It’s got to be one of the dozen most famous, iconic,carved-into-Hollywood-history catch phrases the movies have ever givenus, a line to quote right along with "I coulda been a contender," "Youtalkin’ to me?" and "Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn!" Yet backin 1987, just after the stock market had toppled, when Gordon Gekkoannounced to the world that "Greed…is good," it had the super-intense,camera-flash zing of topicality: a cheerleader mantra for a go-godecade that would also serve as its epitaph. So when I went back,recently, to watch Oliver Stone’s Wall Street again, wonderingif the movie, with its addictive celebration of money fever built rightinto its hurtling information-age rhythms, would have anything to sayto us as we try to recover from our own age of go-go delusion, I was curious as to whether Gekko’s mythic words would now sound trapped in the bubblewrap of time.
Actually, his words are still timely as hell — though not in theway you expect. Standing before the shareholders of the Teldar papercorporation, trying to explain why he’d be the perfect guy to take overtheir company, Gekko, played by Michael Douglas as the world’s mosthandsome, gleamy-skinned cobra, makes a speech sensible enough to soundlike it was written by Barack Obama, with an assist from Donald Trumpin his tough-love Apprentice mode. Gekko starts off with astern warning about the growing national debt, and then — wait for it– he excoriates the Teldar vice presidents who are seated behind himfor taking so much wasteful executive pay. (He gives them the kind offace-to-face slapping down that the A.I.G. bonus crew haven’t yet hadto endure.) By the time he gets to "Greed is good," it’s offered notmerely as the self-justification of a reptile in suspenders but asbadly needed medicine — the hunger for revenue, forprofit-as-lifeblood, that will get the company surging again. Youalmost wish he could make the speech on Wall Street today. Except forone thing: The speech is a big, fat lie.
The moment when Gekko finally tells the truth comes later in the movie — and it’s thisspeech, delivered to Charlie Sheen’s Bud Fox as the two stand inGekko’s high-ceilinged, black-tower office lair, that now seems toreach across the decades to diagnose, with visionary flair, the poisonthat infected America: not just greed, but the toxic greed of wantingmoney so much that we could start to see it piling up even when itwasn’t there.
Bud, who has begun to glimpse the rot inside the devil he made adeal with, wonders, "So where does it all end, Gordon?" And then heasks: "How much is enough?"
"It’s not a question of enough, pal," replies Gekko. And then helets the kid in on his real philosophy, the metaphysics of liquiditythat his empire is built on: "Money itself isn’t lost or made, it’ssimply…uh, transferred, from one perception to another. Likemagic." With a glass of Scotch in hand, Gekko gestures toward thelooming green-and-black abstract monstrosity on his wall. "Thispainting here," he says, "I bought it 10 years ago for sixty thousanddollars. I could sell it today for six hundred. The illusion has becomereal. And the more real it becomes, the more desperate they want it."Then, with a rare confessional twinkle, he says: "What I do, stocks andreal estate speculation" — he smiles slightly and offers adisbelieving shake of the head — "It’s bull—!” Then he hits us withthe dirty secret, the real Greed Is Good: "I create nothing!"
And there you have it, 22 years ago, from the cinematic hand ofOliver Stone — a prophecy for our era, when leverage would bestretched to insane degrees because perception became reality, and suchpesky inconveniences as debt and loss were transferred from oneperception to another, all within the flow of creating nothing. As amovie, Wall Street still gives off an electrifying hum, evenwhen it’s dated (the primitive glowing-green computer screens, thehideous sponge-painting-by-Salvador Dali decor that Daryl Hannah’s vampdesigner inflicts on Bud’s new apartment). But it also revealssomething now which it couldn’t back then: that the Gordon Gekkos ofthe world weren’t just getting rich — they were creating an alternatereality that was going to crash down on all of us.
A well written entry, Owen. I’ve always maintained that popular culture cannot change society; rather it REFLECTS society. Michael Douglas is/was at his best playing charcters like Gordon Gekko. Oliver Stone was at his liberal bombastic best in Wall Street. I really loved the way you tied the movie’s prime speeches to the crisis that grips the world today. Good job, dude….
I saw this movie when I was 17, and it made me want to work on Wall Street. Well, I’m still working in the market, day trading, and making $$. Recently watched it again, and still love it. Greed is still good, but now it is in moderation. However, the market will bounce back, the hedge funds will bounce back, and the Gordon Gekkos of the world will be back too.
