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Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps With the advent of the movie Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, there has been speculation of the quality of the film. For the strong supporters of the first movie, Wall Street, the movie was a disappointment. They reveled in Gordon Gekko’s cruel, conniving ways. His apathy towards all other individuals is remarkable as he plays what he considers a mere game worth millions of dollars. In the sequel, Gekko “becomes less enjoyable” (Berardinelli) as the textbook villain develops a conscious. He advised the protagonist, Jacob Moore, with the most prominent tricks on Wall Street. Gekko becomes more “more amoral than immoral” (Berardinelli), unraveling the heartless character created in the first movie.

On the other hand, Money Never Sleeps depicts a more realistic perspective of Wall Street while maintaining the original message of the movie: “money... has divorced America from the human struggles it should tend to everyday” (Seitz). The director, Oliver Stone, develops characters that have more than one dimension. Gekko is shown as a person with both good qualities—although often hidden—and negative ones; Moore aspires to be a leading financial expert while trying to avoid the vices that this goal often entails. Internal conflicts develop in both characters, creating greater depth.

However, many reviews fail to mention some key points that Stone makes. The first of which is the use of bubbles. In a financial context, a bubble refers to a certain sector in the stock market with inflated prices. The prices are not an accurate representation of the performance of the stocks and eventually crash. Money Never Sleeps occurs during the real estate bubble of 2008, which caused housing prices to plunge. This resulted in a frantic increase of the purchase and sale of stock. Another example of bubbles in Money Never Sleeps alludes to tulip mania, which occurred in the Netherlands in the 1600s. During this time, the value of tulip bulbs sky rocketed, causing the Dutch to buy tulip bulbs at obscene prices. The prices eventually crashed, leaving hundreds of people with worthless bulbs on which they spent all of their savings. The symbolism of bubbles was further heightened by the use of physical bubbles. Children blow bubbles in the park through which Jacob Moore and his boss, Louis Zabel, meander. These bubbles represent the collapse of Zabel’s company, which in turn prompts his suicide.

Another pivotal event missed by many reviews was the melody of the song “Cheek to Cheek.” In this song, the singer emphasizes the importance of the love of his life. He claims that nothing else matters when the couple are dancing “cheek to cheek.” Jacob Moore came to the same conclusion about his fiancée, Winnie Gekko, the daughter of Gordon. The excitement of Wall Street quickly dissipates when he realized that he was risking their relationship by communicating with her estranged father behind her back. He is plunged into a state of desperation, which is ironic considering that it was Winnie, not the stock market, that caused his depression.

As a result, the vast majority of movie reviews do not truly capture the meaning of the film Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. Instead of analyzing the symbolism, the reviewers slide across the surface of the movie without acknowledging the depth of the symbols. Critics compare Money Never Sleeps to the prequel Wall Street and debate the role of Gordon Gekko without considering the use of bubbles or the song “Cheek to Cheek.” It is the latter two that add greater meaning to the movie and shape it into such an incredible film.

Works Cited:

Berardinelli, James. "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps." Reelviews. 24 Sep 2010. Web. 3 Feb 2011. . Seitz, Matt Zoller. "'Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps'." The New Republic. 24 Sep 2010. Web. 3 Feb 2011. .

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