W
Wall Street
Identification American film
Director Oliver Stone (1946- )
Date Released December 11, 1987
Considered by some to be a study, or revelation, of social
Darwinism at its worst,Wall Streetoffered a compelling
portrait of a man, Gordon Gekko, for whom financial profit
is the ultimate aim of human endeavor and the pursuit of
financial success the only religion worthy of the name. The
film creates such a vivid portrait of a man for whom greed
is both aphrodisiac and consummation that the movie’s
moral seems to pale by comparison.
Wall Streetattracted attention from movie critics be-
cause of its character Gordon Gekko’s unapologetic
defense of greed as a positive motivating force in
American life. Michael Douglas (who won an Acad-
emy Award for his performance) created such a pow-
erful portrait of the financial wizard that it was diffi-
cult for viewers not to be taken in by his argument
that winning is the only goal worth pursuing and
that obeying the law is only for the timid. Gekko is ul-
timately undone in the film by his protégé, Bud Fox,
but the film provides no assurance that the free mar-
ket system will change as a result. Other Gekkos may
easily arise to fill the vacuum left by his downfall.
Director Oliver Stone used Gekko to give voice to
what he saw as the collective values corrupting Amer-
ican culture in the 1980’s. Gekko’s famous state-
ment “Greed is good” would at many times in history
have been taken as simply wrong if not insane. Dur-
ing the decade that gave rise to the nickname the Me
generation, however, “Greed is good” resonated with
a great many Americans, either as a slogan to em-
brace or as a distillation of the mistake at the heart of
the nation’s values.
Impact Wall Streetpaints a startling portrait of an
unprincipled man who manipulates people and uses
illegal means to gain money and power. One impli-
cation of the film was that a free economy is vulnera-
ble to the abuses of people like Gordon Gekko and
that only the goodness of people like the ambitious
Bud Fox and his father can protect it. This implica-
tion seemed to apply particularly well to the 1980’s, a
decade during which extreme wealth was being cre-
ated on Wall Street, but real wages did not increase.
Wall Streetwas taken, both at the time and later, as dis-
tilling the economic culture of the decade and giv-
ing it a villainous but frighteningly compelling face.Further Reading
Boozer, Jack, Jr. “Wall Street: The Commodification of
Perception.”The Journal of Popular Film and Televi-
sion17, no. 3 (Fall, 1989): 90-99.
Kunz, Don.The Films of Oliver Stone. Lanham, Md.:
Scarecrow Press, 1997.
Simon, John. “Wall Street.”National Review40, no. 1
(January 22, 1988): 65.
Bernard E. MorrisSee also Academy Awards; Black Monday stock
market crash; Business and the economy in the
United States; Crime; Douglas, Michael; Film in the
United States; Hannah, Daryl; Power dressing; Rea-
ganomics; Stone, Oliver; Yuppies.Washington, Harold
Identification Mayor of Chicago, 1983-1987
Born April 22, 1922; Chicago, Illinois
Died November 25, 1987; Chicago, IllinoisWashington made local and national histor y as Chicago’s
first African American mayor. His victor y demonstrated the
power of unified African American voters and challenged
decades of white domination of Democratic Party politics in
Chicago.Harold Washington was a thirty-year veteran of Chi-
cago politics when he entered the city’s 1983 may-
oral race. An attorney by profession, Washington
served in the Illinois statehouse from 1964 to 1976
and the state senate from 1976 to 1980. He ran un-