Martin Scorcese is a Director who I like, but when I saw the previews for one of his new movies coming out, I had to stifle a groan, because I was pretty sure that I knew what was coming.
Simply put, he made a movie about a real person who swindled and stole a great deal of money from a lot of people who could not afford to lose it, and made him into a “likeable rogue.” This is quite literally the sort of movie that people will watch, and then be inspired to become the person they see in it.
Occasionally people will defend these sort of movies by saying that it ss exposing what is wrong in Wall Street, but in this case that simply isn't true. The movie celebrated his lifestyle, and to some extent even holds him up as some kind of sick role model. Without this kind of stuff in the movie theaters it is unlikely that we would have our present culture, in which endless excuses are made for Wall Street criminals who break the law, while poor people who have committed no crime are called lazy and stupid.
If you don't believe that, then consider this. People are sharing this picture taken from the movie along with a quote from the character in it.
More below the orange danish.
I suppose that this inspirational sounds pretty good to a bunch of middle class white kids getting ready to go make their next sales pitch, but a lot of us have very real barriers preventing us from reaching our goals. A thin line exists between encouraging people to go for their dream, and insulting everyone who isn't able to attain their own. The people using this image for an inspirational poster have completely rubbed out that line.
Remember kids! Achieve your goals! It follows of course that if anyone else can't, it is only because of some bullshit story they told themselves.
I wish that Scorscese had not made this film. I imagine that when you have his sort of income, you don't see poor people very often. It's hard for me to even imagine what his world must be like. I doubt he's ever tried to imagine mine.
Here is a link to an article written by someone who went to a movie theater that is actually close to Wall Street, so many of the people in the audience work on Wall Street. I thought what he saw in that theater was pretty revealing. Note the parts where they cheer as the star of the show grabs his coke stash, and warns his partners that he's wearing a wire.
What a cool guy. If only more people would be like him, the whole economy would crash.