The Wolf of Wall Street

By: Robert Murphy 

In the world of bankers and the upper snooty branches of society, you have to have a certain swagger in order to mix in their kind of circles and The Wolf of Wall Street is all about that kind of lifestyle. The movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio who takes on the role of Jordan Belfort, a man who sleazed his way to fame and fortune in the 1980’s and 90’s by making his own financial firm. We see DiCaprio portray a man who sets out on a path much like something out of Scarface as he comes from nothing and makes a name for himself but it soon spirals out of control in a mix of drugs, sex and alcohol. He and his would be band of stock broking con men will live it up until the curtain draws in a truly great film that will make you trust investment guys even less.

The film starts out with Belfort starting out in humble beginnings; he had a good and honest woman who loved him, a straight laced look and a love for Wall Street like no one else. He is taken under the wing of a character played by Matthew McConaughey, a man who is at the top of the earnings board at his job at a blue chip firm and quickly he learns the ropes on his secrets to being a top investment banker. This method mainly involved, sleaziness, drugs (to center yourself) and lying through your teeth to your clients, selling them the gold at the end of the rainbow but knowing the whole time it’s an illusion. But before Belfort can put his feet in the water as a fully licensed investor the stock market crashes and he is out of the job. 

From this point, we meet the more infamous Belfort as he reinvents himself and makes his own company with friends from his old neighborhood that look like people you wouldn’t trust with 15 cents let alone thousands of your hard earned cash. His new company, Stratton Oakmont, becomes famous in the investment world and rapidly becomes successful. But this is because Belfort and his gang of miscreants lie and push worthless stock on people that they make money off of through the commissions, all the while knowing that the stocks won’t amount to anything. This is where it all starts to fall apart for Belfort, especially with his new best friend Donnie Azoff, who is played by Jonah Hill, introduces him to an addiction just as gripping as investing, drugs. Belfort and all his friends will pop Quaaludes, snort cocaine, screw prostitutes, drink themselves into a stupor and do it all again the next day. 

At its core The Wolf of Wall Street is a story all about addiction, how it gripes you and never let’s go of you because it’s the only life you know and when you see the life that Belfort had you can see the appeal. Belfort got rich through underhanded means and had a life a lot of people dream of having, with a huge amazing home, an absolutely beautiful wife, fancy cars, fine suits and a 100ft mega yacht with so much more. Belfort reveled in the life he had and even when he has the chance to let it all go and knows that he should, he just cant because he loves what he does, he loved the admiration of all the people around him and he just couldn’t stop until he was forced to. 

I will say that this movie is not something for everyone since it has a large amount of behavior that you would consider quite revolting and make you question your reasons behind sitting through the whole film. But I truly enjoyed the film from beginning to end, DiCaprio gives a phenomenal performance once again and completely immersed himself in the role as Belfort, in all the crazy things he did. The only thing I can say negatively about The Wolf of Wall Street is that it is an extremely long film running at about 3 hours long and you will need to be geared up for a long hall when you watch it. 

Good:

- Leonardo DiCaprio gives an all star performance

- Its over the top in all the right ways

- A strong performance buy every character

- Lewd and dark humor that I myself enjoyed but others may not

Bad:

- Movie is exceedingly long

Scully Rating: 9.0 out of 10