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Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ is a film with many contradictions; it is filled with humor as much as it is filled with cringe. DiCaprio stars in the movie, and like the actor himself, this is a movie that embodies a lot of defiance, and he happens to also claim that it is similar to the life narrative from the world-renowned roman emperor named Caligula.
Looking back at his life, he made most of his wealth in the 1980s and early ’90s, and now he has written a memoir about his life as a stockbroker which Scorsese and even Winter have adapted into a movie. They chose to focus on the unique ways which these people managed to acquire wealth, and instead of using exceptional as a hyperbole, their appetite for wealth truly seems infinite. The movie itself is over three hours long and most fans claim that on its premiere attempt, it was a complete 4 hours long, but thanks to Scorsese’s editor named Thelma Schoon maker, the movie was unfortunately cut down. Thankfully five hours of swine cackling can pass 10 hours of sheer enjoyment. Like all Scorsese movies, everything feels scales deep, this is what we call a reptilian brain movie.
He was raised in Queens, New York within a middle class family, and had received proper education but was unemployed after the stock market cratered in 1987. Like most people in New York he wanted to pursue a career on wall street. Diana Gilead happens to portray the role of the instructor and mentor who guided him through the toughest part of his life.
He made a completely new persona for himself on Long Island by purchasing a penny stock boiler room and branding it with an upper-class name, Stratton Oakmont, which motivated middle and lower-class investors to trust him. According to Wikipedia, during its height, “the firm had more than 1000 stock brokers and conducted stock issues amounting over $1 billion. One of these issues included raising equity for the footwear company Steve Madden Ltd.”. His firm was ‘pump and dump’ specialists; where a nearly worthless stock was inflated to almost no value, sold at a high-profit point, and was then left worthless. Belfort was charged with money laundering and securities fraud in 1998, serving almost two years in federal prison and later being ordered to return $110 million to the investors.
‘Wolf’, styled after a gangster movie, conveys how Belfort transformed from being poor to a rich and infamous businessman (the title is inspired by a magazine with a cover that did not quite favor him and prosecutors). In this tale of Robin Hood in reverse, he builds a team of swimsuit clad cheerleaders from different aspects of his life.
Everyone has a name and an equally wild demon Runyon style nickname to go with it. Jointly, they all nick named Robbie Feinberg, “Pinhead” (Brian Sacca), Alden Kupferberg was given the name of “Sea Otter” (Henry Zebrowski), the toupee “Rugrat” Nicky Koskoff (P.J. Byrne), “The Depraved Chinaman” Chester Ming (Kenneth Choi) and the infamous DeNiro like hothead of the neighborhood, Brad Bodnick (Jon Bernthal), who is popularly referred to as the “Quaalude King of Bayside.” His office-bodied guard is his volcanic dad (Rob Reiner) who exacts the most when there is outrage about spending and office lewdness but has the appearance of trying to “get off” through the young wolves that work on the trading floor.
Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill), the right-hand man to Belfort, is possibly even more conscienceless than the latter. He is a heavy set wise-ass with gleaming teeth, who, irresistibly enamored by the protagonist’s charm, dissolves his employment at a diner, joins his plans, helps Belfort clean the money, and introduces him to crack the latter already having enough potent substances in his body, along with what the thrill of closing deals brings, plus all the attractive women he sleeps with. This specific type of investing is incredibly scummy according to McConaughey’s character, and it has to be complemented using drugs: ‘How the else would you do this job?’ At some point, a broker states that the purpose for them snorting heaps of coke, swallowing countless quaaludes, and guzzling drinks is, “in order to stimulate our free thinking ideas.”
When the story begins, Belfort is married to a respectable lady who is morally opposed to both his financial deeds and habitual cheating. But relatively quickly, he begins to chase a blonde trophy with the name Naomi LaPaglia ‘g’ (Margot Robbie) and eventually dumps his wife for her. After he gets married to LaPaglia, he embraces the duty of supporting her in the style they’ve grown accustomed too.
