Ken Pruitt: Wall Street (1987) Gordon Gecko: Greed is Good

Source:The New Democrat

Best part of the first Wall Street movie at least and one of my favorite movies of all-time. And whatever you think of the Gordon Gecko character, or even what you think of Michael Douglas who played him, Douglas did a great job. And what made this speech so great was how accurate and real it was. Here are these people trying to make Gordon Gecko look like this greedy bastard when if anything they are just like Gecko. 

Except that Gecko is better and knows what companies are worth buying and how much he should spend on them and how to reform them. So he can make a profit off of them and of course there was some insider-trading involved here. But the facts and points of the Gecko speech are still the same that greed is good and he explains why. That without greed people wouldn’t want things for themselves. 

Without greed people wouldn’t work as hard so they could have things for themselves. So they could be as successful as possible and enjoy the fruits of their labor. And enjoy being successful, that we are all greedy, it’s just that some people are better at it than others. And people are all greedy at least to a certain extent, that it's just a matter of degree. It's not that we aren't greedy, but what level of greed is tolerable in a free society that is really the question.

Oliver Stone: Wall Street (1987) Starring Michael Douglas & Charlie Sheen

Source:The Daily Post

Wall Street from 1987 is a very good movie about what its like to work on Wall Street and what life is like around it. Perhaps not the most accurate movie, but definitely based on reality about a man who has a lot of power on Wall Street in Gordon Gecko played by Michael Douglas. Who basically makes his living buying companies and selling them for profits as well as investing in other companies. His company if you want to call it that, doesn't make or produce anything. He buys and sells stocks as well as companies and sometimes buys companies that are losing a lot of money. Turns them around so they are profitable, even if that means laying off a lot of people and then sells those companies.

That character in this movie is named Gordon Gecko of course played of course by Michael Douglas with the famous line "greed is good" which I'll get to later, which also has to do with today's debate about Wall Street and another main character called Bud Fox played by of course Charlie Sheen, probably his best movie even though its not his funniest, whose a young upincomer on Wall Street, looking for the fast track whose basically a good guy from a good family but discovers Gordon Gecko and decides Gecko is his trip to the top. A

Bud Fox wants to work with Gordon Gecko or for him. But Gecko only wants to work with the young Fox, if Fox has insider knowledge so they can do some insider trading. Which of course is illegal, but Fox is the son of a union leader and someone who works for an independent airline played of course by Martin Sheen. Who's Charlie's real life father and the airline is about to get sold and that's where the inside knowledge comes in. And Bud Fox has what Gordon Gecko needs to buy the independent airline. 

Bud Fox's connection with Gordon Gecko is about how his knowledge of his father's business and how they can use that to buy that airline. And Fox's ability to scout Gecko's competition and get inside knowledge on them sort of like a spy. And they use that to always stay a step ahead and make sure they are always able to bid more than the competition. Because they know what the competition is able to bid and how much capital they have and what their strengths and weakness's are.

My favorite line in the movie is where Gordon Gecko gives that speech at the stockholders meeting at some company. The famous Greed is Good speech. And the funny thing is even though I'm a Democrat and greed can definitely be bad if miss used like the greed we saw in 2008 that led to the Great Recession. And to a certain extent is still going on is obviously bad and I'm not disputing that. Where corporate executives were allowed to make their companies too big, ran them into the ground and then got bailed out by taxpayers and then walked away with huge bonus's. 

But as Gordon Gecko said "greed is good, because greed allows for people to be as productive as possible to make as much money as possible. And grows companies as much as possible to make create as many good jobs as possible". The main reason why Wall Street is so relevant today, because of course of the Occupy Wall Street movement that's going on today because of their bad practices in the past and their abuse of greed as I just laid out. And how unpopular Wall Street has become today, not as unpopular as Congress (but that would be a hell of an accomplishment for anyone to accomplish and is a great movie period as far as I'm concern. But also a great movie if you're interested in OWS. 

