Platoon was Oliver Stone’s autobiographical movie, but Wall Street was a bit of a biographical story as well as his father had been a stock broker and Stone grew up a bit in that world. That being said, the movie doesn’t really reflect Stone’s father (unless you look at Hal Holbrook’s character). What Stone and co-writer Stanley Weiser did is attack the Reagan era growth of greed and used the insider trader scandals of the era to paint a portrait of this high stakes world. Join us – Pete Wright and Andy Nelson – as we continue our Oliver Stone in the 80s series with his 1987 film Wall Street.
We talk about the tone of the film and why elements of it work and why some don’t. We look at the nature of the film’s portrait of the city of New York and why Stone might have deliberately painted the film as an intrinsic part of the city. We chat about Charlie Sheen and why he doesn’t work as well as he did in Platoon and about Michael Douglas any why he largely steals the show in every scene he’s in. We touch on Martin Sheen working in this film with his son playing his son, as well as many of the other cast members. We look at Robert Richardson’s beautiful look he’s created for this world. And we touch on Stewart Copeland’s music and why we can’t really remember it (and wonder if Jerry Goldsmith’s lost score might’ve been better).
It’s an interesting film about an interesting world we know nothing of but one which is endlessly fascinating, with a powerful performance by Douglas at its core. We have a great time chatting about it so check it out then tune in! The Next Reel – when the movie ends, our conversation begins!
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