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| The Wolf of Wall Street movie trailer depicts the office midget throwing- standard obnoxiousness |
I first watched the trailer for Martin Scorcese’s
biographical film “The Wolf of Wall Street “ about a month ago. This was the
first time I’d ever heard of Jordan Belfort but right of the bat I wanted to
know more. Was this midget throwing true? Is the movie another victim of
Hollywood exaggeration? I googled Jordan Belfort and absorbed all the
information I could find about his business ideas growing up and his ambition
to make money and to be successful. His absolute focus to succeed pushing
everything else to the side is admirable I initially thought. In ways I’d look
at myself as a man cut from the same cloth. The wealthy stockbroker made
hundreds of millions operating boiler rooms in pump and dump share schemes and
lived the high life including drug and alcohol abuse. Sex, drugs and
rock’n’roll was now sex, drugs and shares.
So these were my initial thoughts. I continued to surf the
web in search of more of his quotes and looked for further information of him
online. I then got on with the rest of my life and any thoughts I had on the
man and movie were put to the back of my head ready to resurface in December as
the movie nears closer. However yesterday I stumbled across a news article
reporting the conviction of three conmen who scammed over 2,300 Britons in a
similar ‘Boiler room’ scam and tragically one of the victims committed suicide.
You can’t not hate these three men and 99% of us are happy they have been
jailed.
However if this story was picked up by Hollywood, given a
bit of glamour and razzmatazz would we all of a sudden look at these 3 men as something else.
Over time there has been a number of ruthless, conniving and
destructive people portrayed as something they’re not
by Hollywood. The legacy
that lives on isn’t one of hatred but of admiration. This is an insult to the
families of their victims and all of those affected by their actions.
I have been guilty of this myself and it’s only when I break
it down and look at those affected that I realise. I’ve now assessed my view to
an admiration of certain qualities but total disdain for the person. I can admire Hitler’s natural leadership and
immense ability at rallying supporters but I hold total hatred for him and his
actions.
American Gangster, starring Denzel Washington, chronicled
the life of the notorious drug dealer, Frank Lucas. This has always been one of my favourite
biopics. Lucas whilst ruthless and cold is a man of many commendable virtues. Cutting
out the middleman and going straight to the source is an example of Lucas’
innovative ways. He was business savvy and certainly carried a presence. Federal judge Sterling Johnson, who was
special narcotics prosecutor in New York at the time of Lucas' crimes, called
Lucas' operation
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| American Gangster movie poster |
"one of the most outrageous international dope-smuggling gangs ever, an innovator who got his own connections outside the U.S. and then sold the narcotics himself in the street."
Even the judge here notes his
innovation. The strong qualities put forward. He had ethics and principals. He
wouldn’t wear the flash clothes to keep his head low. He hired only family
members so he could trust his employees.
Richie Roberts who prosecuted Frank Lucas has since came out criticizing
the movie for portraying Frank Lucas as almost ‘noble’. However the real life
Lucas was illiterate and vicious. He was everything the fictional Frank Lucas
wasn’t.
You find
yourself watching this movie hoping for Frank, you are up for him rather than
the justice system. People will refer to Lucas as a smooth operator and a great
businessman, which is true, but he is essentially a vicious, violent and
ruthless murderer who ruined the lives of so many.
In an
interview, Lucas said,
"I wanted to be rich. I wanted to be Donald Trump rich, and so help me God, I made it.’
This is very similar to Jordan Belfort
who when talking about getting rich quoted this gem
“I believe in total immersion, if you want to be rich, you have to program your mind to be rich. You have to unlearn all the thoughts that were making you poor and replace them with new thoughts – rich thoughts.”
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| Belfort took home $50 million a year |
The underlying thoughts here are very
similar and I can take motivation from these quotes. I admire these aspects but
it’s important when watching these movies we also open our eyes outside the
fiction and look at the reality of their actions.
So what I want
to know is if three men who scammed up to 85million from 2,300 Britons, leaving
so many broke and one dead as a result and wiping out family’s life savings, could
Hollywood do a job on them, glorify their story and somehow leave these
disgusting selfish men a positive lasting legacy,
Con men are
charming and through the media of film the audience spends 2 hours being wooed
and charmed by the glorified script of their lives. By turning these conmen
into ‘antiheros’ is Hollywood belittling those affected by the crime in
question and are they distorting the legitimacy of history. Where is the line
drawn where someone cannot be turned into an antihero? How do the families of
the victims feel when they watch these grotesque biopics? Will people from my generation refer to these characters as an inspiration not realising they are therefore referring to selfish criminals?
