Wall Street

6/300
Wall Street
Dir. Oliver Stone

Having had the sequel's trailers caught my eye, as per usual, I decided I must see the first one before going into the second.  I'm a little OCD like that and can't handle feeling like I'm not in the loop.  But, of course, I never found the time to see the first one, and completely missed my chance to catch the second in theaters.  Working for a company that makes a bit of a big deal with new releases though, when it came out on dvd, I felt the need again.  And again I failed to see the first one.

Anyway, long story short, this is something that was on my list for a while, and has now been checked off.

So, some amazing lighting in this film.  The shadows seem to mirror the whole feeling of the film.  In this, I mean that at times people stay in the shadows, others, they show parts of themselves, and some characters aren't shadowed at all, but they don't seem to have the secrets to hide from the others.

Michael Douglas was fantastic.  Every move he makes on screen is calculated.  You can read him, but you can't.  You don't know how fully invested in someone else until he comes out and says it, and even then, you don't.  There was one particular moment with this character that I felt was a complete game changer for me.  When Gecko is on the beach, and instead of talking about business and the fact that he thought other's shouldn't sleep because time was money, and money never sleeps, he looks out and he takes in the ocean.  He says something along the lines of, 'I wish you could see what I see'.  It's this moment that makes Gecko human.  He has vaults, and he's not just a money grubbing maniac.  I don't know how much of this was scripted/directed/or just Douglas, but it's powerful stuff.

Anyway, I cannot wait to see the sequel.

Run time 126 + 610 = 736