WALL STREET 2, "Greed Is Good" Wasn't The Message!

September 27

On a gray and cloudy Manhattan Sunday afternoon, I rallied some close friends together to go and see the new movie WALL STREET 2................. and may I say.....it was completely worth it!

Rarely nowadays, do I see movies upon their immediate release. However, I did receive a last minute email, last week, to be someone's guest for the premiere screening of WALL STREET 2 in New York, which Michael Douglas and his gorgeous wife Catherine Zeta Jones actually attended, but unfortunately I was unable to go. "DAMN IT" I thought. Movie ticket prices being so ridiculously expensive in Manhattan theaters, dissuades me from forkin' out the prerequisite 12 to 20 buck ticket prices in this, still hemorrhaging, economy. I wait, like the frugal Spanish/Scottsman that I am, to see them on HBO (albeit not in a timely manner)! I think the last movie that I saw a movie in the theaters (only because of the 3-D visual glasses, which I still have) was AVATAR and that was certainly worth the effort and expense, thank God, because I hate being ripped off by overly-hyped movies. But for some strange reason I felt compelled to see this particular movie, maybe because I missed the glamorous premiere, which was free and where the actors actually were in attendence. Boo-hoo!

But you know what, although I thought the original WALL STREET was an extremely well directed movie by Oliver Stone, and Michael Douglas was PERFECT as Gordon Gekko, I never really liked the message that it projected, which was that "GREED IS GOOD". I don't think greed is good! But then that message soooo epitomized the sentiment of the Reagan Era, where excess and unscrupulous dealings were rampant and commonplace, but yet everyone was making money, so who the f--k cared! I've always believed that GREED will eat you from the inside out... eatin' away all that is moral and realistic, creating something that is more likened to a cancer.

So why would I want to revisit such a distasteful concept?.... Well, because I (like so many millions of other schmucks who've been raped by the American financial institutions over the past years) wanted to see what the evolution of a soulless man's pursuit of greed, money and power would be! Did the character, Gordon Gekko (probably loosely based on Ivan Boesky), learn any valuable moral lessons and would "we the people" feel that he was punished sufficiently (PUBLIC REVENGE) as a result of his blatant greed-fest? Would the American public someone get some sort of REVENGE, or be AVENGED? I don't know.. but that's what piqued me about seeing this movie, in lieu of what's happened in the past few years with our economy. Would we get any new revelations or answers as to why this all happened? Knowing the briiliant and exploratory (or conspiracy theorist) work of Oliver Stone, I thought I might get some perspective into what might have actually happened that resulted in our economy tanking, via this movie. I was not desappointed! Would this simply be another off-based personal account of Mr. Stone's (who actually has several cameo appearances in the movie) or were there many factual depictions, or real life reenactments associated with the making of this movie?

I used that ancient word REVENGE! I believe that WALL STREET 2.....was all about REVENGE........

REVENGE for Mr. Moore, (effectively portrayed by Shia LaBouef), the fiancee of Gordon Gekko's daughter, who sought revenge against a rival financial mogul (Josh Brolin) when his (LaBouef's) financial mentor (superbly portrayed by Academy Award nominee, Frank Langella) leapt onto the tracks of an oncoming subway train, which set into motion the spiraling collapse of the world's financial world. Although Mr. Langella's time in the movie was short, his character set the tone for a whirlwind of REVENGE. Now Gordon Gekko wanted his revenge too... 1. for being locked up in prison for some 20 years and 2. worse yet, for being relegated to the heap of financial "forgotten-ness". Gekko's REVENGE, although probably warranted and misguided, was misdirected to the financial system who let him take the fall, to old adversaries (Josh Brolin) who facilitated his incarceration and even to his own daughter (Carrie Mulligan) who disowned him and renigged on a financial agreement they had made when he was first thrown into jail (a sort of bailout parachute, he thought) but who wasn't there for him when he was released ! That's a whole lot of REVENGE.

But the plot thickens! MONEY. GREED, REVENGE, now that's a triage worthy of a great plot, and a great plot it was. Great acting on the part of this ensemble cast. Great art direction, as Oliver Stone made Manhattan like more like the Emerald City.... simply gorgeous and soo chic! Real life New Yorkers in real life Manhattan situations. Cameo apperances from sooo many New Yorkers and New York social fixtures including Maria Bartiromo, mega publicist Peggy Siegel, Vanity Fair's Editor-in-Chief Graydon Carter, Vogue's European Editor Hamish Bowles, Quest Magazine's Grace Meigher and so and so and so! Landmark New York buildings including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the interior of Cirpriani's on 42nd Street, Shun Lee Restaurant, the World Trade construction site (one of New York's embarrassing disgraces) and the beautifully shot panorama of that downtown "war zone" and on and on and on.

But who or what was the star of this movie?? Was it Shia Labouef, who actually had a heart and wanted only good things for his girlfriend (Gekko's daughter) and his Green Energy project? Was it Michael Douglas, who played, with continuity, his character with flawless precision and deception.....Was it MONEY, POWER and GREED?... The viewing public actually gets an accurate glimpse into the "behind closed doors" negotiations and frenzies of what it might have been like right before the "New Great Despression" occurred.

Or was it REVENGE? I think it was REVENGE.... REVENGE, but REVENGE with a positive outcome! Can this be.. you ask... well see the movie and judge for yourself. I most wholeheartedly recommend WALL STREET 2!

And that's all I'm going to say. See you at the "ATM's".

Montgomery Frazier "The Image Guru"