter rampant greed of the corporate raiders, Wall Street insider tycoons, and high-flying investment bankers of the 1980's, the much maligned "Decade of Greed".
  
  But let's stop for moment, and consider: how many of you who've seen the film wanted to *be* Gordon Gecko, "Wall Street"'s cigar chomping, greenmailing uber-dealmaker, who ratcheted up Ivan Boesky's "Greed is OK" into what became the motto of deal-makers the world over: "Greed is Good. Greed Works."
  
  I sure did. Born during the hippy Summer of Love and a proverbial child of the eighties, I saw "Wall Street" and knew, immediately, what I wanted to become. I sliced off my mohawk, grew my hair, and slicked it back, and dedicated my life to mastering high finance and the art of the deal.
  
  And I wasn't the only one, to judge by fellow MBA alums and investment banking colleagues; even a sequence in "Boiler Room" shows a new generation of deal-seeking young Turks watching "Wall Street" on a plasma TV, regaling each other with their word-perfect recitation of Gecko's lines.
  
  "Wall Street", then, should be served up piping hot to the innocent with a dollop of caution: as one reviewer noted, what Stone had intended as a bloody criticism of greed gone rampant quickly became a full-bodied recruiting video for the investment banking industry.
  
  And what a recruiting video it is: Stone perfected his quick cuts and 'wall of information' with "Wall Street", proving his mastery of the new MTV-era of rich, lush, rapidly moving images and an editing style that wouldn't have been out of place in a music video.
  
  Stone is like that. As a director, he has an uncanny ability to glamorize that which he most wants to criticize, just as he did with the alluringly violent Mickey and Mallory Knox in "Natural Born Killers."
  
  And "Wall Street" is one of those rare reversals where life imitates art: throughout top-tier MBA programs and modern investment banks, the image of the stalking, cigar-smoking, summer-home in the Hamptons, limo-insulated, braces-sporting deal maker has become the ideal, sometimes getting the better of real Wall Street mavericks who let romance cloud their common sense and appeared on the covers of Fortune and Forbes---only to be shot down by their envious employers.
  
  The plot is nothing new: a Horatio Alger story in which hungry young stockbroker (played perfectly by Charlie Sheen) Bud Fox tires of spending his days in a cheap Queens apartment chasing small retail investors, and sets his sights on the 'elephant': the maverick corporate raider Gordon Gecko (played by Michael Douglas in the role of his career).
  
  Fox, for once, has an opening beyond Gecko's favorite box of cigars: he knows his father's airline, Blue Star, is worth more than the market thinks it is because of impending deregulation in the airlines; Gecko takes the bait, and brings Fox, quickly, into the high-octane world of deal-making and insider information---as Gecko's spy.
  
  The acting is uniformly good: apart from Sheen and Douglas, you have the inimitable Sean Young as Gecko's social-climbing wife, Darryl Hannah puckish as fashion designer Darien, pre-"The Limey" Terence Stamp hard as nails as a British corporate raider and Gecko's nemesis, and a troop of veteran character actors: Hal Holbrook as Fox's brokerage house mentor, James Spader as a naive M&A attorney, and the immortal James Karen as Fox's fickle boss.
  
  From the opening riffs of Sinatra's "Fly Me to the Moon" to the closing image of a trading grid imposed over the lower Manhattan skyline, Stone's editing and direction is fast-paced, frenetic, and exotic: the viewer, like Fox, is pulled into the upper reaches of a world where anything is possible and money is the common denominator.
  
  There are some subtle touches, like Gecko's beach house, festooned with atrocious artwork kept only as an investment---and as a barometer of the notoriously fickle and fast moving Market itself.
  
  And for those "Wall Street"-heads who have seen the movie a thousand times (I must be getting close), there are some sweet glitches the editors never caught: when Gecko makes his pitch for a 'friendly' takeover of Blue Star, watch his feet carefully.
  
  Often imitated, never surpassed, "Wall Street" is a stylish, intoxicating, stunning embodiment of an era when anybody could carve his way to the very top of American society by ruthless ambition and sheer determination; it was true when it was made, and it is possibly even more true today.
  
  So strap on your braces, slick back your hair, light up an Esplendido and fire up the DVD player---money never sleeps, pal.
  
