The Wolf of Wall Street Literature and Movie Review

Rating: 6/10 (20 January 2014)

The 2013 film of Jordan Belfort's The Wolf of Wall Street novel begins with Leonardo DiCaprio breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to the audience. He does this repeatedly throughout the film and if he is not speaking directly to the audience, he is doing lots of voice-over to explain or inform what he or the other characters are doing at that particular time/situation in the film. Most of the time, I find voice-over very distracting, but I have to admit that it works in this dramedy film very well. The book, written by Jordan Belfort, a former New York stock broker who earned hundreds of millions of dollar during the 1990s at his Stratton Oakmont brokerage firm on Long Island, New York (not really Wall Street in downtown Manhattan). The book is very long and seems to glorify everything Belfort did during this time of his life along with all of his friends and co-workers at his stock firm. He founded this firm which started as a penny stock firm, where unfortunately he defrauded everyday ordinary investors with fraudulent stock sales. Considered a stock swindler, he developed a very severe lifestyle, which included a very serious addition to Quaaludes. The company at one point employed well over 1,000 brokers and dealt with more than $1 billion stocks, including the Steve Madden show company. The 2000 film Boiler Room was inspired by Belfort and Stratton Oakmont. It should be noted here that Belfort was indicted in 1998 for money laundering and securities fraud. He spent 22 months in a federal prison and was to pay back $110.4 million that he swindled. Meeting Tommy Chong of Cheech and Chong in prison, Belfort was persuaded to write and publish his story, which he has. Stratton Oakmont was considered a boiler room that manipulated stocks. In the book, he tells in full detail how he did it from money laundering to swindling customers. Millions poured in, bringing with it many excesses, which included women, drugs, huge homes, servants, yachts, aircrafts, not only for himself but for everyone who worked for him. He also describes in detail all his dope escapades and sex, despite constantly telling the reader how much he loved his wives, particularly his second (and now ex-wife) and his children. Again, in full detail, he tells the reader about the supporting characters, from Aunt Patricia, his father who he calls Max Max, the Swiss forger, his cohorts in crime at Stratton, along with Steve Madden and others. The drug use, the sex, the violence, the storm at sea that destroyed his yacht, and the car wrecks are all listed throughout the book. It finally ends with Belfort being arrest and jailed. In the film, which is considered a black comedy, the story deals with the scam that Belfort initiated and where, or not, some, any, or all of what he tells the reader what he did during this time in the book is accurate remains to be seen. As is always the case with any film, plenty of creative license is used to tell a particular story. Seeing how Martin Scorsese, the director, in all his films, tries to be as faithful to the novel as he can be, he has done the same with Belfort's memoir. So this particular film is a close adaptation since most of the story elements are kept while some have been changed, added, or dropped. But, one has to be reminded that Belfort was a true scam artist, so just how much of his story is legit is up to the reader and now the watcher to decide. Most of what Scorsese has included in this film is accurate based on the book. Mark Hanna, played well by a still very thin Matthew McConaughey from his role in Dallas Buyer's Club, tells a very young Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) that the key to being successful included hookers, cocaine and masturbation is told in the novel. The use of what is called a pump-and-dump scheme (selling a risky stock at an inflated price and then sold the stock to make a profit for themselves) to make a profit is also accurate. Belfort and Danny Porush (Donnie Azoff in the film, played by Jonah Hill) did this. The brokerage firm did in reality take Steve Madden's shoe company public, which Madden, Belfort and Porush owned the stock, driving the price up. All three of them went to jail for this. The smuggling of the money that Belfort laundered in Switzerland was actually done by his wife's mother and English aunt. Prostitutes were hired and were billed to the corporate credit card and then these expenses were written off their taxes. The yacht, originally owned by Coco Chanel, was sunk. In the film, his second wife's name was Naomi; in the novel, her name is Nadine. In the book, Belfort gave up Porush, among many others for a reduced sentence. In the film, he tells Porush not to incriminate himself. It is true that Belfort was born in the Bronx to accountant parents and he was raised Jewish which he is still today. I guess the audience would like to believe that Belfort only stole from the rich. Truth be known, many small investors are still to this day trying to recover from his scheme while Belfort has failed to repay what he owes and Porush is still doing his get rich quick plans. Many of the characters; names from the book were changed. Danny Porush is Donnie Azoff, Patrick Denham (FBI agent) is in real-life Gregory Coleman, Denise Lombardo was changed to Teresa Petrillo and Nadine Caridi was Naomi Lapaglia. Chandler was the name of his first child, but was referred to in the film as Skyler. Scorsese did include at the end of the film a disclaimer saying it was a fictionalized version of the novel and in the film, some of the names had been changed.