Scorsese (director of “Goodfellas” and “Taxi Driver”) has brought yet another tale of potty-mouthed, rich criminals to the big screen in “The Wolf of Wall Street,” and just like Scorsese’s other pictures, “The Wolf of Wall Street” revels in its irreverence, putting as much controversial material as possible into this three-hour film.
Most of the cast members were shocked when the movie got an R-rating rather than an NC-17 rating. Debating whether or not this movie is dealing with risky subject matter is futile. The film is filled with nudity, drug use, and a record-breaking number of F-bombs that would make even Samuel L. Jackson blush.
It is much more interesting to debate whether or not the film is encouraging these heinous acts of perversion. There’s no doubt about it, DiCaprio’s real life character, Jordan Belfort absolutely loves money, cocaine, and hookers. Through his admittedly hilarious narration we are subjugated to look through the eyes of this corrupt stock broker, and we often times applaud Belfort while he commits these crimes.
We know what he’s doing is horrible, but so does Belfort, and we are dragged through this coke-fuelled thrill ride throughout the movie. There could be a problem with this. If Scorsese was meaning to portray the corruption of Wall Street, then that message can easily be lost to a movie-goer who is rallying behind Jordan Belfort.
As Joe Morgenstern of the Wall Street Journal states, “Any meaningful perspective on the greedfest of the period is obscured by the gleefulness of the depiction.”
This is where the ending comes into play. The last third of the movie is spent punishing Jordan Belfort in the most satisfying way possible. There is an especially enjoyable scene where Belfort, sluggish from his overdose on quaaludes, simply tries to get into his car, and fails again and again.
This scene depicts Belfort as a sad, bumbling idiot. This is in direct contrast to the Belfort we had been introduced to in the earlier part of the movie. During the last moments of the film, we see that justice is served, and Jordan Belfort winds up absolutely miserable as he watches as everything he has worked to achieve crumbles before him.
The movie also shows us what Belfort eventually made of his life, becoming a public speaker, giving financial advice to fledgling businessmen, and supposedly turning over a new leaf. In my opinion, “The Wolf of Wall Street” does not celebrate the actions of Jordan Belfort. I believe that the film was made to show an audience what the life of Jordan Belfort was like.
It shows his ups, his downs, his beginning, his end, and then finally lets the audience decide whether Belfort was a good man or not. This is what makes “The Wolf of Wall Street” great. The movie is fast-paced and dirty because Belfort had a hyperactive and destructive personality. The movie was filled with perverted material because Belfort led a perverted lifestyle.
Belfort is not depicted as a hero, nor as a villain, but as a human being, and “The Wolf of Wall Street” shows us the life of this human being, and lets us decide for ourselves whether we want to love him or hate him.