  JSG
  
  
• Much more than a snapshot of the 80's
  By A2E3F04ZK7FG66 on 2007-08-26
  "Wall Street" is a movie that seems to spark much debate. Basically, it is the working out of a moral struggle within young Wall Street trader Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) between the values with which he was raised of hard work and success through actual creation, versus those of his mentor Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) who succeeds through corporate raiding and "creative destruction". From Bud's viewpoint his dad's (Martin Sheen) roadmap for success and happiness seems old-fashioned to the point of being prehistoric compared to Gekko's, until Gekko sets his sights and his wrecking ball on his father's company, and Bud is forced to choose. Many people associate this with a liberal versus conservative viewpoint on business, a wild-west economy versus a planned economy and relegate this film to 1980's era nostalgia, like the now humorously giant cell phone Gekko is talking on as he walks along the beach. It is said that neither extreme works and that we've gradually settled towards something in the middle. However, the Gekkos of this world are smarter than that, and over the past 20 years have set up an economic system that serves them well. What we now have is a situation where the haves and have-mores have a planned - almost Soviet - system in which the rules stratify them at the top. I cite the changes in bankruptcy law as exhibit A. The labor force that serves them, however, are in the wild-west economy that was once advocated for everyone. Some will rise to the stratified top in this situation, but the vast majority will remain at the bottom shooting it out with each other - for scarce good jobs, good health care, education, etc. Thus, to me, Wall Street is just an opening chapter in the saga of how economic forces and attitudes toward them have changed, not the portrait of a 20 year-old fad that has come and gone. Currently the extra features are not shown in the product description, so I list them next:
  Disc 1: Main Feature
  Anamorphic Widescreen Presentation
  English DD4.0 and DD5.1 Surround
  French and Spanish Mono
  English and Spanish subtitles
  Commentary by Director Oliver Stone
  
  Disc 2: Extra Features
  Introduction by Oliver Stone
  Deleted scenes with optional commentary by Director Oliver Stone
  All New "Greed Is Good" Featurette
  "Money Never Sleeps: The Making of Wall Street" Featurette
  
  
• Gekko The Great
  By AQXBG599RH1CR on 2004-07-24
  Real-life bigtime investment banker Jeff Beck not only advised Oliver Stone when he made 'Wallstreet' but also stars in this film for a few minutes playing himself at a climactic meeting of topdog-lawyers and bankers. He delivers one of the many exhilarating monologues in this Epic tale of greed, pride and innocence lost. "Now your boss will really start thinking he's Gekko the Great!" He shouts at Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) who plays a struggling young stockbroker who's desperately trying to get on the fast track to becoming a "player".
  Michael Douglas who plays 'Gordon Gekko' (not 'Gecko' as the Amazon review suggests, the name can be seen in the scene where Charlie Sheen turns on his computer in the morning and finds out it's "Gekko's Birthday") puts on such a mind-blowing performance he really can be dubbed 'Gekko the Great'. The character is right up there with Don Vito Corleone, Tony Montana, Begbie, Popeye Doyle and some other members of that elite group of high-octane male movie-characters that will long outlive the actors that created them.
  
  Gordon Gekko is a high profile corporate raider that was probably modelled after Ivan Boesky (the biggest corporate raider of the 80's who eventually went behind bars for insider-trading), Michael Milken (creator and unchallenged 80's king of the high yield or junk-bond) and John Guttfreund (CEO of Salomon Brothers in the 80's who's extravert and bizarre behaviour is documented in the classic books "Liar's Poker" (Michael Lewis) and "Barbarians at the Gate" (John Helyar).
  
  Michael Douglas seems to have been born to play this part and from the moment he is introduced ("Lunch? whaddaya kiddin' me, lunch is for wimps!") to the moment we viewers have to part from his hypnotic character ("I gave you Darian, I gave you everything!") he reduces any leaps of faith that his character may present us with to tiny hops due to his powerhouse presence. In fact, whenever I see Michael Douglas in another movie I have the strange feeling that Gordon Gekko is trapped inside and might burst out at any time to hose us down with sardonic one-liners. ("Love is just an old lie created to keep people from jumping out of windows.")
  
