Continuing on a series I hope to keep up on, are diaries on movies and how they reflect, relate, and impact our lives and politics. I think movies are an amazing artform and often many films are under appreciated for the theme or message that might be in them.
I was writing about a very recent movie release but a conversation recently inspired me to drag out the movie collection and dredge up a classic that might just be old enough to introduce to a new younger audience. Its a great movie with classic characters and despite a rather easy to predict plot arch still to this day can capture you in its grip.
If you haven't seen it, don't read further, as there are spoilers, and go watch it now. If you have seen it, well, join me after for why this movie is just as relevant today as it was then.
Trailer Here
Directed by Oliver stone and released in 1987, the film was a December release. Not untypical for Hollywood at the time as Hollywood slows down for the February and March dead zone. For those uninitiated, typically Hollywood releases their summer blockbusters, followed by comedies and dramas, and then early spring turns into the dumping ground for movies. Films who are often contract requirements, negotiated deals for summer movies, or just stuff they really know wouldn't compete against anything other than itself. Often winter time in Hollywood is marked by serious films and Oscar potentials.
The film debuted in wide release showcasing in 730 theaters across the US. It went head to head against 'Throw Mama From The Train' and 'Empire of the Son'. In its first initial release it grossed approximately 4 million dollars to Mama's 7 million. It competed very well and was widely well received. The movie had staying power as well, in its third week it saw a resurgence of attendance and an increase in its release base as over 200 theaters added it to their showcase. It went on to showcase for quite some time and grossed over 33 million in theater revenue alone, easily doubling its production budget of 16.5 million. Indeed it even won Michael Douglas an Oscar for Best Actor.
The movie stars Charlie Sheen, his father Martin Sheen, Michael Douglas and a young Daryl Hannah. It also has a great supporting role from James Spader. In this movie Charlie Sheen stars as Bud Fox, a young stockbroker just starting in his career and hungry for success. That success comes in the form of his relationship with Michael Douglas who plays a ruthless corporate raider, Gordon Gekko. The success however has its costs, a cost that is told through Bud's relationships with his father (Martin Sheen) and love interest Darien Taylor (Daryl Hannah).
To set this up, Oliver Stone made this movie as an homage and tribute to his father, who was a stockbroker during the Great Depression. The movie was created as a giant character litmus test. Essentially we travel through the movie with Bud, experience his interactions and are questioned very often as Bud makes questionable choices "What would we do?". Oliver Stone does an excellent job of showing Bud's transformation from at first following the ethical route, to being ethically bankrupt and finally to acceptance of is misdeeds.
The basic plot summary is that Bud, an aspiring stock trader, is taken under the wing of Gordon Gekko and eventually lured into the ethically devoid world of corporate raiding and insider trading. Bud is tempted and succumbs to the allure of power and money. He even goes as far as to suggest the purchasing of the airline his father works for and is union head of the workers there. Once we see how morally devoid of ethics Bud is becoming, his turning point against Gekko is a remarkable transition and wonderful to watch.
The turning point comes as a giant betrayal by Gekko. Bud learns that purchase of the airline and expansion of it, as suggest by Bud, is not the goal of Gekko. Gekko plans to purchase the airline and dissolve it, selling it off piecemeal to competitors in order to gain access to the company's huge pension fund. The move would leave everyone at the airline out of work and decimate the retirement savings of those workers.
The plan would leave Bud, and Gekko obviously, extraordinarily rich. However, Bud becomes horrified at Gekko's plans, obviously influenced due to his fathers role as union president at Bluestar. He is beside himself and angry for being an accessory to what amounts to theft from his father in his eyes. His guilt drives him to break up with his girlfriend, who wont hurt her former lover, and concoct a plan with competitor Wildman to stop Gekko from his corporate raiding on Bluestar. It is only after everything falls apart and Gekko finds out that Wildman is purchasing Bluestar that he realizes Bud set the whole thing up.
Bud goes on to be arrested for insider trading, being led out in handcuffs from his corner office at Jackson Steinam. We see genuine shame on his face as he is led out past his former colleagues. Later in the film we see him confront Gekko in Central Park, the confrontation being recorded, Gekko berates Bud for his lack of gratitude in making Bud rich from their insider trading. He then hands over the recordings to the SEC who inform him he most likely will be rewarded for his cooperation. The movie ends with Bud being driven to the court by his parents, Carl (Buds father) informing him that even if he does go to prison that he did the right thing. The closing scene is Bud walking up the steps of a court house to face justice but clear of conscious.
Life is not without its own sense of irony as the stock market that year experienced a significant crash in the wake of the Savings and Loan scandals from the previous two years.
There are so many analogies one could draw from this movie. Oliver Stone does an amazing job, as he so often does, creating characters that relate. Some of the strongest scenes are often the ones between father and son. The father worried about his son and his choices and the son rejecting his fathers appeal for a fast lifestyle and the easy life. It is interesting to note that while Bud may appear a hero for saving the airline, he did not do it through heroic means. Essentially we saw the apprentice become the master as Bud manipulates the system and performs the exact same underhanded tactics he had been taught. Fighting fire with fire.
Oliver Stone does an amazing job setting up ethical and moral questions for the audience, things like "Would I do the same thing?" and "Do the ends justify the means?".
The ethics questions are drawn up against clear stark black and white characters like Gordon Gekko and Bud's father. The characters are very clearly polar opposites and we see Bud having to choose between them. In these ethics and moral choices presented by Bud the audience is always engaged as we see Bud at times struggle with his choices. Again we see Stone's amazing ability as a director. His camera work is crucial in portraying each character. As you watch the film you sense that the camera is always moving, pacing, dancing in timing to the tempo of the loose and fast rules Wallstreet and Gekko play by. Only when Bud's father is in shot does the camera stop and start conveying a sense of stability in the film. The camera work helps to contrast the ethical father, and the ethically bankrupt Gekko.
As clear as day we can see this relevancy and relation to moderns times today, especially in the wake of the Great Recession. Where before the big crash we saw greed and ethically bankrupt decisions being made left and right, not just by people like big bankers but also at individual levels across the entire spectrum. Those decisions eventually turning the country and the world at large on its head. Indeed we are still dealing with people who continue those ethically void decisions with people like Jamie Dimon at JP Morgan Chase who through his stewardship casually lost over 2 billion dollars recently.
If you look you can see Gordon Gekko everywhere, even more so in politics lately. The presumptive nominee of the Republican party is the very embodiment of Gordon Gekko. Callous, selfish, self centered, and hollow. Mitt Romney runs on his Bain record despite the fact that Bain exemplifies what is wrong with Wallstreet. What Mitt never acknowledges is that in the movie Bain would have done exactly what Gekko planned. And just as we see on all issues with Mitt's willingness ignore or to etch-a-sketch away his primary bruises of social issues, we see a Gordon Gekko selling the "greed is good" mantle to Teldar Paper shareholders.
This is where we are in United States politics now, we are at our Wallstreet moment. We are given the choice to accept Mitt and his GOP friends' plan to corporate raid our state, or we work as hard as we can to prevent it and perhaps finally rebuild our nation. Because the GOP and Mitt would love even more chances at turning the United States into the next Bluestar.