When Does the Conman Become the Antihero

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

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.” 

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?