The 1987 film Wall Street, featuring the character Gordon Gekko, who famously said “Greed is good”, became an inspiration for many in the late 1980s. The film was meant to be a morality piece, but the message got twisted and Gekko became a role model for those seeking to get rich quick. The character was based on corporate raider Ivan Boesky and the film was seen as prophetic when the stock market crashed in 1987. Despite being designed as a morality story, many people still see Gekko as an inspiration today.
“Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.” This is just one line from a film that was meant to embody a certain group of people in the 1980s. It was spoken by the fictional character Gordon Gekko in Oliver Stone’s 1987 film Wall Street. It became the motto for many people in the late 1980s, became their credo along with phrases like “Lunch is for wimps” and “Money never sleeps”.
Michael Douglas, in his first major heavyweight role, played the villain in designer suits, Gordon Gekko. His portrayal of Gordon Gekko, the shady corporate predator, earned him an Academy Award for Best Actor. Charlie Sheen played Gekko’s naïve young protégé Bud Fox, a man who gets everything he wants but finds that in the end there is a heavy price to pay. But it was the evil Gordon Gekko who inspired the young stockbrokers and traders, not Bud Fox.
Director Oliver Stone wanted the film to be a morality piece. He wanted the audience to wonder how much they were willing to pay for their dreams. But the message got twisted along the way, and many people found Gordon Gekko an inspiration. She was someone who sought out and got whatever he wanted, no matter how many lives were destroyed in the process.
The character of Gordon Gekko was based on corporate raider Ivan Boesky. Boesky gave a similar talk on “Greed is good” in 1986 at the business school on the University of California’s Berkeley campus. The film was seen as an excellent representation of the way business was conducted in financial institutions at the time. Insider trading and shady dealings made young people very rich, very quickly. When the stock market crashed in 1987, Stone’s film was seen as prophetic.
Gordon Gekko’s character was not only seductive in the film, but he soon became a role model for any merchant get rich quick, or the ultimate alpha male who had everything he wanted, flew private jets and made money without creating Nothing. Though designed as a morality story, it is Bud Fox who ends up in prison at the end of the film, not Gordon Gekko. Gekko apparently outsmarted everyone and only lost a few million dollars.
Michael Douglas and Oliver Stone were both surprised by people’s reaction to Gordon Gekko. Douglas says many stockbrokers still approach him that his portrayal of Gekko is the reason they became brokers. With scandals like Enron and illegal deals still in the news, it seems like very little has changed since the 1980s.
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