Movie Review: Wall Street (1987)

Wall Street is a 1987 film directed by Oliver Stone. Starring Charlie Sheen, Daryl Hannah, and Michael Douglas, the movie follows Bud Fox (played by Sheen) as he is seduced into the world of insider trading by Gordon Gekko (Douglas) Now I am a fan of Oliver Stone and in my opinion Stone is one of the best american directors of all time. That being said, Wall Street was a very mixed bag of things for me. First off, if you are going into this movie without any knowledge of the stock market or of wall street, you will not understand this film and that was the deal for me. I'm not a huge business-stock junkie so I really found it difficult to understand the words they use in this movie as well as how the film is essentially based around the ups and downs of the trade world. Leading me to a lot of moments where I zoned out and wasn't even paying any attention to it. That's the issue with this movie, you have to have a good amount of knowledge about the subject before you see it. To me that's a flaw because looking beyond those details this movie is a good film. It's very well made and the ending is crafted in such an open-ended, yet closed way (no spoilers) However, that does lead me to mention another flaw which is the characters in this film. The characters are all wooden in this movie. They show no real emotion. Especially Charlie Sheen whenever he gets emotional or cries, it's just an awkward moment. No connection is established ever between you and the characters and because of this disconnect, it makes the movie fairly hard to watch in some parts. Despite these two flaws, if you can look beyond those this is a very respectable movie from director Oliver Stone. I always like his movies and this one isn't my favorite, but he still utilizes great cinematic qualities throughout all of Wall Street. Overall, Wall Street is a well-made, good movie, but doesn't explain all of the background to viewers unfamiliar, and while the characters are often enjoyable and funny the film doesn't always give the people on screen enough depth. 2.5 stars.