Belfort is now dwelling in a flamboyant mansion that many would classify as gaudy while simultaneously using a yacht and helicopter to fly to and from meetings while completely intoxicated. Mr. Patrick Denham, a federal prosecutor, comes into the scene and begins to put pressure on Belfort. He does so by meeting with him at his yacht and other locations while allowing him to talk about how incredible he is at least, in his own mind.
Take a moment to picture the last 30 minutes of Goodfellas, just stretched to fit three hours. This movie is every bit that pacing, as well as that feel. It’s one constant tempo: there’s stock fraud as well as money laundering in tandem with flying back and forth to Switzerland. All while letting the increasingly drunk Belfort to flirt with his wife’s aunt; who is played by Joanna Lumley from Absolutely Fabulous. Not to mention, rock and pop infused montages. Not even the lewd shimmery binges are exempt from feeling ostentatious and there’s a major shift in film speed. Along with some half improvised dialogue scenes that feel like vignettes. McConaughey has the best performance with his long scene as Belfort’s mentor Mark Hanna. He pound drums on is chest whilst be begins to weirdly sing and thump a drums. It becomes the theme of the firm and it’s right, suggesting a tribal song for barbarians on a rampage.
As it is often the case in Scorsese’s films, Wolf, serves up the drugging, whoring , and overdoing with attraction and caution. It delicately balances the charm and repulsion.
In his biggest movie performance since “Titanic” DiCaprio portrays Belfort to be a miniature cheerleading Mussolini of the trading floor. He is a self-serving jock who addresses his men as “killers” and “warriors” to incite them while also drawing in women who are self-destructive through his bombastic actions and foul demeanor. But most importantly stupefying good looks. While being a little self ironic, the film comes across as lacking the distinction that Scorsese employed in “Good Fellas” and “Casino.” The latter had the same ice cold indifference as “Casino”: bloodshed is bad but unimportant to everyone involved. The viewer is rather chained in a suffocating environment of “Wolf”, which severely lacks any moral grounding.
This does not mean that the film has no morals. It clearly does, but it finds this story and these people to be disturbing and grotesque. We can determine this by portraying people through cameras housed in poorly decorated cages.
Belford is genuinely caring for his people and this is demonstrated in the way in which his narration shifts from talking about a miserable and ashamed broker to a photograph of a bleeding corpse in a bathtub.
He continues, Without skipping a beat: “Anyway…” The prostitutes are categorized by the cost and attractiveness as “Blue Chips, NASDAQs, and ‘Pink Sheets’ (skanks).” They are simply warm blooded containers waiting to be anthropologically penetrated and dispatched, much like the firm’s clientele including shoe tycoon Steve Madden, who was nearly orally raped according to Belfort. The directorial glean is this comedic insanity of a Belfort Azoff Quaalude trip that transcends into Azoff blubbering and crying and stuffing his face and collapsing all over the place, while Michael bacons paralyzed from the baffled phone call induced panic he just experienced, bedazzled by a massive panic attack. Slowly, he begins crawling towards his car like a sea turtle turned upside down, one agonizing inch at a time.
At first glance it appears these images of censure and humiliation are insurmountable which could include the gif able Belfort paying a prostitute to light a candle and shove it in his behind, but somehow it completely overlaps the instances that get off on the foremen’s howling along with the fortune, and of course the chest thumping. We were supposed to wonder what emotion to attribute to the mixture of modes and agree that without such extreme appeal, there is the existence of humility, sanity and self control. That’s the core of realism, there is no overcoming.
Scorsese and Winter, as always, have a firm grasp of the grand scheme. The sheer complexity of the film is particularly fascinating, as the movie tackles the issue that surrounds Wall Street, which is, in reality, a more sanitized depiction of what we see in “Mean Streets”, “Goodfellas”, and “Casino” gangsters. Some could argue that Belfort and his contemporaries are the driving force that led to the Vegas mob vacating the city. Belfort’s unconventional firm starts the movie off with a party that is reminiscent of a scene straight out of a Fellini, followed by a freeze frame of him literally abusing the Little Guy by throwing a dwarf at a huge Velcro target. Their mistreatment is justified because most people can’t imagine themselves as the little guy; rather as the little guy that has prospects of becoming the big guy. John Steinbeck once said, “Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires”. Belfort mocks the prosecutor, Denham, for being what Henry Hill would term too good of a life, and when Denham is later on riding the subway after work, we can see that the taunt Belfort gave him stayed with him.
