Wallstreet movie critisim essays

Wallstreet movie critisim essays It is difficult to discern whether the movie Wall Street is intended to be a scathing critique of modern bureaucracies in general or the men and women who work within them. Oliver Stone uses the traditional American coming of age story to attack modern perceptions of success and power in the corporation. Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) is a small town guy whose father worked his whole life at a blue collar job to provide him with all the opportunities his limited income could provide. Empowered by his fathers drive and an NYU degree in finance Bud sets his sights on striking it rich on the New York stock exchange. But Buds unbridled ambition combined with his resistance to advice of those around him eventually lead him into the shady world of big business fraud and insider trading. It is within this context that Oliver Stone uses Michael Douglas character Gordon Gecko to show what it takes to be successful in business as an individual and a corporation. Gordon Gecko (Michael Douglas) is smart, driven, powerful, incredibly wealthy and everything the Bud aspires to be. He proudly espouses, in true merchant fashion, fact that he produces nothing whatsoever but only uses money to produce the illusion of power. At one point while arguing the merits of his plans to liquidate the company Buds father has worked for twenty-four years Gordon argues that 90 percent of the public has little or no net worth and that the richest 1 percent own half of the countries wealth, and so if Bud wants to be successful he is going to have to decided who he is with. Is he with the 99 percent of hard working laborers who are being robed of the production of their efforts or the 1 percent that lives the life of luxury those efforts provide. As time progresses Geckos unyielding drive for more comes to symbolize not only his own unscrupulous methods for personal advancement but for all major corporat...