The movie, “Wall Street,” represents business practices and the economy in the 1980’s by portraying espionage, corruption, and greed. Unemployment was plummeting at a high rate of 10.8 percent, since 1940. Companies were in so much competition that they were firing their workers who had been with them since the start because they wanted to make more money. Corruption cost taxes half a trillion and junk bonds accelerated merger mania. The 1980’s were a time of turmoil and depletion of jobs that cost many people to become homeless and rebellious.
A great example of how companies dealt with their opponents of the 1980s was the scene where Charley Sheen first meets Mr. Gekko in his office on Gekko’s birthday. Sheen overhears Mr. Gekko talking to a client saying that he wants to split a company into parts so he could make more money and he did not care what it took to get the job done. Mr. Gekko showed no mercy for the workers of those companies and how they were to survive after they lost their jobs all he cared about was making more money. Also there was a scene that Mr. Gekko met the Blue Star representatives to purchase and keep it the way it was when he brought it, however he lied and decided to split into sections to make more money. Greed for money caused him to become a tyrant and selfless towards others that he dealt with in his business life.
Another scene that portrayed the 1980s greed for money was at a stockholder meeting which Mr. Gekko gives a speech of how greed is “good.” He discusses how greed can push you to make more money and to become the best businessman of the world. Even though greed is not a good asset to have, however he made some good point strong points on how it can mold a weak man into a strong willed gentleman who can handle a business on his own. He also said greed for money or anything and pulls you out of the dumps to riches, which makes you stronger than your opponent of the business world. There were people there who disagreed with his views but realized that he was a passionate strong-willed man of his business and that greed was the reason of his success.
The whole movie was a great representation of the 1980s business world because it simply put forth the ways of how the owner’s worked and how unemployed people survived. Some of the great companies came to an end because another company was stronger and greedier than they were. Also there was more tax cuts of the paychecks for the rich assuming that the money would “trickle down” to the poor, which did not happen. Basically America in the 1980s was a dog eat dog world where the strongest will survive and the weak will wither away.
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Our group met in the JC Library and watched the film together. We wrote the blog as a group after the movie. Omar and Lauren edited the post. Jessica wrote it and sent it out. Becca found pictures and links. I wrote the comment. ~Nicole
Posted by: Commentator | December 08, 2004 at 08:39 PM