Keep dreamin’, kiddo. THe way this country, and you Wall Street “employees”, used to live is gone forever. So start saving for your retirement NOW because it’s NEVER EVER going to be like it was….
My house is totally paid, two new cars in the drive way – totally paid, no debt, partial season tickets to my local baseball and hockey teams, $$ in a savings account, $$ in CDs. My life is great. Us Wall Street employees (the ones who bought what they could afford), our great lives is not gone forever. All we want to do now is pick on the carcases of those who lived beyond their means. You sound a bit bitter to me. Capitalism lives; you just have to know where to look for it.
@ Lisa
Greed in moderation? Ever heard of an oxymoron because you’ve floated one. Greed will never be moderate, cos if it is you ain’t doing it right. There never can be enough.
But you are right about one thing, the Gekko’s will be back, not that they ever went away. They do have a tendency to eat their own though, keeps the numbers down.
A foolish interpretation of the current financial mess. The collapse was not caused by greed but by social engineering.
All the talk about easy credit, securitization of mortgages, executive bonuses are all distractions from the primary reason for the big downturn which was the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The CRA gives the Administration the authority to force banks to give out more subprime loans, whether or not the borrowers are telling the truth about their income. The CRA was used by the Clinton administration to turn aside the rules of economics in favor of, as Andrew Cuomo put it, affirmative action in housing, the laws of economics be damned.. The fact that it all came crashing down comes as no surprise to anyone who was paying attention.
Without the CRA, there is no subprime crisis, no housing bubble, and therefore, no credit crunch. Any downturn would have been minimal.
Greed didn’t mess up our economy, political pandering did.
“we’re never the greedy one. It’s always the other guy “ -Milton Friedman
You GOT to put in a reference to Barack HUSSEIN Nobama in there, dont you? The most ANTI-big business guy in office, and you comapre him to Gordon Gekko? WTF? Get off your high liberal horse and live in the real world-he’ll make sure there could be no more greed cause hes going to take it ALL away from us!
Google “Milton Friedman” and click the “Greed” Youtube link.
Watch and learn.
“Greed” is an imaginary concept promoted by two low-paid groups of people (politicians and journalists) who are convinced, against all evidence to the contrary, that they are smarter than the rich, whom they seek to discredit and surpass in status. They confuse “greed” with selfishness. – Kyle Smith
Gotta love these die-hard republicans out there (ahem, brutony) who are STILL yakking about Obama. GET OVER IT. HE WON BY A LANDSLIDE. THAT MEANS THIS COUNTRY WAS READY FOR A CHANGE AND NOT BUSH #2, I MEAN MCCAIN. I also love it that they treat his name like a four letter word. Oh my god! Obama sounds like osama! We’re doomed! What!? His middle name is Hussien?! We’re gonna die! And he’s black! OH NO! These die-hard right wingers make me sick sometimes with their closemindedness. Here’s a thought: get out of the church, step away from the megabar, quit complaining and get off your lazy ass and do something about your situation instead of blaming it on obama.
You’re seriously comparing “Greed is good” to “Frankly my dear I don’t give a damn?” Serously? Please. Try again. Not even remotely comparable.
Right Dahn, the CRA compelled executives to bundle risky mortgages together into crazy, unregulated securities which they then sold all over the world for ridiculous profits.
I don’t think anyone passed any Acts which forced Wall Street to take giant risks in unproven financial markets for a tidy sum. What was the cause of that behaviour, I wonder? Human greed and human-created institutions which facilitated this greed.
I agree with you 100 percent on the relevance of Wall Street and those specific speeches of Gekko’s to today. However, none of this is prophetic. Truth is, nothing has changed. The only real difference is that tragedies like 9/11 and Bush’s war have made us question the illusions we live by. I think everyone on these message boards is looking for specific reasons why this economy has collapsed and the root cause really is greed.Obama will not save anyone, whether he has good intentions or not, because the system isn’t designed for that. A society that stresses every man for himself in everything, from school to sports to work to art, can’t suddenly change into a functioning society where everyone can find financial comfort and stability.Whatever policies are made are never for the greater good but a mask to ensure your docility and misguided personal struggle for money.We’re unified only in our pursuit of wealth. That is called greed and a failing economy only strengthens that idea.
Btw, this is a great article, Mr. Gleiberman. You should write more articles about films in retrospect, seeing how they relate to these times and how they hold up. I really enjoyed it.