Barnes & Noble

"Greed is good," declares Gordon Gekko, the acquisitive, unscrupulous arbitrageur of Oliver Stone's hyperbolic, Reagan-era morality play. As portrayed by Michael Douglas -- who won a well-deserved Oscar for his marvelously unsubtle histrionics -- Gekko is an unabashedly manipulative player whose wealth and stature prove irresistibly alluring to eager young broker Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen). He willingly surrenders his conscience and values -- and, by implication, his soul -- to become the tycoon's protégé. Stone's other characters don't elicit much sympathy, either: trophy girlfriends Daryl Hannah and Sean Young, would-be players James Spader and John C. McGinley, outwitted businessman Terence Stamp -- none of them seem like particularly nice people. The film's one shining beacon of morality is Martin Sheen, almost beatific as Bud's straight-arrow, working-class father. Stone takes a dim view of the Street and its blithely amoral denizens, and reveals once again the anti-establishment mindset that characterizes many of his films. However one feels about the ideology that informs it, Wall Street can still be enjoyed as an overripe and vastly entertaining melodrama, the perfect showcase for Douglas's bravura performance. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

"Greed is Good." This is the credo of the aptly named Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), the antihero of Oliver Stone's Wall Street. Gekko, a high-rolling corporate raider, is idolized by young-and-hungry broker Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen). Inveigling himself into Gekko's inner circle, Fox quickly learns to rape, murder and bury his sense of ethics. Only when Gekko's wheeling and dealing causes a near-tragedy on a personal level does Fox "reform"-though his means of destroying Gekko are every bit as underhanded as his previous activities on the trading floor. Director Stone, who cowrote Wall Street with Stanley Weiser, has claimed that the film was prompted by the callous treatment afforded his stockbroker father after 50 years in the business; this may be why the film's most compelling scenes are those between Bud Fox and his airline mechanic father (played by Charlie Sheen's real-life dad Martin). Ironically, Wall Street was released just before the October, 1987 stock market crash. Hal Erickson

Product Details

• UPC: 024543006329
• Source: 20TH CENTURY FOX
• Sales Rank: 15,741

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Michael Douglas Collection
• Best Actor Collection
• Last King of Scotland/Wall Street