Media Spotlight: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
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Directed by Oliver Stone
Film sequels do not have a great track record, but the timing for the release of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is spot on, even though 23 years have elapsed since the original.
If ever there was a time for Michael Douglas to reprise his role as Gordon Gekko, this is it. Douglas and director Oliver Stone don’t have to look much further than the worldwide credit crisis to find inspiration for this film.
Wall Street is a different place to the one Gekko left behind in the 1980s, but as he put it, “greed is not only good, it’s legal”.
The plot starts with Gekko leaving prison after an eight-year stint for securities fraud with just his oversized mobile phone for company.
It then fast forwards to 2008, when the financial world is on the brink of collapse.
Gekko has not wasted his time in prison, writing a self-help book entitled Is Greed Good? and he is busy preaching to the Ninja - no income, no jobs, no assets - generation of young people.
At the same time he is trying to repair his relationship with his estranged daughter Winnie, played by Carrie Mulligan, by befriending her fiancé Jacob, played by Shia LaBeouf.
Jacob works for investment bank Keller Zabel, which is brought to its knees by Bretton James, the chief executive officer of investment bank Churchill Schwartz, who spreads rumours that its sub-prime securitisations are in bad shape.
In a tale of woe some might think similar to the likes of Bear Stearns, Zabel is forced to sell the company after James blocks a government bailout.
Jacob has sympathy for Gekko and uses him to seek revenge on James, the man he blames for the suicide of his mentor, the head of Keller Zabel.
Gekko soon finds that in the 21st century all you need to start a rumour is a BlackBerry.
And it is not long before James finds himself in the US Federal Reserve, proclaiming his bank is too big to fail.
Stone is not subtle in his comparisons to the US investment banks, but this seems to be his intention.
Not that this will be a problem for those in the mortgage industry but for anyone who doesn’t know what a residential mortgage-backed security or sub-prime is, some of the storyline could pass them by.
For those familiar with what went on behind the closed doors of the Federal Reserve, the film will be less fictional and more fact.
The film has been updated for its 21st century audience, but it has still not lost the feel or tone of the original.
The first film made phrases such as “lunch is for wimps” popular.
And those looking for some 21st century updates will not be disappointed.
“The mother of all evil is speculation”, “Bulls make money. Bears make money” and “Pigs? They get slaughtered” slip easily off Gekko’s tongue.
But the film is more than catchy one-liners and like its predecessor looks at the swings and roundabouts of the financial world, the human desire to chase money and the evils and rewards this quest brings in equal measure.
It encapsulates the era in which it was made and Douglas has not lost his sparkle as Gekko.
This is one sequel that lives up to the original.
Review by Natalie Thomas
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