Event

Wall Street

A young and impatient stockbroker is willing to do anything to get to the top, including trading on illegal inside information taken through a ruthless and greedy corporate raider who takes the youth under his wing.

The movie dramatised the ethical and moral collapse of high finance during the Reagan era. Regrettably, Gordon Gekko, Stones iconic symbol of unrestrained greed, would undoubtedly thrive in todays madcap bull market. Indeed, we might even put him in the White House - Raymond Arsenault, John Hope Franklin Professor of Southern History at the University of South Florida, St Petersburg, and author of Stoned on Wall Street: The Stockbrokers Son and the Decade of Greed

"This is a film that demystifies one of the most exclusive circles in corporate America, if not the world. What Stone very brilliantly reveals in the film is the fatal flaw of Wall Street, stock brokerage and capitalism as whole: humanity. As Douglas consistently and masterfully articulates throughout the film, greed is what compels men and women to work harder, reach further and take more than they need in life. Its essentially a basic instinct, intrinsic to any human. Greed inspires, motivates and reminds individuals what he or she is really seeking, and its what puts them ahead of others in life. But we cant change humanity, only the rules that it plays by, an idea the United States has yet to heed.

But most importantly, now that we have a president hell-bent on running the nation like a business, Wall Street becomes evermore important as an incisive look at the psyche of those who seek profit above all else. Laws will come and go to try and regulate an economic system that has shown us time and time again that it favors those who would exploit it. The sad truth behind Gordon Gekko is that hes right. Greed is good, but at what moral cost? Greed is good, but at whose expense? Greed is good, but it shouldnt be." - Sanjay Nimmagudda, The Daily Californian