  Gekko is truly the mother of all high rollers, and his performance alone more than warrants the purchase of this film. Apart from that it looks great with crisp Miami Vice type of clean-cut shots and scenery. The whole set up is utterly believable. I work in Derivatives Sales in London and deal with brokers, traders and senior decision makers of the world's leading investment firms on a daily basis. Either they all modelled themselves after Gordon Gekko or for some reason Michael Douglas got it exactly right. Aggression, impatience with political correctness and urgency to get deals/trades done is what this movie and real Capital Markets are all about.
  
  Charles Sheen plays a believable 'Bud Fox' but one wonders what a late 80's Tom Cruise or Kiefer Sutherland might have done with the part. Charlie never really creates the electricity that Douglas shocks the audience with. A baffling fact is that Stone admits on this DVD in an interview that Cruise called him to say he'd love to play the part but Stone "had already promised it to Charlie".
  
  I won't get into the details of the story here but will post some comments on the general themes in the movie.
  
  There's the theme that Stone had already explored in 'Platoon' of two fathers fighting for the soul of their son. In Platoon it was Tom Berenger and Willem Defoe battling for custody of Charlie Sheen's spirit. In Wallstreet it's Douglas and Martin Sheen representing the 'exciting but evil' and 'wholesome but tedious' ways to go for Charlie Sheen's character. This theme introduces some good tension in the storytelling.
  The other theme that Stone put into this narrative is the bleeding heart "Capitalism is bad and unfair" jingle. "I don't produce anything...I own..." Gekko confesses at one point. "How many boats to water-ski behind do you need? When is it enough?!" cries a shocked Bud Fox. The moral comments on successful capitalists come across somewhat naive and in my opinion don't really work. I won't go into the details but most people I've met who've seen the movie don't even remember what it was about Gordon Gekko that was so wrong. All they remember is the classic "Greed is Good" speech and ironically most of them agree with Gekko on the issue. The fact that Oliver Stone lets Gekko initiate industrial espionage is the reason I gave the movie only four stars instead of five.
  
  I personally think this was a real blooper. A man in Gekko's position doesn't need the aggravation of blatantly breaking the law. There's a good plot line concerning a fictive company 'Bluestar Airlines' that Gekko has perfectly legal plans with to make himself rich and get scores of hard working people fired that adds enough suspense to the tale. It seems as though Stone was so set on painting a negative picture of egotistical an a-moral Wall-Streeters that he went one bridge too far.
  
  Fact is that, if anything, this movie is like a recruiting video for Investment Banking. What "Top Gun" did for Naval Aviation "Wall Street" has done for Investment Banking. Big corporate banks have never had to complain about the amount of interested well-educated young hopefuls but nowadays there's probably not one person sitting in any dealing room anywhere in the world who has not seen Wall Street. For one I am convinced that if it wasn't for the scenes that have the camera following runners and stressed out yuppies yelling "How about those September fifties!" I wouldn't have been in this racket.
  
  The dealing room-scenes are some of the most exhilarating scenes in the history of cinematography. Spielberg immersed audiences with his scenes of Normandy's beaches in '44. Stone creates the same spellbinding grip on the audience without getting anybody shot or brutally maimed. That alone is a great achievement for any director in Hollywood. More so for the man who made a career in gory cinematic violence with the screenplay for 'Scarface' and directing 'Platoon' and 'Natural Born Killers'.
  
  All Hail Gekko the Great! See this movie again and again. It's full of catchy one-liners that will make you not only the toast of any party but might provide you with more of an energy boost than any Tony Robbins video ever will. "Life all comes down to a few moments, this is one of them..."
  
  
  
• GET THIS OUT ON DVD..!
  By A2M80GKHY93Z3O on 1999-12-06
  How many more viewer requests do we need before this movie gets released on DVD? This is important stuff.. Amazon, please get the message across.
  
  
• A Laugh Riot!!! The Most Hilarious Film of the 80s!!!!!
  By on 1999-02-08
  Truly, one of the most hilarious movies ever made. The fact that it is intended to be a serious character study of greed's effects on a young man makes the hilarity even more intense. Oliver Stone is the Ed Wood of the 80s-90s!!! Watch Daryl Hannah pretend to know something about art!! Watch Charlie Sheen pretend to know something about acting!! Watch Martin Sheen realize what a bozo his son is!!! Watch Michael Douglas grease his hair, and win an Oscar for it!!! Listen to Oliver Stone's deathless dialogue!!! Not since Plan Nine from Outer Space has a script plumbed such inanities with such utter solemnity. A true classic, with Valley of the Dolls, and Showgirls.
  
