Wall Street (1987)
(1) Describe this aspect in the movie (what happens, with whom, why is it entrepreneurship/entrepreneurial).
The movie starts with Bud Fox who is a stockbroker on Wall Street. He used to work in an airline, as well as his father, but he decided to follow the path of stockbroking. Although he was young, he had been in the stock market industry for a while. He had been building a list of clients who he worked with; however, he was waiting for his opportunity to become a stockbroker for a “big fish”, as they called people with a lot of money in the movie. Then, he gets a shot of luck with Gordon Gekko.
This happens when Bud releases some private information about the airline Bud’s dad works for, which helps Gekko to know his next move in his stock portfolio. Gekko sees in Bud a great opportunity to start doing sketchy business by acquiring private information for him. Bud at first declines the offer, but then he analyzes that, to get Gekko on his side, he might need to take on the new task. Thanks to this Bud starts making more money and he starts living the life of a millionaire. But it would not last for long because, in one of the businesses proposed by Bud to Gekko, Bud wanted to help the airline where his father had been working for years.
Nevertheless, Bud gets betrayed by Gekko. At first, he told him that he was going to help him to save the company, but then he finds out that Gekko is liquidating it. Bud gets upset and feels very disappointed by Gekko, but then Gekko teaches him a lesson that Bud has to learn, he tells him “Greed is good.” However, Bud tries to respond to the bad action of Gekko but he snitches on Bud, and Bud ends up losing everything.
(2) Discuss why it is interesting.
This is an interesting movie; it is very similar to the movie “Other’s People Money,” which we watched at the beginning of the semester. Both stories are related to the stock market on Wall Street, and they are based on the idea of “Greed is good”. The narrative of both movies pictures entrepreneurs, more specifically businessmen as selfish, no-mercy, individuals that don’t really care about values or ethics but just money.
(3) Elaborate on the interaction/relationship between entrepreneurship and society from the perspective of the movie.
Wall Street the movie is a great example of why ethics and morals are important in business. The biggest dream of Bud Fox was to do business with important people, with rich people. He wanted to do it at any cost, and when he was successful in convincing Gekko to work with him, he found a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Nevertheless, working with Gekko meant that he needed to do illicit practices to make money.
Thanks to people like Gekko and Bud, bad impressions of businessmen are generated among societies. Society has stigmatized entrepreneurs and rich people manage to build their monetary empires by scamming and betraying others. This is the perception that is seen from one perspective, but as Gekko mentioned in his speech when talking in the Teldar meeting, he states that he is not a liquidator, but he is a liberator because he explains why he is fully against bureaucracy inside the company and in America in general.
He has a good point here because he tries to protect his interests and the stockholders, which seems to be right and fair. However, after viewing all that is hidden behind Gekko’s speech with fakeness and obtaining private information for his interest, then we encountered a dilemma. As Bud mentioned at the end, how much is enough? Gekko doesn’t answer this question. Ethics and morals should be present in the way people work for a smoother and more efficient output.