Wall Street (1987 film)

Wall Street was Oliver Stones next film after the famous Platoon , released in 1987.

The story involves a young stock broker, Bud Fox (played by Charlie Sheen), who is desperate to get to "the top". He settles on a plan to become involved with his hero, the extremely successful businessman Gordon Gekko (played by Michael Douglas).

After succeeding in meeting Gekko, Fox gives him a stock tip based on insider information he happened to come across while talking to his father, Carl (played by Martin Sheen). Carl represents the "old school" in the movie, a man who works hard and fair. Carl is a maintenance chief at a small airline and learns that they will soon be cleared of a safety concern after a previous crash.

Gekko uses the information to make a small profit when the stock jumps after the verdict on the crash is release. Fox quickly learns that this is the "secret" to Gekko's success -- insider information -- but the illegalities involved bother him only slightly as he is quickly admitted into Gekko's "inner circle". Fox quickly becomes very wealthy and gets all the perks -- the fancy apartment, the blonde, the cars.

However this changes when Gekko decides to do a corporate raid on Fox's father's company. At this point he must choose between the rich insider's lifestyle offered by working outside the law, or his traditional values of fair play and hard work. He chooses the later and uses a business rival to break the deal, being indited for insider traiding in the process. He gets his last revenge by turning state's evidence against Gekko, going to jail himself in the process.

Perhaps not the best of movies, it is nevertheless important in terms of reflecting the public's general mallese with the current state of affairs in the "big business" world at the time. Gekko clearly represents Donald Trump who's dealings were being reported on daily. Stone's point was not to point out illegal dealings, but to illustrate the corrupt lifestyle of everyone involved in the financial industry, legal or no.