Document 30-3: Wall Street (1987)

The Eighties Culture of Greed

Wall Street (1987)

In the 1980s, Hollywood drew attention to the cultural celebration of wealth in movies like Wall Street, which starred actor Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko, an investor who tries to orchestrate a hostile corporate takeover of a failing company. In the movie’s iconic scene, Gekko, based loosely on real-life corporate raider Ivan Boesky, gives a speech to shareholders where he complains that modern corporate America has become a “survival of the unfittest.” He tells shareholders that “you either do it right or you get eliminated.” In the film’s most famous line, Gekko boasts: “I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them! The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed — for lack of a better word — is good. Greed is right. Greed works.”

image
Source: “Wall Street,” The Granger Collection, New York.

READING AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  1. Question

    tkInpTGYh+0Y6vLXbsibISbOyqQnAn3L5ay/epzDPt7P5LRDZJ1ALr91GESPwS48xA3Wbj/dn6HfpctTK7Z7Lll9AfowHXoTR5AeJH8JnE46whBp/vECwJaZrmh3qoTsoIlYymJGNu8G+walH+RrKrC09uW40+44Ldfwd78F/3CA3FvguoVnEC7X+zc+bJGGu8a5prLwCEzhGi8XQAyEyls/wdgJHXDbsaBp4U0MhOQIMY5GTcqxje+EBsoRBNzZ3lt2nWNlBMcdcjheS2We5jBrkksixHojTmp8VT5r9OuZTzTn

  2. Question

    q9mnMn0jlNWfi4B3jsqM5mEeCNQfG5w7mLWmjWrzkIOHOsjh5vpMiJs1b2LLAHkbK173ftL6Zz96v7Icq5l3V0eyrtkS3DcXaI+pThg7BTIOjIa2tuRepV2WuWXIYP9XEDUbVlZO8RszezaTZNYm6haLftuQlGZlpBz7MR2EJr3ajYwsdPQO6i/79cSQasnqdp+ASlze14HLjtfR0XauvUqlkZjVeyA7FKphzpQ1efowvkr52rRgVR7LHICK3cUgGKmpb6l5kxqzihJYKexKZ4tGKkEW7mmjf8PPyzOoQORMQXIxonBlcOgm3f7KkBTB4qLct/GeocbYvPVz+AjKYqx7dqUDArGnMv45rQ==

  3. Question

    DGDPcQxGvI+H4iFgXzJXn1pqB56tSovoR9SbnF7iN+zcKHf9PTi5PiSsEnwxnx8SZNb1d14oV4vYjyX5s+DhfxNajPszn8k8ZsAL6gqgDgj9NkLAzwq6jSyYvsGKoS0nJ2Zg8r4AmZSLxCeRvZqV5uj5wFSzV3Mf7zH0nQ88zQJozfhfQAt76kaMpIv1kszwFhv/qgClkiY=