  
• Stone's unwilling praise of capitalism
  By A3LXYUYLV523ZD on 2001-07-30
  What Oliver Stone attempted to make - in a naive and narrow-minded way - was a critique of capitalism. Instead, he directed a film which is watched over and over again, and admired, by Capitalist Pigs like myself. What a nasty surprise to Mr Stone.

  This DVD features a documentary - quite good and fully justifying the purchase of DVD even if you already have a video, if only to learn Oliver Stone's socialist views told in his own words. The man actually believes that people who don't work in companies should not be allowed to own them - and he actually says that! You don't often hear such a naive socialist rhetoric these days.

  And then Douglas tells us how disappointed he is every time someone approaches him and confesses that the film was an inspiration for them to get into finance, stock market and fast-track lifestyle. Oh no. Another contender for hypocrisy prize.

  For anyone who remembers the depiction of Blue Star airline and its oh-so-heroic, oh-so-honest trade union people as primitive, shallow and one-dimensional, it will be very interesting to see that Stone and Sheen actually put a lot of their thought and effort into it. Who knew. If they had not been trying, could this depiction have been any more lame?

  I am pleased, in a kind of wicked way, that an attempt to attack capitalism turned out to be a collection of the most powerful quotes ("money never sleeps", "lunch is for wimps" and the ultimate "greed is good") and ideological Bible of the people whom Oliver Stone despises most. Similarly, all the self-righteous trade-union "honest men" got a nightmare of a treatment - from someone who was just trying to glorify them. With friends like these, who needs enemies - and with enemies like these, who needs friends? Capitalism has never had a better advocate than this millionaire pinko director.

  Thanks Oliver Stone from all of us, Capitalist Pigs.
  
  

• Greed is GOOD
  By AO6IV5SQBGRGY on 2000-02-11
  Gordon Gecko (Michael Douglas) commands the attention and respect of not only the characters in the movie, but the audience as well. The viewer gets captivated into the seduction of a high rolling lifestyle and can understand Buddy's (Charlie Sheen) desire to become one of the sharks. A true tale of a hungry starter in the biggest business in the world becoming what he's always dreamed of becoming, although under false foundation. Buddy soon realizes that his foundation and backing does not equal that of Gecko's which lands him and his dreams alongside each other duing his quick downfall. A Power Broker's Pawn or the Hungry Young Broker not reassuring his meteroic rise? You decide! A MUST SEE for ANY business person!
  
  
• one the definitive films of the '80s finally on DVD!
  By A3V38I6AS9VPEU on 2001-01-23
  WALL STREET has always been one of my favourite Oliver Stone films. it crackles with the same intense, acerbic dialogue as SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS. from his "Greed is good" speech to the way he handles day to day deals with ruthless efficiency, you can see how Michael Douglas nailed this role of the ultimate amoral insider and deservedly won the Oscar that year for Best Actor.

  after watching this film on a crappy pan and scam VHS tape, it is so gratifying to finally see this film given a proper DVD treatment. the transfer is crisp and clear with good sound but the real selling points are the fascinating documentary -- which features Douglas and Charlie Sheen and their views and thoughts of the film after all this time -- and Stone's informative and candid audio commentary. for someone like myself who has seen this film a zillion times, listening to Stone's observations on his movie was a real treat. great stuff. along with GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS, this is one of THE best films about money, greed and the people who ruthlessly pursue it.
  
  

• The Period Piece Of The 80's
  By A26NE220NNQIFV on 2001-05-11
  The quote from Gekko says it all.......

  " Greed Is Good "

  And in a sense that is what this movie is all about, to some degree. The opening titles to such a fantastic city as New York is matched in size and demeanor with Frank Sinatra along side singing.

  Stone's masterpiece follows really the rise, and very big fall, of Bud Fox ( Played by Charlie Sheen ). Sheen is a coldcalling, struggling broker at a securities firm in NY with the aspirations of being " The Elephant...The Player " on the other end of the phone with the money and the power to call all the shots. To get there however is a totally different affair all together... In short, not to give too much away from this fabulous movie, Fox chases the golden ticket by persistently calling the self made Wall St. legend Gordon Gekko ( played fabulously by Michael Douglas, the thought of Richard Gere in this role is ridiculous now! ).

