Hollywood films sometimes survive long after its initial release, moving its characters and messages into mainstream culture. One such example is Oliver Stones’ 1987 film Wall Street, which introduced the world to the infamous Gordon Gekko. Stone set his film in the 1980s around the time when several insider trading scandals and prosecutions were in the news. The film portrayed the high-flying lifestyles of New York traders and speculators and showed the extreme excess and greed of American culture. Gordon Gekko captured the essence of this greedy lifestyle with his “take-no-prisoners” school of capitalism. Gekko is portrayed as a corporate raider. He buys underperforming companies, breaks them up and sells their parts at a healthy profit. …show more content…
Gekko …show more content…
Parts of the speech are reported to have come from actual speeches from Wall Street traders. Ivan Bosky is credited with inspiring the “greed is good” line from his 1986 commencement address given to the University of California School of Business. Bosky states: “Greed is all right, by the way. I want you to know that. I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself.” Ironically, Bosky was later convicted of insider-trading. Oliver Stone’s intention with his film in 1987 was to show Wall Street’s excess and its greed seen through the actions and philosophy of Gordon Gekko. Although this film is fictional, it paints a bleak picture of America that is all to
No Country for Old Men (2007), is directed, written, and edited by Joel and Ethan Coen. This film is a Western-thriller that involves authority, crime, corruption and power. Llewelyn Moss, played by Josh Brolin, is out hunting one morning and discovers the remainder of a drug deal gone badly. After finding a few dead bodies, abandoned vehicles and two million dollars, he takes the cash from the scene of the crime and hides it in the air vent of a hotel room. Chigurh played by Javier Bardem, is a psychopath who was hired to recover the two million dollars. He kills and threatens everyone in his path while hunting down Llewelyn. Sheriff Bell, played by Tommy Lee Jones, is also trying to locate and protect Moss from Chigurh. Chigurh uses a tracking
Wealth has often consumed the lives people in the past, corrupting them and causing people to make bad decisions due to this greed. Wealth and greed will continue to take over others’ lives for as long as the human race still exists. The desire for wealth and greed as shown in the The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Fitzgerald by some characters’ intense obsession with money, lavish lifestyles, and their sense of entitlement, ultimately putting other characters in harm’s way.
In warning about the evils of greed, Jesus used a parable: “There was a rich man blessed with [fertile land.] He thought to himself, ‘What will I do? I have no place to keep all my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘I know what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger barns! I will put all my good things together in my new barns. Then I can say…Rest, eat, drink, and enjoy life!’“But God said to that man, ‘Foolish man! Tonight you will die!... Who will get [your things] now?’ This is how it will be for anyone who saves things only for himself. To God that person is not rich.” (Luke 12:13 21)
A white-collar crime by definition is a crime that is committed by individuals of higher status. It is not necessarily a violent crime, but could be depending on the situation. An individual who works in a professional environment, such as the government or corporation tend to take advantage of employees and manipulate them into thinking their practices are legitimate. Some examples, of white-collar crimes include fraud, embezzlement, insider trading, and other various crimes. However, individuals who involve them selves in drugs or stealing someone’s personal possessions commit street crime. For example, it tends to be violent depending on the situation and it usually happens in a public place or
Jordan Belfort is the notorious 1990’s stockbroker who saw himself earning fifty million dollars a year operating a penny stock boiler room from his Stratton Oakmont, Inc. brokerage firm. Corrupted by drugs, money, and sex he went from being an innocent twenty – two year old on the fringe of a new life to manipulating the system in his infamous “pump and dump” scheme. As a stock swindler, he would motivate his young brokers through insane presentations to rile them up as they defrauded investors with duplicitous stock sales. Toward the end of this debauchery tale he was convicted for securities fraud and money laundering for which he was sentenced to twenty – two months in prison as well as recompensing two – hundred million in
shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned not more than 25 years, or both.
The article by Thomas Cassidy, points out the instrumental role that greed plays in the modern corporation. Modern Economists have always seen greed as not only a necessary element in the corporate environment, but as also a vital part of the successful evolution of a public company. As the article points out, “Economists from Adam Smith to Milton Friedman have seen greed as an inevitable and, in some ways, desirable feature of capitalism. In a well regulated and well balanced economy, greed helps to keep the system expanding”.
