(Candidate’s Full Name)
Movie Review:
Plot
“Get rich or die trying!” This is the motto for the 2013 American movie titled The Wolf of Wall Street. Directed by Martin Scorsese, the film is an on-screen adaptation of a memoir of the same name written by Jordan Belfort, a former stock broker convicted of stock market manipulation and running a penny stock boiler room in USA. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort, the film narrates his career as a certified stockbroker with L.F. Rothschild, before losing his job due to the 1987 stock market crash. Using his brilliant salesman skills, he then proceeds to establish his own brokerage house named Stratton Oakmont, Inc. dealing with penny stocks and stock market manipulation through pump and dump schemes. The film also focuses on his personal life, including two divorces, a lavish lifestyle of endless parties, alcohol and drug abuse, money laundering and prostitution. It depicts all the events that led up to his conviction by the FBI. The film also stars Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie and Matthew McConaughey in lead roles
Analysis
Like the memoir, the film focuses on grotesque capitalism and money-making schemes. It depicts how the corporate world, in particular salesmen jobs, attracts the educated youth of USA. The ideals of “living an American dream” are exploited through illegal measures. Stratton Oakmont is presented as a cult, with money as God and Belfort as a high priest telling his followers that if they follow his instructions, he'll take them to the Promised Land. Any sin, including drugs and prostitution, can be justified if it supposedly serves God's will. .
Works Cited
Kim, J. (2014). ReThink Review: The Wolf of Wall Street -- Why Depiction Isn't Endorsement. Huffington Post .