  Fox's persistence finally pays off with Gekko taking him in and teaching him the in's and out's of the insidering trading game, " The most valuable commoditity I know of is information " quotes Gekko and it is exceptionally true in society at any time perioid.

  This masterpiece of a film really pays homage well to the yuppie, bull market era of the 80's. I remember the 1st time I ever saw it and the fast paced desire it gave me to want to be a trader in New York, buy buy!! Sell sell! A lovely fact of this movie is that fact that is hasn't really dated that much, the clothes, cars, computers and haircuts are about all that really date it.

  On the technical aspect of it, the picture is wonderfully clean and crisp in almost every scene. The sound, the Dolby Dig 5.1, feels abit synthetic...but after all this is a movie that was made in '87 years before 5.1 was ever a thought to movie makers. However, it's not a action movie so the sound should not matter as long as you can hear the dialogue. The documentary about Wall St., and the commentary by Oliver Stone, are wonderfully inciteful and worth viewing at least once if not more.

  On the whole the disc is a MUST own. The story and the characters are what drive and enthrall you in this movie. Douglas's performance alone as Gordon Gekko is worth the price of the disc to see again and again....
  
  

• Oliver Stone is Wrong
  By on 2002-07-15
  I did like this movie. However, it is full of gross exaggerations and biases that we have come to expect from Stone. First of all, the little subtitle at the beginning says that the year is 1985. No more than 20 minutes into the film Bud Fox's partner, when speaking about Gekko, says that Gekko sold Nasa stock short after the Challenger blew up. The Challenger didn't explode until 1986. Plus, I didn't know that Nasa was listed on the NYSE!!

  What works is Gekko's little 'Greed' speech. It's true. All humans are motivated by their self-interest. Why greed has such a bad connotation is puzzling. Gekko's other little diatribe toward the end of the film is pure [trash]. Life is not a zero-sum game. Just because you make more money, for example, doesn't mean that I will make less. If this is Stone's belief, which I'm sure it is, he's as dumb as a box of rocks.

  One more thing, Bud and Gordon wore awesome suits! More men need to start wearing suspenders (braces) again!
  
  

• Greed, corruption, selling your soul...all in a day's work.
  By A2YAABMT80RLYA on 2003-05-05
  While the subject of the stock market and trading on Wall Street doesn't interest me in the least, I loved how Oliver Stone made it interesting is "Wall Street". It stands as one of his most intellegent and accomplished films, with a smart (if overly-technical) script and superb acting.

  Charlie Sheen, the quintessential 80's heartthrob, takes on a new role as Bud Fox, an ambitious young stock trader. He works his days selling stocks, all the while hoping to be a player in the same league as the big guys. One such big guy is Gordon Gekko (Michaek Douglas, in a standout performance), a millionaire tycoon who makes his living buying out companies and liquidating them for profit. He takes Fox under his wing, gives him a taste of the wealth and power, and Fox becomes insatiable. So much that he makes some wrong decisions, not realizing that this new power and wealth comes at a higher cost, one that he cannot afford.

  The 80's was characterized by hotshot young executives looking for the quick and easy buck, and Oliver Stones portrayed that very well here. Gordon Gekko is the benchmark corporate villian, someone who one see's the world only in shades of green. The acting in this movie is first rate, especially from Michael Douglas. The long lines of dialogue, the speeches, and the emotional undertones are a challenge for any actor, and all involved here did an excellent job. I often watch "Wall Street" just for the acting.

  The DVD is not a full-blown Special Edition, but it's a quality release nonetheless. Oliver Stone's commentary is insightful and articulate, even though he rambles and speaks in an annoying deep voice. The "Making Of" documentary is a real treat. Simply titled "Money Never Sleeps", it is over 1 hour of new interviews with the cast and crew, discussing all major points of the movie and the stories behind the scenes. It is one of the better DVD-exclusive documentaries I have seen.

  Whether or not you find the subject interesting, "Wall Street" is a great movie in almost every way. While the script wanders off into technical stock jargon, it is one of the best scripts I have ever seen put to film. The acting is top notch, and Oliver Stone directs with panache and style. A must have.
  
