Review of The Wolf of Wall Street

Rating: 10/10 (1 October 2014)

In the movie, The Wolf of Wall Street, the main goal of the film is to portray the life of a Wall Street broker and the amount of fortune that one is capable of earning. With all this fortune comes temptation. The elements of sex, drugs, and alcohol are strong themes that are thoroughly shown throughout the entire movie. Some may agree that it is excessive. This movie is lengthy in parts and includes many inappropriate themes that may make a viewer uncomfortable and question how it gained permission to be shown in theaters. In my opinion, I believe that the use of sex, drugs, and alcohol needed to be portrayed in order to drive home the point about how messed up some workers on Wall Street can be but it is also excessive. There were multiple scenes that did not to be included in this movie. Along with that, there were also scenes where graphic nudity did not need to be shown.
While some themes were inappropriate for even some of the most mature viewers, I believe it delivered a very strong message and point. What one takes away from this movie is that the wealthiest in our country, that gain money from tricking people, are absolute pigs. Maybe not all brokers are like this, but this movie makes one think that most are. From the prostitution and disrespect to women shown throughout this movie, a female could find this movie insulting and offensive Along with the constant theme of sex, drugs and alcohol are shown in almost every other scene. The casual use of drugs such as cocaine and the use of hard alcohol can make a viewer almost feel disgusted. The fact that men like this have such a vast amount of money and use it on illegal drugs and prescription pills is almost sickening.
Although The Wolf of Wall Street has such crude images and concepts, it is also very fascinating. This movie really gives an inside look to the not so glorious lives of America's wealthiest. It also shows that although they may lie to customers and screw them over in order to gain money, it involves great skill. Tricking some of these people into buying stocks is something not learned overnight. People such as Jordan Belfort who can not only do this but also form a company over it are geniuses. What also makes this fascinating is "that it's not just these characters, and this setting, and this particular story. It's the world we live in. Men like Belfort represent us, even as they're robbing us blind. They're America, and on some level we must be OK with them representing America, otherwise we would have seen reforms in the late '80s or '90s or '00s" (Seitz). Before this movie I along with probably most Americans were unfamiliar with or have never even heard about most of this before watching it. It is alarming because this is the world we live in and this is something that has been swept under the rug for so long. While this film delivers horrible messages about drugs and how success is earned through trickery, it also educates viewers and makes them see the men of Wall Street much differently.
One major downside to this movie is its duration. In some ways "it's entertaining, in a depraved sort of way, to see financial (success) Jordan Belfort abuse his fortunes, paying for competitive dwarf tossing in his Wall Street office, dropping untold fortunes on drugs and women, and narrating every step" (O'Connell). But with all these concepts the viewer learns of Jordan's lack of morality very quickly and about midway through the movie is done with it or disgusted by it. The movie really needed to "shift focus away from Jordan after establishing (his immorality)the experience is exhausting in the way it shovels Jordan's excessive abuses" (O'Connell).
When it comes to the acting in this movie, some scenes are a lot more intense than others. I believe that Jonah Hill's character, Donnie, serves as someone who delivers comic relief. I believe that Hill delivers this very well and shows that he can take a serious role and put comedy into it. Leonardo DiCaprio I believe did a spectacular job as Jordan Belfort. I believe that this role is probably one of the hardest that DiCaprio has ever had to do and he nailed it. His ability to act like a drug addicted, crazed maniac requires skill. Along with that, he also has to have the ability to carry out his character as someone who has a cast of arrogance and invincibility about them. To do both of these things seems very difficult and hard to pull off. I believe that in general, this entire film has great acting. With the content that this movie contains, it takes a lot of maturity and focus as an actor. Lastly, this movie is a film that everyone holds his or her own opinion about. I consider it to be a very controversial film for all the content and messages it delivers. This movie is definitely not a family film and should only be shown to the most mature audiences.