The Glorification of a Criminal

Rating: 2/10 (24 February 2014)

Controversy has surrounded this movie, for good reason. It's about Jordan Belfort, who sold tons of worthless stocks to tons of investors, who lost tons of money. The movie is adapted from Belfort's book, so it's from his perspective, all about him. And, so it's largely an insane celebration about him and his perverted life screwing people over. He's doing great at the beginning of the movie, and he's doing great at the end of the movie, out of prison after a slap on the wrist. He screwed over those he worked with, wearing a wire so he could cut a sweet deal with the Feds.
The actors and filmmakers want to be held blameless, as if they are shocked! that the guy they did a movie about actually existed, and actually did what he did. But, they are complicit in Belfort wanting to celebrate his own life. Yeah, it's a relatively good story. But, the movie is all about real criminals, and it completely ignores their real victims. I doubt that's of any concern to anyone who made this movie.
As far as the film goes, it's well made, and the first hour plays to all of Scorsese's strengths. But, the following two hours show where the film starts to get long in the tooth. The writer is Terence Winter, who writes for TV. There, you have hours and hours to tell a story, and that's what he's used to. So, brevity isn't his skill. And, Scorsese most likely gets absolute Directors' Cut on everything he does. And, there's a reason why directors rarely get that. It's because directors can get self indulgent, and Scorsese does here. Big time!
We get it. Belfort and company did tons of drugs and had tons of sex with tons of women. I'm no prude. Not at all. If the material justifies it, no problem. But, once the point is made, it's made. So, do we need a dozen scenes of the characters doing tons of drugs? Do we need a dozen scenes of women having to do full-frontal nudity so they can get movie work and get to be in a Scorsese movie? No. Plus, all of that must take a half hour of the three-hour running time. And, it's 100% unnecessary. It's just excess for the sake of excess.
Can the movie be separated from its subject matter? To me, no. The same goes for me more and more with movies like Scorsese's "Goodfellas," etc. Real criminals hurt real victims with no remorse. In an objective view of those films, are they good? Yes, they are. But, those making those films know what they're doing. They know they're glorifying their subjects. Is that a problem? It is for me. And, that's why my verdict is...
** (2 Stars Out of 10)