Wall Street

A financial district in New York located on Manhattan Island. The district contains many of the United States Of America's banks and financial institutions. The major stock exchanges are located on Wall Street, the NASDAQ and the DOW JONES. Has many nice restaurants, these include ‘Deckchairs’, ‘Nell’s’ and ‘Doria’.

"...It's not a question of enough, pal. It's a zero sum game, somebody wins, somebody loses. Money itself isn't lost or made, it's simply transferred from one perception to another.".

Oliver Stone's 1987 morality play has, nearly fifteen years since it's initial release, come to encapsulate the capitalistic impulse of the 1980's. The bromides espoused by Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas in a meaty, Oscar-winning role) offer a wealth of food for thought. Charlie Sheen, in a role not unlike the one he played the year before in Stone's Platoon, isn't nearly as explosive as Douglas, but manages to play both wide-eyed innocent and callous bastard with some ease.

Many point to the Greed Is Good monologue as the single best part of the film. I feel, however, that the most effective scene occurs as Gekko and Fox ride down the New York streets, passing by a street urchin and a well- dressed businessman on the sidewalk. Gekko points the two out to Fox:

"Look at that. Are you going to tell me the difference between this guy and that guy is luck?"

This scene, and the entire "battle" between Gekko, Fox, and Fox's hard-working, engineer father (Martin Sheen), illustrate two great dichotomies at play: wealth gained through cutthroat business deals vs. wealth that comes from honest labor, as the well as the question of nature vs. nuture.

Wall Street also successfully captures Stone at his most sedated: the viewer won't find the cinematic overkill that has been his trademark since JFK. As an added bonus, the soundtrack boasts an appropriately moody Stewart Copeland score, as well as two different selections from the David Byrne/Brian Eno collaboration, My Life In The Bush of Ghosts, topped off with Talking Heads' "This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)".

By all accounts, this is Oliver Stone's finest hour.

Wall street got its name because the early Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam feared attack from Indians and the British from New England. So they built a wall. The British and the Dutch were at war in the 17th century (1652). The Dutch settlers feared if the British didn't themselves attack, they might hire Indian mercenaries to press an attack. The road that ran along the wall was called "Wall street". A wall stood along Wall street from 1653 to 1699, running from the East river to the Hudson river. No one every actually attacked the wall as the English and the Dutch back in the motherland patched up their differences.

The wall work ended up creating a nice little road between the two rivers and it became a bustling commercial thoroughfare.

The original national capitol was located on Wall street, 1785 until 1790. On the steps of Wall street's Federal Hall George Washington was inaugurated. The New York Stock Exchange was founded in 1817 and opened its first exchange at 40 Wall street.

Wall Street.

A street towards the southern end of the borough of Manhattan, New York City, extending from Broadway to the East River; -- so called from the old wall which extended along it when the city belonged to the Dutch. It is the chief financial center of the United States, hence the name is often used for the money market and the financial interests of the country.

 

© Webster 1913