Stone´s Wall Street of 1987 became a “bible“ of a whole era and of everybody who worked in London finance business in the years after release of the film. I was one of them, as I wrote in one article already a long time ago: “Every morning I woke up with the film Wall Street, which I still know by heart. At first I wanted to be Bud Fox (this role was played by Charlie Sheen), then Gordon Gekko (played by Michael Douglas). I even used to wear the same clothes, à la Wall Street, those broad coloured braces and waistcoats.“
At that time, I didn´t know any of my friends, colleagues and acquaintances who did not know this film and did not try, each in his or her specific way, to behave according to it. What is interesting is that after the film came up, voices were raised in protest, both from the part of Wall Street traders and film reviewers, complaining that the film is not realistic enough. In despite of this fact, the film became extremely popular and Michael Douglas won an Oscar for best actor for this film. His performance does not seem to be affected either by a very tense relationship between him and the director Stone during the filming of this movie.
The fastest high-speed training course for bankers or CFOs
The catchphrases from the film, like “Money never sleeps!“, „Greed is good“, “If you are not inside, you are outside“, ”If you need friend, get a dog“ or “Lunch is for wimps“, became absolutely popular in the financial world.
I must say that it was with big fears that I went to the cinema to see the sequel Wall Street 2 Money Never Sleeps, made in 2010. I was not disappointed at all. The sequel was made 23 years after the first film and each of the films depicts its era very exactly. Wall Street 1 shows the age of abundance of the late eighties of the last century, whereas with Wall Street 2 we wake up into the “morning after” and experience the crisis of the end of the first decade of this century. At my lectures at the Faculty of Law of Charles University, I strongly recommend to my audience to see both films one after the other. This is the fastest high-speed training course in the world that a banker or a CFO can get, or welcome to the real world!
Has the money perhaps fallen asleep?
Oliver Stone has, of course, directed not only these films, he has made a plenty of other movies, too. Besides his TV and documentary projects, he has made more than twenty feature films. His other popular films include Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, The Doors, Alexander the Great and other. He is also an author of a very controversial documentary about Fidel Castro “Comandante“ of 2003. As a curiosity let me mention in this connection that when I watched this film, it was the first time in my life to be alone in the screening hall.
I think it would be worth making a sequel to both movies as the final part of the trilogy Wall Street 3. I would call it “No one cares for money“. Just the name would reflect the present situation in the banking and financial world, with banks and funds “drowning” in money, but not willing to “release“ them into the economy and preferring to keep them in the accounts of central or other banks, actually for a “technical“ zero. I will set off to Karlovy Vary and present this idea of mine to Oliver. We shall see whether we will find common ground ….
The author is a financial consultant and film producer:
Dr. Jan Vinter is renowned consultant in the field of domestic and international banking, business and politics. He worked for several international banks (Mitsubishi Bank, Citibank, ABN AMRO Bank, Erste Bank) in various managerial positions. At the political level he is closely linked to all its constitutional parts – Government, Parliament, political parties, President etc. He also lectures at the department of International Law and Relations at Charles University Law Faculty in Prague. He wrote many articles Re: economic, historical and social topics. These articles were published both in the Czech Republic and abroad. (jan.vinter@volny.cz)
The article in Czech version can be found here
