Scorsese's 'Eyes Wide Shut'

Rating: 9/10 (29 December 2013)

'The Wolf of Wall Street', Martin Scorsese's new bio pic about a 'get- rich-quick' stock broker is also a commentary about the influence money has on people. It is not un-like Kubrick's 'Eyes Wide Shut' in that it is more objective than it is propaganda. Many of the types of scenes used to entertain in other films (specifically sex) are instead used here as a form of documentation. Whether the viewer is entertained is of little importance to the filmmaker. Scorsese can get away with this. He is perhaps the most brilliant motion picture director of our day. He has 'license' to do so, as did Kubrick. His name alone prompted me to see this film. Some have characterized this film as propaganda. They see it as an attempt to display the evils of corporate greed, when, at present, socialistic theory is becoming a reality in American economics. Their case is justified. Hitler did the same with film - as did Stalin. And, when understanding Scorsese's very liberal politics, one can easily come to the conclusion that the incentive to make 'The Wolf of Wall Street' was to influence en masse. If that be true, then one can also make the assertion that 'The Wolf of Wall Street' is a docudrama about America's obsession with material wealth, sex, and drugs. This would be a more logical assumption. And, it falls back on the accusation that Scorsese doesn't care so much about entertaining as he is about informing. Like 'Eyes Wide Shut' it is an accusation and a mirror: a secular attempt to make immorality unpleasing. As well-made as this film is, the story will not be appreciated. With all of its nudity, sex, and reckless depictions of drug usage, it can easily be described as a tragic story about one man's destructive obsession with making money.