  

• Capitalist crime
  By A1DU58OZJNPUHV on 2004-10-27
  'Wall Street' must have some authentic merit given the amount of brokers and actual convicted insider traders that worked on the film. Oliver Stone's father was a Wall Street broker from a previous era. In fact Oliver Stone has been a fan and a supporter of the Wall Street world in which he grew up if anyone had taken the time to read any interviews with him. The difference between his father's time and the 80's financial world he was documenting was a rise in the culture of speculation, a system which in relation to his father's business values, creates and produces nothing for society. Indeed Hal Halbrook's character is Stone erecting his father's ghost, the voice of old Wall Street, where capital brought industry, peace and reason.
  
  Ironically the rise of high profile busts for insider trading in the 80's may have more to do with a more stringent form of policing rather than a rise in financial greed. Reagan took his eye of corporate mergers, allowing the SFC to concentrate on the brash yet ultimatly small fish of insider trading. As corporate mergers got larger and larger, hostile takeovers skyrocketed and the rise of the parasite financers living off the buying selling of others was here to stay.
  
  Gordon Gekko's "greed is good" speech has been quoted in more T.V., newspaper and magazine retrospectives of the 80's than I care to remember. There are few characters in modern cinema who have had such a divisive response. Seen as a villain by many and a hero by many others. Gekko is a perfect symbol of the economic and political divide of the 80's
  
  
• Oliver Stone's best film
  By A27RJ30RN5K9MX on 2003-09-24
  Bud Fox ( Charlie Sheen)is a young broker who is intelligent, ambitious, and hard working. He has many ideas on how to make it big. The only problem is that he is stuck in a job that consists of cold calling investors over the phone. Wanting something more, he seeks out the highly successful financial wiz Gordon Gecko ( Michael Douglas). Gecko sees a younger version of himself with Bud, and takes him under his wing. However, the road to success, is not always paved with honesty. Bud is immediately lured by Gordon, into the world of corporate epsionage and insider trading. Bud starts to make more money than he ever dreamed was possible. But he soon learns that the pursuit of overnight riches comes at a price that is too high to pay.

  Wall Street takes us into the world of the stock market and insider trading. It is definately Oliver Stone's best film, and one of the best that I have ever seen overall. No matter how many times you see this movie, it never gets boring, or seems any less amazing. Michael Douglas offers one of the most memorable lines of all time with "Greed is good". This is the driving force for the film. This perhaps, is the film's best feature because the story is so authentic. Stone manages to fully capture all of the glory that Wall Street can bring, and the misery that it can cause.

  Of course, you need talented actors to make it convincing. Michael Douglas gives the best role of his career as Gordon Gecko. In fact, he won an Academy Award for Best Actor for the role. It is that good. Gordon is a man that is ruled by greed, and is completely ruthless. That is why Charlie Sheen's portrayal of Bud Fox plays so well off of Douglas. Sheen is young, ambitious, and also extremely naive. He is the puppet, and Gecko is the puppeteer. Martin Sheen delivers an extremely solid role as Bud's father Carl. I loved the fact that Martin Sheen got the role, because only a real father could bring such a realistic portrayal of love. There are other great actors as well in this film, and they include Hal Halbrook, John C McGinley, Daryl Hannah, and Terrance Stamp.

  Wall Street is a classic story dealing with ambition, greed, and betrayal. The story is extremely authentic, all of the acting is superb, and the suspense will keep you on the edge of your seat. The DVD extras are nice too. The making of documentary is great, and so is the commentary from Oliver Stone.
  
  

• Greed is good, and so is this movie!
  By A3GA09FYFKL4EY on 2004-09-06
  When Michael Douglas won his Oscar, he thanked the directors "Because most people thought this was a role I couldn't play." And it is, far different from fun like "Romancing the Stone" but he does it very, very convincingly. "Greed is good" says Douglas' Gekko, and proves it to his innocent understudy, Charlie Sheen as a stockbroker. It's also great to see Charlie and Martin together as...father and son. Darryl Hannah is hot as ever as Gekko's ex-mistress and Sheen's new love. This movie posts quite a question....how much money is enough and how far are you willing to go to get it? An interesting look as well into the financial wheelings and dealings of corporate America.
  
  
• "I gave you your manhood!"
  By AGKPTMTR3UX1R on 2006-01-14
  The ambience of the Reagan-era stock boom is captured perfectly in this iconic film, starring Michael Douglas, Martin Sheen, and Charlie Sheen.
  
