Wall Street (1987)
| Directed by | Oliver Stone |
| Produced by | Edward R. Pressman |
| Written by | Oliver Stone, Stanley Weiser |
| Starring | Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, Daryl Hannah, Martin Sheen, Sean Young, John C. McGinley, Hal Holbrook, Terrance Stamp |
| Music by | Stewart Copeland |
| Cinematography | Robert Richardson |
| Editing by | Claire Simpson |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | December 11, 1987 |
| Running time | 126 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $15,000,000 |
| Gross revenue | $43,848,100 |
| Followed by | Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps |
Wall Street is a 1987 American drama film released by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Oliver Stone and stars Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen and Daryl Hannah. The screenplay was written by Stanley Weiser and Stone. The film tells the story of Bud Fox (Sheen), a young stockbroker desperate to succeed and becomes involved with his hero, Gordon Gekko (Douglas), a wealthy, unscrupulous corporate raider.
Stone made the film as a tribute to his father, Lou Stone, a stockbroker during the Great Depression. The character of Gekko is said to be a composite of several people, including Owen Morrisey, Dennis Levine, Ivan Boesky, Carl Icahn, Asher Edelman, Michael Ovitz, Michael Milken, and Stone himself. Originally, the studio wanted Warren Beatty to play Gekko but he was not interested and Stone wanted Richard Gere but the actor passed. Stone went with Douglas even though he had been advised by others in Hollywood not to cast him.
The film was well-received among major film critics including Roger Ebert and The New York Times. Douglas won the Academy Award for Best Actor, and the film has come to be seen as the archetypal portrayal of 1980s excess, with Douglas's character advocating that "greed, for lack of a better word, is good". It has also proven influential in inspiring people to work on Wall Street with Sheen, Douglas and Stone commenting over the years how people still approach them and say that they became stockbrokers because of their respective characters in the film.
Stone and Douglas have reunited for a sequel titled Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, which will be released on September 24, 2010.
Plot
In 1985, Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen), a junior stockbroker at Jackson Steinem & Co., is desperate to get to the top. He wants to become involved with his hero, the corporate raider Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), a ruthless and legendary Wall Street player whose values could not conflict more with those of Bud's father Carl (Martin Sheen), a blue-collar airline maintenance foreman. Bud visits Gekko on his birthday and, granted a brief interview, pitches him stocks but Gekko is unimpressed. Realizing that Gekko may not do business with him, a desperate Bud provides him with some inside information about Bluestar Airlines, which Bud had learned in a casual conversation the day before from his father. Gekko tells him he will think about it. A dejected Bud returns to his office where Gekko places an order for Bluestar stock, becoming one of Bud's clients.
Gekko gives Bud some capital to manage, but the shares that Bud selects – by honest research – lose money. Instead Gekko takes Bud under his wing, but compels him to unearth new information by any means necessary, including unethical and illegal means. One of his first assignments is to spy on British corporate raider Sir Lawrence Wildman (Terence Stamp) and discern the Brit's next move. Through Bud's spying, Gekko makes big money and Wildman is forced to buy Gekko's shares off him to complete his control of a steel company
Bud becomes wealthy, enjoying Gekko's promised perks, including a penthouse on Manhattan's Upper East Side and a trophy blonde, interior decorator Darien (Daryl Hannah). Still employed by Jackson Steinem, Bud is promoted as a result of the large commission fees which he is bringing in from Gekko's trading, and is given a corner office with a view. He continues to maximize insider information and use friends as straw buyers to get rich.
Bud pitches a new idea to Gekko, to buy Bluestar Airlines and expand the company, with Bud as president, using savings achieved by union concessions. Bud persuades his father, Carl, who dislikes Gekko, to get union support for the plan and push for the deal. Things change when Bud learns that Gekko, in fact, plans to sell off Bluestar's assets, leaving Carl and the entire Bluestar staff unemployed. Although this would leave Bud very rich, he is angered by Gekko's deceit, and racked with the guilt of being an accessory to Bluestar's destruction. Bud chooses his father over his mentor and resolves to disrupt Gekko's plans. He angrily breaks up with Darien, who refuses to plot against Gekko, a former lover and the architect of her career.
Bud creates a plan to manipulate Bluestar's stock value downwards. Gekko, realizing that his stock is plummeting, finally dumps his remaining interest in the company, only to learn on the evening news that the shares have been picked up at a lower price by Sir Lawrence Wildman, who will become the airline's new majority shareholder. Gekko realizes that Bud engineered the entire scheme. Bud triumphantly goes back to work at Jackson Steinem & Co. the following day, where he is confronted by the police and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Bud is placed under arrest, handcuffed, and led out of the office in tears.
Sometime later, Bud confronts Gekko in Central Park. Gekko berates him for his role with Bluestar. He then viciously assaults Bud, but not before mentioning several of their illegal business transactions. Following the confrontation, it is revealed that he was wearing a wire to record his encounter with Gekko. He turns the wire tapes over to the federal authorities, who suggest that his sentence will be lightened in exchange for his help. Later on, Bud's parents drive him to the courthouse and Carl tells him he did right in saving the airline, but he'll most likely go to jail. The film ends with Bud going up the steps of the courthouse.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street_(1987_film)
American films | English-language films | 1987 films | 1980s drama films |
American business films | American drama films | Films directed by Oliver Stone | Films featuring a Best Actor Academy Award winning performance | Films featuring a Best Drama Actor Golden Globe winning performance | Films set in New York City |
Trading films | 20th Century Fox films
