It begins with the beginning his career by selling fraudulent stocks.Īs he earns money from these illegal actions, his exposure to drugs and sex continue to grow. This is accomplished in the script by focusing on the insanity of the material. Martin Scorsese, the director, and Terrence Winter, the screenwriter, suggest that it is success that led Belfort to embrace drugs and womanizing. To paraphrase, he takes “Quaaludes like they are M&Ms.” In one of the first few scenes, Belfort states that he loves drugs of every kind, Quaaludes being his personal favorite. Even when he meets Nadine, a woman whom he sees as his soul mate and vows to settle down with, he still sleeps around.ĭrugs play a huge role in this film. He begins to sell awful stocks for high prices so that he can receive half of the money given, making him a millionaire.Īs the money piles up, Belfort becomes energized by the power that wealth brings him, which he abuses. Success built on fraud begins to change him when he learns that, for every penny stock he sells, he earns 50 percent of the money given to the company.
He cared for his fiancée and did not drink or do drugs of any kind. Before he struck it rich, Belfort was a clean man. “The Wolf of Wall Street” satirizes Belfort and delivers a pointed message: Money changes people for the worst. By focusing on Belfort’s sleazy endeavors in cheating stockholders out of their money, a message within the film begins to form. In fact, sometimes they glamorize them (“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”), redeem them (“The Big Lebowski”), or make monsters of them (“The Godfather”). The film follows his life from his first day on Wall Street to his downfall.įilms have shown an interest in focusing on the villain before. “The Wolf of Wall Street” is based on the life of Jordan Belfort, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, a stockbroker who made millions of dollars by selling penny stocks to clients at inflated prices. Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese have worked on four films together, the most recent being “Shutter Island.” Even though “Shutter Island” received mixed reviews from critics, the two have joined together once again for their fifth film “The Wolf of Wall Street.” Nominated for almost every major category at the Academy Awards, this three-hour-long tale owes its success to a well-paced story and its satirical messages. Written by Fourth Estate Lifestyle Reporter Andrew Davis