MOVIE: Wall Street

A couple weeks ago, I listened to an NPR story about Michael Douglas's character, Gordon Gekko, in the 1987 Oliver Stone movie Wall Street as a ruthless corporate raider and how he won an Academy Award for that role. The story mentioned his "Greed... is good" speech, and I was intrigued and went on to request the movie from the library. I watched it last night.

(plot outline from imdb.com)

"A young and impatient stockbroker is willing to do anything to get to the top, including trading on illegal inside information taken through a ruthless and greedy corporate raider whom takes the youth under his wing."

What struck me first was how dated the movie looked... with the apple computers they were using to the actors in the film (back then Hal Holbrook was thinner but still looked old, both Martin and Charlie Sheen look the same as they do today, and John McGinley still plays smartass), though opulence back then looks like the chic vintage opulence of today.

The movie was good, not great. The film had the dressings of a Wall Street life but the story/themes were pretty standard. Douglas's acting was confident, powerful, and fierce, while Charlie Sheen was mediocre and Daryl Hannah was train-wreck. I don't regret watching the film because it had a fine first and second act, but the third was trite and satisfying. Still, Michael Douglas's acting made it worth a look.