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Wall Street (1987 film)
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==Reception== ===Critical response=== ''Wall Street'' was released on December 11, 1987, in 730 theaters and grossed $4.1 million on its opening weekend. It went on to make $43.8 million in the United States and Canada,<ref name="boxoffice">{{cite news |title=''Wall Street'' |work=Box Office Mojo |url=https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=wallstreet.htm |access-date=March 18, 2008}}</ref> earning [[theatrical rental]]s of $20 million.<ref name="Foreign Vs Domestic">{{cite magazine |magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |date=January 11, 1989 |page=24 |title=Foreign Vs. Domestic Rentals}}</ref> Internationally, it earned rentals of $21 million for a worldwide total of $41 million.<ref name="Foreign Vs Domestic"/> The film has a 79% rating on [[Rotten Tomatoes]] based on 61 reviews, with an average rating of 6.90/10. The consensus reads, "With ''Wall Street'', Oliver Stone delivers a blunt but effective—and thoroughly well-acted—jeremiad against its era's veneration of greed as a means to its own end."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wall_street |title=Wall Street (1987) |website=Rotten Tomatoes}}</ref> On [[Metacritic]] it has a score of 56 out of 100 from 16 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/wall-street |title=Wall Street Reviews |website=Metacritic}}</ref> In his review for ''[[The New York Times]]'', [[Vincent Canby]], while quite critical of the film overall, praised Douglas' work as "the funniest, canniest performance of his career".<ref name="Canby 1987">{{cite news |last=Canby |first=Vincent |title=Stone's ''Wall Street'' |work=The New York Times |date=December 11, 1987 |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9B0DE6D61E38F932A25751C1A961948260 |access-date=May 22, 2007 |url-access=limited}}</ref> [[Roger Ebert]] gave the film three and a half stars out of four and praised it for allowing "all the financial wheeling and dealing to seem complicated and convincing, and yet always have it make sense. The movie can be followed by anybody, because the details of [[stock manipulation]] are all filtered through transparent layers of greed. Most of the time we know what's going on. All of the time, we know why".<ref name="Ebert 1987">{{cite news |last=Ebert |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Ebert |title=''Wall Street'' |work=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] |date=December 11, 1987 |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/wall-street-1987 |access-date=March 18, 2008}}</ref> ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine's [[Richard Corliss]] wrote, "This time he works up a salty sweat to end up nowhere, like a triathlete on a treadmill. But as long as he keeps his players in venal, perpetual motion, it is great scary fun to watch him work out".<ref name="Corliss 1987">{{cite magazine |last=Corliss |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Corliss |title=A Season Of Flash And Greed |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=December 14, 1987 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,966222,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090203020522/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,966222,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 3, 2009}}</ref> In his review for ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', [[Jay Scott]] praised the performances of the two leads: "But Douglas's portrayal of Gordon Gekko is an oily triumph and as the kid Gekko thinks he has found in Fox ('Poor, smart and hungry; no feelings'), Charlie Sheen evolves persuasively from [[gung-ho]] capitalist child to wily adolescent corporate raider to morally appalled adult".<ref name="Scott 1987b">{{cite news |last=Scott |first=Jay |title=Stone paves ''Wall Street'' in Blood |work=[[The Globe and Mail]] |date=December 11, 1987}}</ref> Rita Kempley wrote in ''[[The Washington Post]]'' that the film "is at its weakest when it preaches visually or verbally. Stone doesn't trust the time-honored story line, supplementing the obvious moral with plenty of soapboxery".<ref name="Kempley 1987">{{cite news |last=Kempley |first=Rita |title=''Wall Street'' |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=December 11, 1987 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/wallstreetrkempley_a09f97.htm |access-date=March 18, 2008}}</ref> F.F. Mormani, writing for ''[[The Objective Standard]]'', calls the film "mixed", explaining that it "accurately portray[s] some aspects of the financial profession and unjustly demonizing it, too. But," she concludes, "it is sufficiently thought provoking and philosophical to recommend watching or rewatching."<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=2021-04-29 |title=Wall Street (1987), by Stanley Weiser and Oliver Stone |url=https://theobjectivestandard.com/2021/04/wall-street-1987-by-stanley-weiser-and-oliver-stone/ |access-date=2021-05-07 |website=[[The Objective Standard]]}}</ref> Michael Douglas won the [[Academy Award for Best Actor]] and thanked Oliver Stone for "casting me in a part that almost nobody thought I could play".<ref name="Gorney 1988">{{cite news |last=Gorney |first=Cynthia |title=Douglas and Cher Win Acting Honors |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=April 12, 1988}}</ref> However, [[Daryl Hannah]]'s performance was not as well received and earned her a [[Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress]], thus making this the only film to date to win both an [[Academy Awards|Oscar]] and a [[Golden Raspberry Awards|Razzie]]. The "quintessential financial high-roller's attire"<ref>{{cite book |last=Condra |first=Jill |title=The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Clothing Through World History: 1801 to the present, vol.3 |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-313-33665-2 |page=209}}</ref> of Douglas in the film, designed by [[Alan Flusser]], was emulated in the 1980s by [[yuppie]]s.<ref>{{cite news |last=O'Neill |first=Sean |title=The fit's the king |work=Kiplinger's Personal Finance |date=March 2003 |page=105 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lf4DAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA105 |access-date=January 9, 2010}}</ref> Interest in the film was renewed in 1990 when the cover of ''[[Newsweek]]'' magazine asked, "Is Greed Dead?" after 1980s icons like [[Michael Milken]] and [[Ivan Boesky]] ran afoul of insider trading laws.