The Raunchy, R-Red Classic featuring Margot Robbie is Completely Misunderstood
By Chris Snellgrove | Published
Every now and then, I see the typical reaction to a successful movie and it makes me feel like I’m taking crazy pills. Perhaps the biggest example of this reaction The Wolf of Wall StreetMartin Scorsese’s film about a stockbroker named Jordan Belfort. The film is spectacular, and became a critical and commercial hit. However, every time I turned around, I saw many people criticizing the film. To one degree or another, all haters share the same feeling: that The Wolf of Wall Street it successfully glorifies its protagonist’s illegal, dirty, and utterly depraved actions.
Now, that’s an understandable reading of a film where a young man talks about manic narcissism in a life of wealth and fame, filled with Margot Robbie in his bed every night. However, what such critics are really complaining about is that Scorsese didn’t give us something with the binary behavior and immediate consequences of an after-school special, full of messages like “drugs are bad, kids!” Instead, the director did something better than any film since Trainspotting: reveals the intoxicating allure of this life of pleasure before revealing how much damage it can cause to a man and his family.
Greed Never Looked So Good
The Wolf of Wall Street focuses on Jordan Belfort, a man who discovers early that he is very successful in trading stocks. He opens his own brokerage firm, recruiting his friends and training them in the art of pump and dump. Along the way, he gets more fame, praise, and money than God. Unfortunately, this causes him to sink into a life of drug abuse that only gets worse as his criminal activities attract the attention of the FBI. In the end, he must decide what to save: the trash business he built from the ground up, or the brilliant young man who has successfully buried himself in a life of delinquency and decadence.
From the beginning, The Wolf of Wall Street has come under fire for glorifying all of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jordan Belfort’s extreme and straightforward dangerous behavior. These criticisms often focus on the amount of content shown. Which is to say, in its massive three-hour runtime, we see Belfort and many other actors living a lavish, expensive life rather than seeing them pay for their transgressions. Belfort may be arrested in the end, but movie haters don’t believe that’s enough to end the entire movie that emphasizes how crime can pay.
Why Haters Are Wrong
It doesn’t help that Belfort, thanks to DiCaprio, is very handsome and likable. Critics of The Wolf of Wall Street believe that this helps the film portray this stockbroker as someone to look up to. Know that the victims are invisible and Belfort’s life is a luxury, and you’re left with the message that crime really does pay. The whole movie feels like an exciting rollercoaster, ending with the friendly criminal serving less than two years in prison. Because of these things, the haters think The Wolf of Wall Street a shameful and dangerous episode of blatant hero worship.
Of course, the critics are very harsh The Wolf of Wall Street they’re wrong about the movie glorifying Jordan Belfort. From the beginning, Martin Scorsese’s film reminded me of what producer Andrew Macdonald once said Trainspotting. That film caused similar consternation from haters who thought it glorified drugs. Regarding that fear, the producer once told the BBC that, “we wanted to show why people take drugs … you had to show that it was good and bad.” This prompted director Danny Boyle to say: “Music and comedy make people feel like they’re luxury drugs.”
The Modern Anti-Drug PSA
Same answer to The Wolf of Wall Street proves the aphorism from The Truth Detective it’s true, it’s really time is something a flat circle. Apparently, Boyle’s comments explain why many think Scorsese’s film glorifies immorality: because Belfort, his friends, and their antics are often very funny. Many people have trouble separating fiction from reality in their heads, and their laughter at these on-screen pranks makes them feel guilty. They won’t enjoy real criminals doing bad things, so they feel weird cheering on a fictional sleazebag. Instead of considering how and why they feel this way, these haters simply conclude that the movie must be promoting bad behavior.
The irony here is that The Wolf of Wall Street it does Get rid of that bad behavior, but do it in a practical way. We see Jordan Belfort destroy many marriages, lose his reputation, and finally get thrown in jail; as a stock trader and as a person, he fails on almost every level. Why would he go down the path of self-harm, knowing how dangerous it could be? Simple: money and power. Belfort becomes addicted to the obscene amounts of money he makes, and his growing love of wealth slowly erodes his judgment. There is nothing as powerful as money, and Scorsese has completely invented the story of power and its corruption.
You’re Never Higher Than Before You Fall
As is Trainspotting, The Wolf of Wall Street it shows the happy highs and sad lows of drug abuse. One of the reasons that anti-drug ads were always a joke was that they focused entirely on the consequences of abuse, but never said why someone might be tempted in the first place. Scorsese’s film tells how Jordan Belfort’s road to hell was paved with every temptation known to man; by the time we see his fall from grace, it’s clear that none of this was worth it, despite the drug-fueled ride. That’s the end away it works better than a film that diffuses its interior South Park to simply say, “Drugs are bad, mm’kay!”
All this, of course, is part of the magic. The Wolf of Wall Street it can be considered a cautionary tale, which goes a long way to show the dangers of drug abuse and criminal activity. But it can also be seen as a breezy comedy fueled by sex, drugs, and stock’n’roll. In fact, the movie is both: it entertains us with the misadventures of the characters while examining the lasting consequences of their drunken folly. Finally, The Wolf of Wall StreetAnxiety trolls need to take their own advice and worry about their addiction: namely, the high they get from preaching to people on the internet!
The Wolf of Wall Street currently streaming on Hulu.
