Deconstructing the American Dream: A Wolf of Wall Street Analysis
The Wolf Of Wall Street: ethics (essay)
The "Wolf Of Wall Street: Analysis" essay reviews one of my favorite movies, which delves into the complex ethical issues and the true story of Jordan Belfort's journey from a wealthy stock-broker living a lavish lifestyle to his downfall involving crime, corruption, and the federal government structure.
In the late 1980s, together with the merry band of brokers, young and hungry for a life Jordan Belfort makes a huge fortune by defrauding wealthy investors out of millions. This movie show time where corruption was king and more was never enough. This is the world of big money from the bottom to the top and it is soaked through deception, hypocrisy and thirst for money. It was not hard to find ethical issue throughout the movie because of the main character. He didn’t see any walls on his way to success and he was ready to go over the heads to rich his goal.
Ethics is a largely individual experience as different people will have different interpretations about what may be acceptable or not that guide their choices. Clearly, if you have seen The Wolf of Wall Street, the lead character Jordan Belfort is completely devoid of any real time of ethical code. Where once he had been a somewhat humble, family man, the money he acquired through his time on Wall Street slowly turned him into a reckless deviant. At the outset of the film, Jordan is a married man with a wife he loves that feels let down when his job as a broker is eliminated on the day he gains his license all it takes though is a little push before Belfort slides down the slope into anarchy. He started the stock brokerage company Stratton Oakmont and at one point of time this company employed over 1000 brokers, well this was before the company was shut down by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Belfort was arrested by the FBI in 1998. Let’s look closer into exactly what the company did to make there fortune and how it was all so simply yet so complex.
The company Stratton Oakmont (which owner was Jordan Belfort) would gather shares of penny stocks which are not highly traded in the market, which then they would stockpile these stocks in secret accounts. Then salesmen would work on the phones busily to make the price of these stocks progressively grow by advising people purchase these stocks. At this time Belfort and his partners would sell their own shares making a huge profit and then the stock would crash and this was done over and over again. “The government alleged that he defrauded investors of more than $200 million dollars. Once being arrested for this Belfort was convicted of money laundering and securities fraud in 2003, which he was sentenced a four-year prison sentence, to which only served 22 months”.
This movie shows unethical people who are breaking established rules of this world, who makes people financial unstable and poor, they don’t care about world around them and about people to whom they are lying. This is not the same thing as saying that the film is amoral, though. It's not. It's disgusted by this story and these people and finds them grotesque, often filming them from distorted angles or in static wide shots that make them seem like well-dressed animals in lushly decorated terrariums. The company many have allowed the Belfort, his partners, and employees to full potential of happiness for the time being, but there clients they advised absolutely did not. F
inally, Belfort and his employees were dishonest to their clients not allowing them to make rational financial decisions while exhibiting qualities that oppose how an ethical company should be run. What Belfort did with Stratton Oakmont instead of looking out for others and helping people invest their money in a financially responsible and smart way Belfort tricked and deceived these people. Instead he had them invest in stocks that he knew would crash and destroy their investment and would benefit him dramatically financially to support his extravagant life style. By doing this did he not only make irrational decisions he made the people he employed make these same irrational decisions to help his company grow. He taught them to do whatever it took to make money and even if it meant illegal activity and being untrustworthy to the many clients they represented and advised. Belfort could have helped people invest their money into stocks that could have brought great returns and taught his staff of over 1, 000 employees to do the same but he didn't. He looked for his own best interest and people who follow Kantianism would realize that the actions of Belfort and Oakmont Stratton were unethical.
All in all, this is merely a small look at the film but perfectly encompasses so much about the experience of viewing The Wolf of Wall Street. Belfort was many things, including dishonest and unabashedly deviant, but looking at the theories shows that every horrible ending has a beginning that can explain it all. In this case, one bad move or step may have changed Belfort’s entire life. I want to add that after watching this movie I made a little research about what happened with Belfort after all his machinations. Belfort was never punished on a level befitting the magnitude of pain he inflicted. According to federal prosecutors, he failed to abide by the terms of his 2003 restitution agreement. He's a motivational speaker now, and if you read interviews with him, or his memoir, it's obvious that he's not really sorry about anything but getting caught. We laugh at the movie, but guys like Belfort will never stop laughing at us.