  The younger Sheen plays Bud Fox, a young up-and-coming stockbroker who worms his way into the heart of darkness of Wall Street mogul Gordon Gekko (Douglas), who seduces the younger man into a lifestyle of stylish excess.
  
  Martin Sheen plays Charlie's father, a role he reprised from real life. In WALL STREET the elder Sheen is an airline mechanic and union man to the cuffs of his coveralls who tries desperately to make his bedazzled son hold fast to bedrock blue-collar values.
  
  Although the ethics lesson is heavy-handed and obvious, WALL STREET's closing moral is satisfyingly vague and open to interpretation, giving this film an unintended depth that still draws audiences two decades later.
  
  Douglas's Gekko is the avaricious embodiment of the Gimme Decade, believing that, from start to finish as the great tagline to this movie says, "Greed is good...Greed works." Director Oliver Stone named Gekko after the infamous "f.u. lizard" of Vietnam, and it's an appropriate choice. Gekko, as the embodiment of a kind of ethical darkness, has much in common with APOCALYPSE...NOW's Colonel Kurtz (another Sheen vehicle). He is eminently piratical, dismembering companies, enemies and sexual conquests (Daryl Hannah plays the girl) gloatingly.
  
  Smudging the seemingly simple lines drawn in the sand, Douglas's Oscar-winning portrayal is so overwhelmingly powerful that it effectively capsizes the movie and inverts the lesson in ethics. The mesmerizing, beautifully polished Gekko, reeking of amorality, becomes a study in the Will to Power.
  
  Gekko, quite ironically, is The Man We All Want To Be. His strength however, comes less from within himself than from his ability to tap into the egocentric desires of others around him. Never promising anything, like a magician he demonstrates everything, exuding authority and certainty in that most uncertain and least authoritative of all universes, finance. Generations of MBAs, CFPs, and hungry young men of all stripes have seen WALL STREET as a McGuffey's Reader of sorts, providing a template for the look, tone, and attitude of success. Events have not proven them wrong.
  
  Even as the sycophants around him disgustingly reduce everything to a crude dollars-and-cents cost-benefit analysis (take note of Daryl Hannah's reaction to Gekko's tacky modern art collection), Gekko seems to be above it all. True, he exhibits the predatory instincts of an alley cat throughout the picture, but he is also undeniably alluring. Whether Douglas is portraying the hero or the villain of WALL STREET depends entirely on the viewer's perspective and mood.
  
  
• Enjoyable Story of the 80's Wall Street Success Myth
  By A37UK8Z0BTMJJM on 1999-12-20
  This film was quite fun to watch and I enjoyed it. Douglass and Sheen gave excellent performances, and Gordon Gekko had some classic lines(My personal favorite: A fool and his money are lucky enough to get together in the first place).

  However, as much as I'd recommend this film for it's entertainment value, as a professional trader who has been making his living from trading stocks and commodities for his own personal account for the past twelve years, I have to say that this film does more to perpetuate every myth and psychological bias that causes the majority of people to LOSE money in the markets than just about any other film I can think of. Chief among them in this film is that inside information is required or even desirable in many cases in order to make money. This may just be a reflection of the biases of it's director, but IMO, a bit more in depth research and the inclusion of another character, for contrast's sake, of a successful, honest trader and his or her methods would not have gone amiss. I kept hoping this would develop in the character of Lou Manheim, but it never did. Bottom line: Very entertaining story, but it ain't no success manual. More like a study of what not to do to win on Wall Street.
  
  

• God-Awful
  By on 1999-06-10
  Utterly, absolutely inept. No film ever made is as completely awful as this one. A laughable, by-the-numbers script, containing cliche after cliche, and silly atrocious dialogue that strains for cleverness and depth but sounds like misheard Ed Wood quotations.

  Bad performances from actors who don't know any better (Charlie Sheen, Michael Douglas). Sad performances from fine actors who seem to be rather embarassed about their participation in this trash (Martin Sheen, Hal Holbrook, Terence Stamp).

  Another lousy flick from Oliver Stone. Avoid it. Unless you want some nasty laughs at the expense of the poor people involved, a la Showgirls.
  
  

• The best financial movie of all time
  By A3R339V9KN1W9H on 2001-01-09
  Michael Douglas and Charlie Sheen are at their best. Martin Sheen is his usual cool self. This movie is an excellent portrayal of what made the "Greedy 80's".

  Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) is a ruthless multi-millionaire financial tycoon who calls on a young aspiring stock broker, Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen), to help him obtain illegal inside corporate information. Fox gets caught up in all the hundreds of thousands of dollars flowing in his direction and he loses sight of the more important things in life. Only when Gekko tries to ruin Fox's father's (Martin Sheen) employer, a commercial airline, does he see the error in his ways.

  Daryl Hannah plays Darien Taylor, a neo interior decorator with a nose for the big bucks. She falls for Fox as the money rolls in. There's not a lot of bad things to say about this movie, except that Hannah is terribly miscast. It's still a must-see movie for anyone who lived in the 80's or is interested in finance.
  
  

• Amazing movie...
  By ADE852UR9121C on 2005-04-03
  Few movies capture the mind and heart as this movie. It is basically about Bud Fox, a sales manager in Wall Street. He deals mostly low-key shares and he is aiming for the big time. He seeks the opportunity to work with Gordon Gecko, a multi-billionaire investor who is smart as he is ruthless. Meanwhile, Bud Fox is also facing his father's criticism about what he does for a living..."Create, instead of living off the buying and selling of other people's money", his father says. I admit, I am addicted to this movie. Every few months, I have to slot in the DVD and watch it. It is a delight to watch every single time. This movie deals with many important and all too real issues. Everybody wants to be rich, but how far would you go to achieve that goal? Is it worth betraying the people you love? Changing your morals and values in life? And when you do make it big, who can you trust? How sure are you? These are just some of the elements Oliver Stone delved into in this movie. Using Wall Street and the share market as his backdrop, he has created a masterpiece.
  
  The first thing that immediately grabs you is the acting. Superb performances from some of the most talented but often misused actors in Hollywood. Michael Douglas has always been one of my favourite actors and in this movie, he IS Gordon Gecko. He is the epitome of corporate power. The way he speaks, and acts....classic stuff. One of my favourite scenes, is when he gives the speech during the shareholder meeting of Teldar Paper. Unbelievably good! He won a truly deserving Oscar for his portrayal of Gecko. Because of Douglas' fantastic acting, it tends to overshadow another actor who is as deserving of praise, Charlie Sheen. To be honest, I am not a fan of Charlie Sheen and found his acting mediocre in many movies, which was why I was pleasantly surprised with his acting here. He was really very good as Bud Fox, looking up to Gecko as his mentor, never overacting and having the coolness to pull off lines like "You get out that door, I'm changing the locks". He plays the part of a young man not knowing exactly what he wants in life once he achieved his idea of success perfectly. And the supporting cast, Martin Sheen (playing Bud Fox's dad with pure emotion, it seems like he's saying what he really means to his son) and Darryl Hannah (as Bud Fox's love interest) does not disappoint.
  
  Kudos to Oliver Stone for writing such a powerful script. This is not the usual garbage Hollywood likes to dump us with...this is a brilliant screenplay with great dialogue. "Greed will not only save Teldar Papers, but that other malfunctioning corporation known as the United States", Gecko says. Heck, even at home, I felt like giving a standing ovation to that. And the camera angles were also something I found fascinating in this movie. For example, when we're first shown Gecko, we don't get to see him immediately. Oliver Stone teases us with a Fortune magazine cover, and then by a shot of his office, when someone enters his office, the door opens and closes just enough time so that we get a glimpse of Gecko and hear his voice but never really getting a good look of him, right until Bud Fox meets with him. And towards the end, when things go wrong, a dark shadow falls upon the office. Beautiful!
  
  Honestly, everything about this movie seems to work perfectly, which is why the 5-star rating. This is one of my all-time favourites and I highly recommend this movie to anyone, whether you're involved in the share market or not, because the scope of this movie extends to so much more than that, that I'm sure different people would appreciate it on different levels. A definite must-see!
  
  
• Excellent film
  By A3HLUNEJUT3MSP on 2001-12-13
  Some people might say Wall Street is nothing like that portrayed in this movie, while others would say it's all too much like this (to this very day). Watch the movie. Then think back on all the news articles you've read and/or TV stories you've watched regarding Wall Street and decide for yourself. I definitely like this movie, and consider it a full-fledged five star-er. The acting is superb, and the drama heart-felt.
  
  

• Boiler Room
• Glengarry Glen Ross
• Barbarians at the Gate
• Rogue Trader
• Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room