The movie takes place in the early 1990’s, when Jordan Belfort partners with Donny Azoff to start his brokerage firm, Stratford-Oakmont. After the introduction given by Jordan, we follow his life from the time that he is 22 years old when he had just started on wall street, all the way to the time of his arrest. Throughout the movie, you can see Jordan’s narcissistic personality aid him in his rise to the top and eventually lead to his fall.
If you have ever seen the movie The Wolf on Wall Street, there is no doubt you have seen the effects drugs can have. Leonardo DiCaprio portrays a high-strung stock broker reliant on a multitude of illegal drugs to keep up with his hectic life style. His addiction gets so severe that at one point in the movie, he is lying on the floor, unable to move due to the drugs’ effects on his body. Even though the movie is set in the 90’s, a decade infamous for its use of drugs, today, drug usage and abuse has never been more of an issue. According to Alice Park (2016), “More people died of drug overdoses in 2014 in the U.S. than in any other year” (p.49). What people fail to realize is that drug abuse effects more than just the individual that uses them. The loved ones trying to support the user, the community the user is in, can all be affected by drug abuse. In fact, all members of society are affected by the abuse of drugs. In short, no one benefits from drug abuse. In the words of the Nation Institute of Drug Abuse, “Drug abuse is a major public health problem that impacts society on multiple levels. Directly or indirectly, every community is affected by drug abuse and addiction, as is every family. Drugs take a tremendous toll on our society at many levels” ( Magnitude, 2016).
The movie 'Wall Street' is a representation of poor morals and dissapointing business ethics in the popular world of business. This movie shows the negative effects that bad business morals can have on society. The two main characters are Bud Fox played by Charlie Sheen and Gordon Gekko played by Michael Douglas. Bud Fox is a young stockbroker who comes from an honest working-class family but on the other hand, Gordon Gekko is a millionaire who Bud admires and wants to be associated with. Greed seems to be a huge theme of this movie. This movie portrays the unethical society we live in. It shows how money oriented society has become and that people will do almost anything to get ahead.
The Movie that I choose to analyze was the movie The Wolf of Wall Street this movie is about a guy who is starting off his career wanting to earn money fast so he goes to Wall Street and works as a broker for a small firm, where he ends up picking up bad advice along with some bad habits that get him rich fast, but not in a very ethical way. Some of the main characters that I will be talking about in this essay are Jordan Belfort also referred to as Jordy, he is played by Leonardo DiCaprio, Donnie Azoff Played by Jonah Hill. There are many other characters in this movie, but these are the main characters that are faced with difficult dilemmas. A lot of the choices that are made in this movie are Unethical. Even though it seems that he does everything for greed you end up understanding the reasons he did those things, but even though they are done for the right reasons does not mean it is right.
I have to admit, it is an odd choice but yes, I have decided to break through the ethics out of a completely unethical film. I will be discussing my own thoughts and perspectives revolved around the movie, from reasons and circumstances that leads to an unethical life, to outcomes of it and much more.
Anger and helplessness were the first emotions that I felt while watching the movie, “The Inside Job.” I was reminded of another movie portraying greed and ruthlessness, Oliver Stone’s 1987, “Wall Street,” which introduced “Greed is good” into the American vernacular (Gordon Gekko). Obviously, the instigators of the 2008 financial crisis embraced the “Greed is good” adage.
In any given movie that one may watch, you can break it down and look at the philosophical meaning behind it and create an ethical perspective. One could take bits and pieces of the movie and compare them to the ethical theories of either one or multiple theorists, with the goal being to create a better understanding of what the film’s ethical basis is and how exactly they incorporate the theorist’s ideas into the film. One of the most recent films that caught the eye of theorists within the ethical department is the movie “Wolf on Wall Street”. In this essay I will present the critique of this movie, the multiple ethical dilemmas such as: Utilitarianism, virtue theory, and how the characters disregarded these ethics in their mission for wealth and success.
In 1938, and in the teeth of the longest and fiercest depression that the United States had ever known, capital spending hit an all time high. That’s right! In 1938 the men who owned America began to pour millions of Dollars into new plant and equipment as if there was no tomorrow. We don’t think much about it today, because it has been a long time since the United States has experienced a real bone jolting economic slowdown. The fact is, however, that the very best time for the industrialist to invest in new technologies is in the middle of a depression. This is because it is at such times that labor, raw materials, and new equipment can be purchased at rock bottom prices. Henry Ford may have jumped the gun a bit. He shut down his River