Oliver Stone: Richard Nixon (1995)

Source:The New Democrat

Nixon is one of my favorite movies purely for entertainment value. And I believe Anthony Hopkins did a great job of playing Richard Nixon and Joan Allen did a great job portraying Pat Nixon. But I don’t believe the movie is very accurate as far as other things movies and books that I’ve seen about the man. I mean the movie constantly has Dick Nixon drinking some type of scotch or alcoholic beverage. And although Nixon was Irish, (ha, ha) people close to him said that he couldn’t hold his liquor. He would have maybe one drink after work and another with dinner. But wasn’t drinking throughout the day and during meetings and so-forth.

Also the movie I believe over-portrays Dick Nixon’s negative aspects. And again if you are familiar with the man you know he’s one of the most fascinating complicated politicians whose ever lived. And a big reason for that had to do with the fact that he wasn’t just good or just bad. That he had many aspects that were good and bad that people who worked for the man who have broad respect, like David Gergen or his second Attorney General Elliot Richardson, said that the man had some awful character flaws like not being able to trust people, to use as an example. But that he did a lot of great things as president like as they related to China and Russia.

Nixon is a very good movie from an entertainment value and as far as the aspects of Dick Nixon’s life that they covered. And was very well written with a great cast that also included Paul Sorvino, James Woods and Ed Harris to name a few others. But they left a lot out or didn’t cover some of the other aspects of the man’s life. Like his time in Congress or as vice president and some of his big accomplishments as president.

Robert Altman: Nashville (1975)

Source:FURY- Hollywood Goddess Karen Black, singing in Nashville.

Source:The Daily Post

"Ce film raconte le destin de 24 personnages, issus de milieu musicaux ou politiques, qui vont se croiser dans la ville du disque et de la country, Nashville, Tennessee, au cours de cinq jours d'été au cœur des années 70." 

From FURY

"In 1975, Robert Altman debuted the crown jewel of his career: a gutsy, broad-scale cinematic portrait of a divided America set within the Country Music Capital of the World. Today, it might just be the greatest American film of all time. 

Source:Tribecafilm- The cast of Robert Altman's Nashville.

From Tribecafilm

The 1970s, really as a whole was one of the most divisive times for American politics. It was when whoever was left that actually trusted the U.S. Government to do the right thing and even tell them the truth, had ended.

You had the Vietnam War in the mid and late 1960s with President Lyndon Johnson. You had President Richard Nixon, who was stuck between wanting to get America the hell out of Vietnam and yet not actually be seen as losing the war. Sort of like a person stuck between wanting to kill someone and marrying them.

And then you had Watergate, with that, plus the other scandals of the Nixon White House, led the House of Representatives to vote for impeachment of President Nixon.

Without Vietnam and Watergate, Jimmy Carter remains a peanut brain, I mean peanut farmer from Georgia, who probably runs for and wins reelection as Governor of Georgia. America, especially after President Gerry Ford, who just happened to be President Nixon’s Vice President and personal friend, pardons Richard Nixon for his involvement in the Watergate coverup and all other crimes that President Nixon was involved in as President of the United States.

Congressional Democrats, in 1974, don’t win landslides in the House and Senate, because suddenly it just occurs to Americans that Republicans are devils and Democrats are saints. Democrats, won the 1974 Congressional mid-terms, because they weren’t Republicans.

There was this feeling in the America in the mid-1970s, especially as President Nixon resigns and gets the bailout of a lifetime and is pardoned by his Vice President, that the country was way off. Way off like a 747 yet without radar flying in the clouds in the Caribbean, with both pilots and the navigator, high, drunk and blind, all at the same time. And that it was time for America to get back on course and try something else. Try something that wasn’t a Democrat, or a Republican. Or at the very least not a Washington Democrat, or Republican. And I believe Nashville reflects those feelings of the country.

As far as this movie, it looks to me anyway like a two-hour forty-minute country music concert. Which would have been fine with me, if I were a country music fan. And it didn’t snow in Minnesota in January. Good luck seeing either. With some politics mixed in from time to time.