Wall Street - Money Never Sleeps

Oliver Stone’s sequel to his early movie, Wall Street, is one of the best follow-ups in years. Stone, one of the directors who are engaged in politics, not only advanced and revived his 1987 film, but had also something new to say. Wall Street portrayed the new social strata of the 80’s: the yuppies. Wall Street – Money Never Sleeps shows how the financial world changed over the last two decades, and what happened behind the financial crisis in 2008.

Michael Douglas’ portray of Gordon Gekko, the shifty shark of Wall Street, earned him an Academy Award in 1987. Though Oliver Stone’s financial fable of cold-blooded traders became a modern classic, the director did not plan to continue the story. 20 years later though, Stanley Weiser, original writer for Wall Street, started to work on the follow-up, but after the 2008 financial crisis, 20^th Century Fox ordered the script to be rewritten to make it more current. Stanley Weiser abandoned the project due to creative differences. Allan Loeb, a licensed stock broker, joined Stephen Schiff in writing a new script. After reading the final version, Stone decided to direct it, and shot his first sequel.

However skeptical the audience is to Hollywood’s new remake, spin-off, follow-up money-making strategy, this time the second chapter is even better. The conflict is knotty, the characters are complex, and the dialogues are very well written. Stone, who is constantly dealing with the biggest political affairs of the United States, was able to show the utterly complicated moral dilemmas of the business world’s leaders (or the lack of them), in which partners and family members steal from each other.

Michael Douglas’ role was not only to play Gordon Gekko again, the symbolic figure of the loan sharks, but to develop the character and expose his humanity. He does it so elegantly, that you hardly notice it; that is the point. Though he remained the old double-crosser, he shows his human side. For a few seconds.  

Verdict

Watching a carefully put together film, with a clever script and exceptional actors (beside Douglas, Eli Wallach, Josh Brolin and Susan Sarandon have done breakout performances), is delightful nowadays, even if it is a pessimistic drama. 

Best lines

Gordon Gekko: Greed is good. Now it seems it is legal. [Greed is good was Gekko's line in the first part. He adds the second line two decades later.]

Gordon Gekko: Stop telling lies about me and I'll stop telling the truth about you. 

Gordon Gekko: Money is a bitch that never sleeps.