Research Paper on The Wolf of Wall Street Movie

The Wolf of Wall Street is a film about a young man ( Jordan Belfort) who gets a job at the Wall Street as a stock broker. With the help and mentorship of Mark Hanna who introduces him to sex and women, he soon becomes an expert in the wall street. However, his job is soon terminated after the Black Monday, and he moves to Long Island where he joins a firm that deals with penny stocks. Belfort succeeds to make a fortune due to his aggressive sales tactics. The scene begins in the office where a party is going. Jordan and his friends are taking alcohol and drugs. The party is wild, and there is a free flow of drugs and women. Nobody seems to care about decency, and people are having sex everywhere. The women have been paid to have sex with the employees. The atmosphere is carefree and the people. They spend a lot of money to pay for prostitution and Jordans account is not happy about the spending thrift going on in the company.

Historical documents show that men like Jordan has existed and they also fell from grace. In the scene where Jordan recruits his friends to join his team, he shows them how to buy and sell stock. The method is called pump and dump. There are also sexual escapades in the scenes where the employees celebrate their achievements. In the recent years, companies such as Goldman Sachs were faced with scandals of defrauding the people. The company was fined 5.1 billion for its handling of the mortgages that led to the 2008 crisis. Just like Jordan, Goldman Sachs underwrote mortgages with had been issued to individuals with questionable credit ratings. The company gave false assurances to investors that the securities were backed by safe mortgages ("Goldman Sachs Finally Admits It Defrauded Investors During The Financial Crisis"). According to the Aljazeera article by Danny Schechter, the high-stress and high-risk setting may be leading bankers to participate in risky sexual behaviors. According to the paper, BP chief executive had to quit his post at Goldman Sachs after it was revealed he had lied about his male lover to a court. Dresdner Kleinwort was sued by six women in 2006 for entertaining strippers and bringing them to the office (Schechter). The book City of Eros explains how prostitution thrived in New York due to the high-profile posts that supported the vice. Men used to visit the women, and this fueled the business (Gilfoyle 35). Mr. Strauss Kahn was forced to step down from his position in the IMF after he was accused of pimping ("Strauss-Kahn: Only 12 Sex Parties In Three Years - BBC News"). Other cases involve the infamous Bernard Madoff who stole millions of investors funds.

The scene is important as it shows how the wall street environment looks. From the research and cases that have been taken to court, the scene seems to represent the behavior of the wall street. However, I find there were some inaccuracies such as having sex in the office and taking drugs in the office. For one to perform well in economic field, a high degree of concentration is required to analyze things. Working while being intoxicated will hinder the decision-making abilities. I think the scenes were changed to make the movie more enjoyable. The drugs and sex are meant to add some level of light moments when the people start acting stupid. Such kind of behaviors may have happened in the cases mentioned above but not to the extent shown in the movie.

References

"Goldman Sachs Finally Admits It Defrauded Investors During The Financial Crisis". Fortune.Com, 2017, http://fortune.com/2016/04/11/goldman-sachs-doj-settlement/.

Gilfoyle, Timothy J. City of Eros: New York City, Prostitution, and the Commercialization of Sex, 1790-1920. New York,N.Y: W.W. Norton, 1992. Print.

"Strauss-Kahn: Only 12 Sex Parties In Three Years - BBC News". BBC News,

2017, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31318120.

Schechter, Danny. "Wall Street And 'Aggressive Sexuality'". Aljazeera.Com,

2017, http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/05/201151813030995174.html.