In Wall
Street Michael Douglas perfectly embodies the Reagan-era credo that "greed is
good" and won an Oscar for his efforts. As a Donald Trump-like Wall Street
raider aptly named Gordon Gecko (for his reptilian ability to attack corporate
targets and swallow them whole), Douglas found a role tailor-made to his skill
in portraying heartless men who've sacrificed humanity to power.
Charlie Sheen turns
in the finest performance of his career and really brings out the pathos in the
naive and young Budd Fox, trapped in the dark business that is sales. Before he
knows it, he has become exactly what he set out to be, with all the baggage
attatched. Douglas is also fantastic as the inspirational and ultimately
repulsive Gekko, and the list of lackies and struggling salesmen as the scum
and losers of this morality tale deliver with panache. How far would you go?
How much is too much?
Charlie Sheen's
turbulent encounter with Gekko, which helped Bud Fox to find his character and,
in a way, redeem himself. So in some strange way, the movie is a
Wall-Street-version of age-old story of Faust.
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