Who Has Seen "Wolf of Wall Street"? My Mind Was Boggled

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   My Esotericposted 10 years ago

   When I saw the film yesterday, I thought it was satire!  It wasn't until the credits when I saw the words "Based on the book by Jordan Balfort" did I realize it was an autobiography; my mouth gaped open.  To understand the impact, you would have had to seen the film and not worked in a stock brokerage house on Wall Street.  I am more stunned today than I was yesterday.  I am not sure how to put this into words.
   
   To know that level of Sodom and Gomorrah debauchery and drug using actually takes place (is taking place) in that kind of setting simply blows my mind.  It wasn't the scamming, taking advantage of you and me, that is no surprise, just think back to 2004 - 2007,  It was the in-your-face lack of morals on such a large scale in a business setting that blows me away.  Now, I am not prude; I enjoyed all of the nudity, but I saw more nudity in that show than I have seen down at Caliente (that is a nudist resort) combined since I have been going there.  And the public sex, who knew (there is none, or almost none, at established resorts, btw).  Ditto with public drug use.
   
   I tell you what, I was disgusted with Wall Street to start with, now I loathe them.  What do you think?

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2. 82

   JayeWisdomposted 10 years ago

   It is probably the large-scale "in-your-face" lack of morals by individuals on Wall Street that encourages those same "players" to scam and take advantage of people they consider "ordinary." They feel superior to ordinary mortals. From the way you've described this autobiographical film as portraying Wall Street--the same Wall Street that got bailed out of trouble while "ordinary" Americans were and are struggling economically--that heaps a level of loathing atop my previous feeling of disgust for Wall Street. I don't want to watch the movie.

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      My Esotericposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I can understand that Jaye, but if you can get passed the nudity (which they had to tone down to get an R rating), the 3-hour length, and the fact that it was reality, it was one of the most entertaining films I have seen in a while.

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         Shyron E Shenkoposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         I am with Jaye on this one. I don't want to watch this movie. Nudity is not the problem, it is the scams, and hurting people who are already hurting. And on top of that, they don't need my money to pay for the movie, and I don't think they would pay me to watch it.

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            My Esotericposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Now that you mention it, I am not sure who they scammed.  It started out as those who could not afford it, but later on they began targeting those who could.  I don't know if they ended up focusing on that group or just became all-a-round assholes.

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   Alphadogg16posted 10 years ago

   I have seen this movie and did know that it was based on a true story/autobiography. If you think about it, other movies based on true stories set in the 60's to 80's time frame, all pretty much have the same, lack of morals, drug use, sex, etc. Blow, American Gangster, GoodFellas, etc.

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      Motown2Chitownposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      One one hand, I agree.  But those movies were about criminal enterprises, and thus a lack of moral behavior could be reasonably expected.  This was about "legitimate" American business.  Maybe we were looking for just a shred more decency at the end of the day?
      

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   2. 82

      My Esotericposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      True, but this was the 1990s.  Belfort was indicted in 1998, the beginning of the rest of Wall Streets excesses which were partly responsible for the Great Recession of 2008.

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   MizBejabbersposted 10 years ago

   I have not seen the film, and I won't until it comes out on TV and Mr. B sits and watches it. Wall Street baffles me anyway, and since I didn't take economics on college (by choice), I'm not even going to try to understand it. One reason is because I think it is a futile effort and a waste of time. Did you see 60 Minutes episode recently about the ultra-super computers programmed to race ahead and trade stocks, including buying and then selling it back to us unsuspecting dummies at higher prices. They said that just 100ths of a second can make millions of dollars difference. Eric Holder says this is legal, although he didn't seem to approve. But it seems to this ignorant person that this would be a form of insider trading, and Martha Stewart just spent some time in federal prison for that. Oh, the Good Old BOY system. The AG's office is investigating, but we need to barrage our congressmen before anything will be done because it is their laws that are allowing it..

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