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Greed In Wall Street Movie

Decent Essays

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

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