Wall Street is the story of Bud Fox, a curious stock trader in the 1980's who gives insider information to his idol, Gordon Gekko, with hope that he might work for him. Gekko accepts the information and takes Fox in. Almost immediately Fox is immersed in a rich life he had never dreamed of, he has a lot of money, material objects, and a woman Gekko has sent to him. He meets with his dad because he is trying to organize a purchase of BlueStar airlines for Gekko and starts to realize that what they are doing is morally wrong. Fox double crosses Gekko and gets arrested on charges of violating federal securities laws. In the everyday scenes that this film depicts, it shows greedy stockbrokers, a dark bustling polluted city, and a deregulated government, all important things happening during this time period.
This film takes place in a time which saw the rich get much richer, the poor get much poorer, and the middle class remain the same. These rich getting much richer were for the most part "urban professionals," or, "yuppies," that is stockbrokers, accountants, and company traders. Bud Fox and Gordon Gekko both fit perfectly into the mold created by the yuppies. They are rich, they have very expensive cars, clothes, and houses and they are materialists who had a never ending greed. Fox sees Gekko as one of these yuppies who always smokes very expensive cigars, owns expensive property and is always trying to get richer at any cost; he is extremely greedy. After Gekko takes Fox in, he is immediately seen riding in an expensive chauffeured car, with a very nice suit, and a beautiful girl. Soon after this, Fox buys a very lavish apartment and they show the decorators putting up paintings and painting gold on the walls of part of his house. Showing Fox and Gekko living these yuppie lifestyles, especially with Fox's walls getting painted gold, was a very accurate representation of the time period.
In the beginning of the film Fox fit into the middle class whose wealth never changed. He was unable to buy anything he really wanted and had trouble paying his rent. Fox was a stockbroker who never took risks, only buying very safe stock, so he never made the huge profits like Gekko did. At this point he became discouraged with being in the stationary middle class and developed the greed Gekko had. He saw Gekko living very lavishly, knew he had an enormous net worth, and wanted it. Gekko showed him how easy it was to make large amounts of money under the Laissez-Faire presidency of Ronald Reagan. Reagan believed in not regulating business and so the stock market was also affected by this, only in the end does Fox finally get caught after he and Gekko do hundreds of illegal trades. Through Gekko's help and Reagan's laissez-faire presidency, Fox made the transformation from honest, lower middle class stockbroker, to this greedy upper class stockbroker who violated Securities Exchange Commission rules. The director portrayed this change very accurately at this point in time the U.S. businesses and the stock trading were not regulated well and the yuppies took advantage of this through illegal activities and speculation.
When Bud Fox is walking around New York City, or is ever outside, the atmosphere is of a very bustling, cramped, dark and polluted world. There are always thousands of people talking and walking through the streets and piling into the Wall Street buildings. One good example of this crowded, never sleeping, busy city is when Fox squeezes himself into this very small cramped elevator to go to work and it has a very claustrophobic feeling. Outside there is a shroud of smog to make it seem very dark and polluted, which represents the time period very well, it was one of the most environmentally unfriendly and polluted times in American history.
The 1980's were a time of the yuppies, pollution, and the deregulation of business and the stock trade. This movie represents the time period very accurately, it shows Fox and Gekko doing illegal dealings and finally getting caught by the stock commission, it shows Gekko, and eventually Fox with the lavish lives full of greed, and it shows a dark and polluted world, reflecting the terrible environmental situation at the time. Wall Street portrayed Wall Street and the social climate of the world as it was during the 1980's.
