The Wolf Of Wall Street Movie Essay

The Wolf of Wall Street may seem just as another ridiculous comedy film at first glance, however, as with art of all forms, it can be interpreted in drastically different ways. Although the film explicitly portrays how stockbrokers in Wall Street use manipulation to fill their own pockets, The Wolf of Wall Street splendidly conveys different “morals of the story” depending on the morality of the audience: “wolves” hunger for materialistic lifestyle are eager to become filthy rich like Jordan Belfort and his pack; “sheep” would not hurt others in exchange for their own gain, but are seen as weak by the “wolves” and are preyed upon by them, like the victims of Stratton Oakmont; and “sheepdogs” are sworn to protect the innocent from their predators, like the FBI agent Patrick Denham (Kyle Chandler) in the film. These three groups of people have their own respective reasoning for their actions, and it all depends …show more content…
The Wolf of Wall Street does not provide a serious indictment to Belfort’s unlawful pump and dump scam (Gilbey). Some critics, like The Observer's chief film critic Mark Kermode, accuse the film of ignoring victims that suffered in Stratton Oakmont’s scam, “[they] remain as absent from the screen as they were from Belfort's venal mind” (Kermode). Indeed, most of the casualty of Belfort’s boiler room are regular Joes, who gave in to either the eloquent tongues or the high-pressure sales tactics of stockbrokers. Although the movie only tells Belfort’s side of the story, and does not clearly depict the damage his scam caused, some audiences with high standards of ethics cannot help but reject Belfort’s seduction, because they may believe that Belfort’s unethical business and his excessive consumptions are morally wrong. This type of people may not be joining the wolves in their hunt for cash, but they are also not sufferers of their