<ref name="Demos 2007"/> Over the years, the film's screenwriter Stanley Weiser has been approached by numerous people who told him, "The movie changed my life. Once I saw it I knew that I wanted to get into such and such business. I wanted to be like Gordon Gekko".<ref name="Weiser 2008"/> In addition, both Charlie Sheen and Michael Douglas still have people come up to them and say that they became stockbrokers because of their respective characters in the film.<ref name="Kiselyak 2007"/> In 2002, Stone was asked how the financial market depicted in ''Wall Street'' has changed and he replied, "The problems that existed in the 1980s market grew and grew into a much larger phenomenon. [[Enron]] is a fiction, in a sense, in the same way that Gordon Gekko's buying and selling was a fiction ... [[Kenneth Lay|Kenny Lay]]—he's the new Gordon Gekko".<ref name="Sigesmund 2002"/> ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' magazine's [[Owen Gleiberman]] commented in 2009 that the film "reveals something now which it couldn't back then: that the Gordon Gekkos of the world weren't just getting rich—they were creating an alternate reality that was going to crash down on all of us."<ref name="Gleiberman 2009">{{cite magazine |last=Gleiberman |first=Owen |title=''Wall Street'': What it still has to tell us |magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]] |date=March 28, 2009 |url=http://popwatch.ew.com/2009/03/28/a-look-back-at/ |access-date=April 8, 2009}}</ref> A 20th-anniversary edition was released on September 18, 2007. New extras include an on-camera introduction by Stone, extensive [[deleted scene]]s, "Greed is Good" featurettes, and interviews with Michael Douglas and Martin Sheen.<ref name="Croce 2007">{{cite news |last=Croce |first=Fernando F |title=''Wall Street'' |work=Slant |date=September 15, 2007 |url=https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/review/wall-street-20th-anniversary-edition/1209 |access-date=December 10, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100505143733/http://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/review/wall-street-20th-anniversary-edition/1209 |archive-date=May 5, 2010}}</ref> In reviewing the film's sequel 23 years later, ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' noted that though the original film was "intended as a cautionary tale on the pitfalls of unchecked ambition and greed, Stone's 1987 original instead had the effect of turning Douglas' hugely charismatic (and Oscar-winning) villain into a household name and boardroom icon – an inspiration to the very power players and Wall Street wannabes for whom he set such a terrible example."<ref name="Chang 2010">{{cite news |last=Chang |first=Justin |title=CANNES: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps |work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |date=May 14, 2010 |url=https://variety.com/2010/film/markets-festivals/wall-street-money-never-sleeps-1117942753/ |access-date=August 27, 2010}}</ref> In 2024, ''[[Far Out Magazine|Far Out]]'' magazine named Gordon Gekko one of the "10 most accurate movie [[Psychopathy|psychopaths]] according to the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]".<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-11-21 |title=The FBI reveal the 10 most accurate movie psychopaths |url=https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/10-movie-accurate-psychopaths-fbi/ |access-date=2025-03-08 |website=faroutmagazine.co.uk}}</ref> ===Accolades=== {| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" |- ! Award ! Category ! Nominee(s) ! Result |- | [[60th Academy Awards|Academy Awards]] | [[Academy Award for Best Actor|Best Actor]] | rowspan="2"| [[Michael Douglas]] | {{won}} |- | [[David di Donatello|David di Donatello Awards]] | [[David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actor|Best Foreign Actor]] | {{won}} |- | [[Goldene Kamera|Golden Camera Awards]] | Best International Actor | rowspan="2"| Michael Douglas | {{won}} |- | [[45th Golden Globe Awards|Golden Globe Awards]] | [[Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama|Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama]] | {{won}} |- | [[8th Golden Raspberry Awards|Golden Raspberry Awards]] | [[Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress|Worst Supporting Actress]] | [[Daryl Hannah]] | {{won}} |- | [[Japan Academy Film Prize]] | colspan="2"| [[Japan Academy Film Prize for Outstanding Foreign Language Film|Outstanding Foreign Language Film]] | {{nom}} |- | [[Jupiter Award (film award)#11th Jupiter Award / 1989|Jupiter Awards]] | Best International Actor | rowspan="3"| Michael Douglas | {{won}} |- | Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards | Best Actor | {{won}} |- | [[Nastro d'Argento]] | Best Foreign Actor | {{won}} |- | rowspan="2"| [[National Board of Review Awards 1987|National Board of Review Awards]] | colspan="2"| [[National Board of Review: Top Ten Films|Top Ten Films]] | {{draw|9th Place}} |- | [[National Board of Review Award for Best Actor|Best Actor]] | rowspan="3"| Michael Douglas | {{won}} |- | [[1987 New York Film Critics Circle Awards|New York Film Critics Circle Awards]] | [[New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor|Best Actor]] | {{nom}} |- | [[Sant Jordi Awards]] | Best Foreign Actor | {{nom}} |- | [[12th Satellite Awards|Satellite Awards]] | colspan="2"| [[Satellite Award for Best DVD Extras|Best DVD Extras]] | {{nom}} |} The film is recognized by [[American Film Institute]] in these lists: * 2003: [[AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains]]: ** [[Gordon Gekko]] – #24 Villain<ref>{{cite web |title=AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains |url=http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/handv100.pdf |publisher=[[American Film Institute]] |access-date=August 6, 2016}}</ref> * 2005: [[AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes]]: ** Gordon Gekko: "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good." – #57<ref>{{cite web |title=AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes |url=http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/quotes100.pdf |publisher=[[American Film Institute]] |access-date=August 6, 2016}}</ref>
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