Minjie Xia
Professor Jennifer Jovel
SOC 101-06
9 Mar 2016
Film Analysis Paper
Introduction: a brief summary of Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
I would like to talk about the film Wolf of Wall Street (2013). Based on the autobiography of the legendary stockbroker Jordan Belfort, the film depicts how Belfort started his business by walking along the edge of the law and how Belfort was lost in the luxury life that full of sex and drugs in a black comedy way. After tasting the joy brought by money, Belfort did some illegal business to earn more and more money, and he was finally caught by the FBI agent Patrick Denham, and betrayed his friends and coworkers to get commutation. In this paper, I will analyze the movie in different aspects: Theoretical …show more content…
Many things such as locations, people and money have their own symbolized meanings in the luxury but sick life in Wall Street. For example, at the beginning of the film, 22-year-old Belfort described himself as ”a newly married, and already a money crisis man”, and he thought Wall Street was “ the one place on the earth that befit his high-minded ambitions”. In this case, we can see that the location Wall Street is a symbol for dreams and money. Furthermore, the reporters called Belfort “the wolf of Wall Street”, which is also a symbol that represented Belfort’s rapidly developed business that took a lot of money from rich people and made a lot of profits for himself. And of course, money is a symbol for a better life in this film because money is only thing the stockbroker wanted even if they had to deceive the others to get money illegally. According to the textbook, symbols are the key to understand how people view the world and communicate with one another. Therefore, every symbolized thing has its own meanings, and it deeply affects people’s thoughts and behaviors. If we live without symbols, we may not know what we are doing and how to communicate with the others. This is the main message of symbolic …show more content…
I think it is interesting to view this film again in sociological insights because I was pretty shocked about the luxury but sick life in Wall Street at the first time and ignored many details that related to the social problems that existed in the real world. As I extended the sociological sight, I am now able to analyze some social problems by looking at people’s gestures, languages, norms and values. Some small details in our life may make me think of the social problems behind them. The three theoretical perspectives also make me think of the reason why people act in different ways. After analyzing this film, the definition of deviance and social control has been strengthened in my brain because the illegal business Belfort did so impressed me. I am starting wondering whether our society is normal or not, how the social institutions shape us, and what will happen if people have different social institutions. Also the film producer and the cast really impressed me, especially Leonardo DiCaprio—the actor of Belfort—showed us the crazy world in Wall Street that many people never knew. I am looking forward to watching another film that I can see more social problems and think them in a sociological
Professor Jennifer Jovel
SOC 101-06
9 Mar 2016
Film Analysis Paper
Introduction: a brief summary of Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
I would like to talk about the film Wolf of Wall Street (2013). Based on the autobiography of the legendary stockbroker Jordan Belfort, the film depicts how Belfort started his business by walking along the edge of the law and how Belfort was lost in the luxury life that full of sex and drugs in a black comedy way. After tasting the joy brought by money, Belfort did some illegal business to earn more and more money, and he was finally caught by the FBI agent Patrick Denham, and betrayed his friends and coworkers to get commutation. In this paper, I will analyze the movie in different aspects: Theoretical …show more content…
Many things such as locations, people and money have their own symbolized meanings in the luxury but sick life in Wall Street. For example, at the beginning of the film, 22-year-old Belfort described himself as ”a newly married, and already a money crisis man”, and he thought Wall Street was “ the one place on the earth that befit his high-minded ambitions”. In this case, we can see that the location Wall Street is a symbol for dreams and money. Furthermore, the reporters called Belfort “the wolf of Wall Street”, which is also a symbol that represented Belfort’s rapidly developed business that took a lot of money from rich people and made a lot of profits for himself. And of course, money is a symbol for a better life in this film because money is only thing the stockbroker wanted even if they had to deceive the others to get money illegally. According to the textbook, symbols are the key to understand how people view the world and communicate with one another. Therefore, every symbolized thing has its own meanings, and it deeply affects people’s thoughts and behaviors. If we live without symbols, we may not know what we are doing and how to communicate with the others. This is the main message of symbolic …show more content…
I think it is interesting to view this film again in sociological insights because I was pretty shocked about the luxury but sick life in Wall Street at the first time and ignored many details that related to the social problems that existed in the real world. As I extended the sociological sight, I am now able to analyze some social problems by looking at people’s gestures, languages, norms and values. Some small details in our life may make me think of the social problems behind them. The three theoretical perspectives also make me think of the reason why people act in different ways. After analyzing this film, the definition of deviance and social control has been strengthened in my brain because the illegal business Belfort did so impressed me. I am starting wondering whether our society is normal or not, how the social institutions shape us, and what will happen if people have different social institutions. Also the film producer and the cast really impressed me, especially Leonardo DiCaprio—the actor of Belfort—showed us the crazy world in Wall Street that many people never knew. I am looking forward to watching another film that I can see more social problems and think them in a sociological