By the way, it looks like every one of the employees of Belfort’s company had the same designation “senior vice-president.” All want global domination sch.
While the entire premise is worth critiquing, MVP ultimately supports a deeper cultural anthropology examination and antihero idolization. For instance, when I’m asked what the film’s about, I tend to respond like with many Scorsese flicks and this comes after getting to know how he managed to cope with his cocaine dependency in the 80s most of his films tend to lean towards the theme of addiction. Over the years, I have realized it to be a severe condition that grabs hold of an individual’s emotions and actions. Wasn’t it said that a lot of people experience a secondary thrill by simply observing the deeds of financiers, entrepreneurs, and high-power CEOs? That’s the case almost every single time these men are put behind bars for bending or outright breaking the law and without reasoning, they’re cheered on like a bunch of disgraced yet idolized folk criminals people who resort to using fountain pens instead of guns, and do everything with self-serving intentions. It seems like there are men roaming among us, who despite everything we perceive as moralistic are able to rise above the tedious rules which bind the majority. It becomes apparent that these type of men are addicts, a superficial blanket covered by a hefty dosage of ego.
They are imboldened by the fact that some people sometimes genuinely celebrate their achievements while at other times, there are others who simply ignore noting their faults. In turn, this creates the possibility of no one pursuing the modification of laws which they choose to flaunt or overlook. This is especially true if we have had the opportunity to tolerate people like Baflort, who for whatever reason, had a limited opportunity to bribe the American government through the legalized chaos of campaign financing. Sooner or later, these actions catch up with us and we have to ask if the continued support of addicts like blaffert means that in some strange realm they are implicitly supporting the whole system too, enabling them to no end. Perhaps we are all part of this massive infinity loop, allowing these actions to just take place perpetually. “Wolf” at the end does not simply use the angle of one addict, rather focuses on the perspective of American obsession over capitalistic excision. The conflict over which one has suffered from more ‘capitalistic fatigue’, portray the traumatic deterioration of the aggressive crazed capitalist who eagerly and mindlessly enjoys everything he can get at the end of the day.
Scorsese and Winter do recognize how Belfort’s group is similar to the characters in Scorsese’s gangster films. These gangster films are also addiction films in a way.
“Wolf of Wall Street” depicts Belfort Henry Hill style, as if he were a junkie guide ‘Ing over the damages of his existence to repent and acquire redemption seeking. However, like many addicts, Lindon was smiling as he beheld the bizarre things he tricked and shattered while remembering the conflicts he came to become a part of. With each word escaping his mouth, one could sense the buzz and the adrenaline rushing through his veins. One is left wondering how does he lead a life filled with lavish parties along with money laundering and massive deals. Similarly Hill did while jacking trucks, doing epic amounts of cocaine and busting heads.
At certain instances in this documentary, one feels as if these people deserve humiliation and mediocrity. At that point, try to discern the it while pondering to what it is referring. It does not range only in the type of setting provided in this movie but his life and story. It, us, is the world we live in. Even when robbing Belfort half blind, Rambo still signifies something to us.
I mean on some level, which there is no doubt we accept them to do because they are America and representing America is fine, otherwise, there would have been a lot more tougher reforms and regulation in the late ‘80s, or ‘90s, or ‘00s that would have impeded men like Belfort from gathering vast amounts of wealth, or at least made devious moves like these easier and more effective to quickly catch and severely punish. Belfort was, personally, never punished anywhere close to the level that he should have been for the enormous pain he inflicted to society out there. Federal prosecutors contend that he did not comply with the provisions of his restitution agreement, which was executed in 2003. He is a motivational speaker today, and if one happens to go through the interviews, memoirs, or any records available to the public, it would be pretty clear that the only thing he’s sorry about is actually getting caught. We laugh while watching the movie but let me tell you it is a safe bet to assume that people like Belfort are laughing at us for a reason and will continue.
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