Wall Street (1987)

US 126m, Colour
Director: Oliver Stone; Cast: Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, Daryl Hannah. Martin Sheen, Terence Stamp, John C. McGinley, Hal Holbrook

Capturing the essence of corporate America, Wall Street is both an indictment and celebration of greed as it is played out in the stock market by investment bankers and stockbrokers. Though the film’s protagonist, a young stockbroker named Bud Fox suffers a personal crises when faced with disappointing his dying father, the film’s underlying message is that if you are smart enough not to get caught, and don’t have a conscience, the sky is the limit. Considering the current state of the American and world economy, it seems that this message was not lost on the generation of business and banking investors who followed (Klaus Ming January 2013).