The Wolf Of Wall Street (2013)
Though it was considered controversial and divisive upon release, the fact of the matter is that The Wolf Of Wall Street drew ire from some quarters because, in adapting the memoir of the same name by convicted fraudster Jordan Belfort, director Martin Scorsese and writer Terence Winter held a giant mirror up to society as a whole and forced us to look at our own failings – and the ways in which we fail each other.
The story is a terrible one – made all the more horrifying because it is a work of non-fiction. Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) rises from inexperienced stockbroker, to the driving force behind Stratton Oakmont – one of the most successful brokerage firms to operate. Profiting from ‘pump and dump’ scams, Belfort and his employees take the addictive aspects of stockbroker culture, and amplify them to the extreme – creating a hedonistic environment that propels his staff to even greater breaches of law and ethics.
The issues with the story are based in the sheer disbelief that such a situation could legitimately develop, and that such an individual could be dealt with by the legal system in a way that seems to be unduly lenient. However, the point made is that the situation in this narrative is very real, and that the society we live in allowed it to flourish. It is the uncomfortable acknowledgement of the fact that we all, literally, buy in to a system that enables such corruption, and makes us all complicit in the ruination of our fellow citizens.
One of the main criticisms of The Wolf Of Wall Street is that the story focuses solely upon the men committing these crimes, with little mention made of their numerous victims – the vast majority of whom lost everything they had worked for, their entire lives. While the wider impact of Belfort’s actions is implied, the centre of the story is the impact his crimes had on his own life, and the lives of his accomplices.
This, in itself, drives home the point – and is what constitutes the holding up of Scorsese’s mirror. As a society, we idolize the financially successful, and aspire to join them in their self-made upper echelons – only questioning their methods when their positions become unsustainable and a threat to the system that allows such abuses to occur in the first place. It is, in that sense, a self-perpetuating cycle.
For the same reason, The Wolf Of Wall Street stands alone among films about financial corruption, because it refuses to adhere to the cinematic convention of consequence and closure. Belfort is prosecuted, but again, plays the system for his own benefit. He negotiates a reduced sentence by exploiting the desire of investigators to always have more – to take down a greater number of people – and agrees to wear a wire during a conversation with his associate. The irony is that his associate – who has emulated Belfort throughout the sordid tale – does the same thing in an attempt to save himself, and reports Belfort’s breach of his deal to the FBI. It has little bearing on the outcome, however, and Belfort is soon enough free to sell training in his methods to countless people, eager to follow in his footsteps.
The final scenes of the film – depicting a sea of faces, hanging on Belfort’s every word – perfectly encapsulates the thrust of Scorsese’s film. This man ruined the lives of families and individuals across America, and yet, here are the next generation of people seeking to do the same. He is reviled by many who resent him continuing to profit from his illegal actions – but aren’t you the one that bought his book, or paid to see the movie, to satisfy your own curiosity?
