Great man or villain?

Gordon Gekko, expertly played by Michael Douglas in Oliver Stone’s 1987 Wall Street is one of my favorite movie characters of all time.  Douglas steals the show from his co-star, Charlie Sheen, who plays the impressionable young Bud Fox and Martin Sheen, who plays blue-collar union leader Carl Fox. Even President Bartlett is no match for Gekko. But this course isn’t about actors and film reviews, it’s about Corporations in America, and Wall Street attempts to answer some key questions about the nature of big business in America. More to the point, it asks questions what’s better – to make a living building something, or profiting by buying and selling the businesses others build. 

I suppose Stone wanted us to think of Gekko as the epitome of greed and evil – who could take or leave Bud Fox until he figures out Bud can offer him insider information on Blue Star airlines, the company Bud’s father helped build from the ground up. Bud allows himself to believe that he would be the president of the company, and he is, in name only, as Gekko begins sucking the marrow out of the employee pension fund, which is the corporation’s true worth. 

Sorry, but I don’t share Stone’s vision of Gekko. I think of him as one of the true capitalist heroes of old. Perhaps Gekko is not a villain, but a modern-day embodiment of Morgan, Carnegie, Rockefeller and the like. It’s difficult to see any of them coming across a choice property like Blue Star and not maximizing their profit. Gekko isn’t a villain – he’s a hero – a true modern day Robber Baron – a role Gekko clearly sees in himself and as he expresses during his “Greed is Good” speech to the shareholders at Teldar Paper.  I don’t think Gekko sees any of his clearly illegal tricks – wiretapping, insider trading, etc . . . as wrong – to him they’re just good business sense. His hero, Sun Tzu, wasn’t the least bit concerned about fair play – so why should he? 

Gekko violates his cardinal rule – he gets emotional about a deal – and young Bud Fox is able to use that to finally bring him down. 

What of young Bud Fox? Does he redeem himself by working with the SEC to bring Gekko down? Or, did was he simply an excellent student who finally defeated the master? 

I was curious to see there’s a sequel to Wall Street that’s in production right now. Early plot reports indicate Douglas, reprising his role as Gekko, is trying to “regain”  his status on the Street by predicting the impending money crisis and helping prevent it. Heck, the Gekko we know and love should be out there trying to profit from it. 

Comments

[Kyle Riddle]

I am not as convinced that Gekko is a "hero" as you say. But it will certainly be interesting to see how Stone and Douglas bring the character into present times. It is surprising to read about some of the industry leaders in Giants of Enterprise and see what kind of tactics they resorted to in order to promote their business. Carnegie is familiar, but Revson and Watson and their "goons" going out to sabotage the competition or at times engage in intimidation I was not aware of. Even with fewer regulations many of these guys were still pushing the limit legally and crossing far over it ethically.

Gekko reminds me to some extent of Michael Milken, the junk bond king. Part of Milken's punishment for scandal was a lifetime ban from the financial industry. He now runs a philanthropic foundation that is researching cancer. Could this be the fate of Gekko? In the original movie we are not shown Gekko's punishment, so that will certainly have to be made clear in any possible sequel. To turn him into a creature for good may be plausible, as in the case with real life Milken, but it might not jive with fans of the original movie and may in fact seem unbelievable. The reality, in this comparison, is stranger than fiction.

[Dianne Schmidley]

Interesting review Marty. My husband had a young patient who was a Wall Street trader and went to prison. Seems he was shorting his customer's accounts to support his drug habit.

I think too often we give these people (traders) too much credit for business acumen when in reality they are desparate for $$ to suport their addicitions to women, drugs, alcohol, gambling, etc. Desparate people do desparate things.

Two other points,

1. Being the good captitalist he is, Oliver Stone has always seemed to me to be interested in making $$ via promotion of half-truths and myths (he panders to some people's beliefs). I worked on the Hill when the Kennedy assasination was under review and as far as I could determine Stone's tale about JFK bore no resemblance to anything reported by the Warren Commission or the Select Committee on Assasinations (Kennedy, Kennedy, King), and let us not forget both were controlled by Democrats. Do you think the JFK assasination was the result of a vast right-wing plot as Stone made it out to be?

2. Kyle you mention the punishment Milken (not to be confused with the investigative reporter Michele Malkin) received, but not his crime. I think it was obstruction of justice because he lied, not that he was a sharpie who stole money from others, but I have heard and read conflicting versions.

[Adrienne]

I believe that Stone used Milken as the "model" for Gordon Gekko as Milken is credited for the creation of Junk Bonds and financing. I also believe that the large crime was obstruction of justice AND that after he paid his penalties and fines he still had 300 Million in the bank. I went to business school around this time and my Accounting professor used to say, well if you are going to steal or be a criminal you should most definitely go Milken size so when you get out of jail at least you still have some money.

I cannot say that Gekko is a hero or a villain but he "plays" the game; to exploit a weakness and creat an opportunity that IS competition and that is business. Another blog asked when did business become perceived as "evil" and I think it may have really started during this 1980's transition of 1) the Savings and Loans Scandel where many rich people got richer through explotiation of banking reserve requirements and 2) certain people became ULTRA rich, through sheer exploitation of the system. That idea is contra to the as Weber would say the Protestant work ethic. These gentlemen (and YES they were almost exclusively men, I do not know of any women)got extremely wealthy without "hard" labor. That just rubs many Americans the wrong way.

[Dianne Schmidley]

A couple up in Maryland made the local evening news for their extravagent life-style based on all kinds of funds appropriated from the S&L they owned-ran. Mercifully, I have forgotten their names, but their life style seemed proof positive that this is some kind of sickness. I mean, who really needs 20 cars?

Speaking of wealthy women who behaved badly, what about Martha Stewart and Leona Helmsly who ran the hotel chain in New York...the so-called Queen of Mean. Leona got into hot water for non-payment of taxes, although I thought at the time she got a raw deal, mostly because she was so hated by her staff. Martha did what many folks do and lied under duress. She had not broken any laws but was charged with obstruction of justice as I recall.

On the other hand, if you were a friend of Bill Clinton and your wife was a big donor, you might escape justice.