(Courtesy of Columbia Pictures and 20th Century Fox)
If only Michael Douglas was in the news a little bit more these days, the U.S. might not have had to suffer through the “Great Recession” of 2009.
I’m kidding of course. Douglas has no influence in the stock market (at least I hope not). But the character he plays in Oliver Stone’s 1987 film “Wall Street,” Gordon Gekko, is the surrogate ancestor of all the innumerable corporate offenders of the decade.
The film opens in 1985 in New York. Up-and-coming account manager Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) is struggling to make his daily sales quota at a middling Manhattan stock firm. His debts are growing and his career is looking like a bad choice, but he sees the money the big shots like Gekko make. After Fox is turned down by a wealthy client on a deal, he says “You know what my dream is? It’s to one day be on the other end of that phone.”
One day, Fox manages to get a meeting with Gekko and gives him a bit of information that ends up making Gekko some money. Gekko takes Fox under his wing and shows him how to make it big. From there, Fox ends up in a lavish world of multimillion-dollar deals, but at what cost to himself and his conscience? By the end, Fox doesn’t even seem to be enjoying his newfound wealth.
Unlike Michael Moore in “Capitalism: A Love Story,” Oliver Stone uses characters to propel his story and his message. And Stone’s message is plainly obvious: Capitalism, left to its own devices, hurts far more people than it helps. While Moore’s approach may be more realistic because he relies more on facts, Stone’s dramatic technique drives home the message more effectively.
As portrayed by Douglas, Gekko is the consummate free-market entrepreneur. He is totally ruthless, greedy to the point of obsession and has no regard for anyone other than himself. Gekko lives fast and makes deals even faster, and if a company is torn to shreds in the process, so be it. Gekko is repulsive as a character, but watching him work is also strangely compelling. It’s akin to watching a car crash happen: Horrifying in its results, but strangely powerful to see in action. When the 1988 Oscars rolled around, it was no surprise to see Douglas walk away with the Best Actor statue for his performance.
The quintessential sequence in “Wall Street” is the film’s best-known moment. Gekko, working with Fox, is about to buy yet another company he cares nothing about and is addressing its stockholders. He then proceeds to lay out his business philosophy, and it’s a chilling moment in light of the current economic climate.
“In my book you either do it right or you get eliminated,” Gekko says, with an extra emphasis on “eliminated” for good measure. “The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works.”
This sentiment is free-market economics in a nutshell, and history has proven it’s the exact attitude that got us to where we are now.
If Gekko is the symbol of capitalism gone wrong, his counterpart is the washed-up prizefighter Terry Malloy in “On the Waterfront,” (1954). While “Wall Street” opens in the midst of a recession, “On the Waterfront” takes place in the 1950s in the midst of the post-WWII economic boom. But that doesn’t mean greed and corruption are any less prevalent.
In the film’s opening moments, Terry becomes the unwitting accomplice to a murder when the local longshoreman’s union kills someone who was threatening to uncover some of the union’s illegal activities. The tension in the story comes from Terry wrestling with whether or not to rat out his friends.
It’s impossible to separate “On the Waterfront” from the personal history of its director, Elia Kazan. During the height of the Red Scare in 1952 , Kazan testified before the House Committee on Un-American Activities about members of the Communist Party working in Hollywood. Kazan was made a pariah in film circles and seen as a traitor by his colleagues, but he always maintained he did the right thing. The pivotal moment in “On the Waterfront” is when Terry Malloy testifies for the Waterfront Crime Commission, an obvious (and intentional) parallel with the situation Kazan went through.
With Kazan’s guidance, Marlon Brando does a masterful job of depicting Terry’s inner turmoil; it’s regarded by many critics as one of the finest performances in the history of cinema. Consider an early scene where Terry is meeting union leader Johnny Friendly shortly after the murder. Johnny asks Terry to count some of the union’s ill-gotten gains, at which point Terry leans over wearily and begins to count for a few seconds before giving up.
“I lost count,” he says sadly.
While the longshoremen laugh, a wave of grief flickers across Brando’s face for just a moment, hinting at the doubts already stirring in his soul.
While Brando’s performance has been rightly hailed as one of the premiere acting jobs in history, it overshadows some terrific work from the supporting cast. As Edie Doyle, the sister of the murder victim and Terry’s love interest, Eva Marie Saint brings courage and compassion to what could have been a token role, and earned herself an Oscar as well. In addition, Lee J. Cobb, Karl Malden and Rod Steiger all earned nominations for Best Supporting Actor.
As Terry’s brother Charlie Malloy, Steiger in particular deserves credit for bringing out the best in Brando. Their famous scene together in a car where Terry gives his “I could’ve been a contender,” speech owes as much to Steiger as it does to Brando. When the two are discussing whether Terry is going to testify or not, Charlie offers Terry a cushy supervisor job to get him to keep quiet. Terry refuses, and Charlie pulls a gun on him, pleading with Terry to take the job.
At this point, Terry gently brushes the gun away and whimpers, “Oh, Charlie.” It’s a poignant moment in the film, all the more so because Charlie simply slumps in his seat, equally heartbroken as his brother. What’s unsaid in the dialogue is said in the body language of the two men, both victims of the American Dream gone awry.
Contact CU Independent Entertainment Editor Rob Ryan at Rryan@colorado.edu.
