Wall Street - Gordon Gekko

Wall Street
Michael Douglas vann en Oscar för sin roll som Gordon Gekko i denna klassiska finansfilm från 1987. Han personifierar 80-talets yuppie-era, med sin obetalbara backslick och inte minst genom sitt provocerande "Greed is good"-tal. Karaktären Gekko är en profithungrande och samvetslös företagspirat, och en levande legend på Wall Street.

Efter många försök lyckas den drivne aktiemäklaren Bud Fox vinna Gekkos intresse och får jobba åt finansmagnaten. Men frågan är om lyxlivet som ”Buddy” nu får del av är värt de uppoffringar och de moraliskt tvivelaktiga affärerna som han tvingas utföra åt sin arbetsgivare?

Det är svårt att inte tycka om denna film. Speciellt om man är det minsta intresserad av finansvärlden. Man får en unik inblick bakom de annars stängda dörrarna på de flotta kontoren där de stora elefanterna gör affärer. Filmen bjuder även på ett dussintal sköna citat att ta in i sitt vokabulär, som ”It’s a dog” och ”Lunch is for wimps”.

Först var det tänkt att filmen skulle vara klar 2008, men den officiella premiären var den 23 april 2010

Sir Larry Wildman, den brittiska företagsstyckaren spelad av Terence Stamp, anses av väldigt många vara skapad efter Sir Gordon White på Hanson PLC. Hanson är ett företag som enbart sysslar med köp, likvidation och styckning av företag.

Regissören Oliver Stone's första två val av skådespelare för "Gordon Gekko" var Richard Gere and Warren Beatty.

Tom Cruise ville ha rollen som Bud Fox, men Oliver Stone hade redan lovat den till Charlie Sheen. Oliver Stone gav sedan Cruise en roll i Född den fjärde juli (1989).

Gordon Gekko's "Greed is good"-tal var inspirerat av ett liknande tal gett av Ivan Boesky på University of Californias's öppningscermoni 1986. (Boesky var en arbitragehandlare på Wall Street som senare under samma år betalade en böter på $100 miljoner till SEC för att avsluta en mål kring insiderhandel.) I sitt tal sa Boesky "Greed is all right, by the way. I want you to know that. I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself."

På Teldar Papers bolagsstämma kan man se att det står "Sean Stone" på namnskylten på mannen i bakre raden till höger (kan ses över och till höger om Gordon Gekko's axel). Sean Stone är Oliver Stones son, som också är med i filmen.

Anacott Steel är namnet på ett av de företag som affärerna kretsar kring. Namnet återfinns även i filmen The Longest Yard (1974), då på ett halvprofessionellt lag i amerikansk fotboll. Det är inte ett riktigt företag.

Citat

Dessa citat spekuleras att vara med i Money Never Sleeps:
"Regulation is for rookies"
"There is only one g in hedge"
"Johnny Depp is to pirates what Gordon Gekko is to market manipulation"
"Fundamentals are for buffoons called Warren. "
"Remember the 3 L's. Lie, Lock and Lever. Tell them their dreams will come true, lock them in, and borrow as much as you can to maximise your performance bonus."
"Only the guilty give away what they earn."
"If you are going to lose money, lose it big. Investors cannot sue you if you have blown up completely."
"Make your investors smile. Rolexes and whores are great comforters when their investments are down
"You can never have a big enough yacht"
"Spending other peoples money is a science. Never paying it back is an art."
"Covered shorts are for wimps"
"Big balls are for dandies"
"Power is being able to make the markets move."
"Owning people is the route to success."
"Wimps are for the Investment Banks. Trading with a fat balance sheet behind you is like running naked down a street at night."
"Getting in is easy. Getting out is where I come in."

Citat från IMDB:

[In Bud's new office]

Marv: Very nice. So what is it, *Mr.* Cocksucker now?

Gordon Gekko: Lunch is for wimps.

Bud Fox: I'm tapped out Marv. American Express' got a hit man lookin' for me.

Gordon Gekko: When I get a hold of the son of a bitch who leaked this, I'm gonna tear his eyeballs out and I'm gonna suck his fucking skull.

Carl Fox: Stop going for the easy buck and start producing something with your life. Create, instead of living off the buying and selling of others.

Gordon Gekko: The richest one percent of this country owns half our country's wealth, five trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons and what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It's bullshit. You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own.

Gordon Gekko: You're walking around blind without a cane, pal. A fool and his money are lucky enough to get together in the first place.

Bud Fox: How much is enough?
Gordon Gekko: It's not a question of enough, pal. It's a zero sum game, somebody wins, somebody loses. Money itself isn't lost or made, it's simply transferred from one perception to another.

Gordon Gekko: Mixed emotions, buddy. Like Larry Wildman going off a cliff in my new Maserati.

Bud Fox: Sun-tzu: If your enemy is superior, evade him. If angry, irritate him. If equally matched, fight, and if not split and reevaluate.

Lou Mannheim: Man looks in the abyss, there's nothing staring back at him. At that moment, man finds his character. And that is what keeps him out of the abyss.

Lou: The main thing about money, Bud, is that it makes you do things you don't want to do.

Bud Fox: If you step out that door, I'm changing the locks.

Bud Fox: Life all comes down to a few moments. This is one of them.

Gordon Gekko: [at the Teldar Paper stockholder's meeting] Well, I appreciate the opportunity you're giving me Mr. Cromwell as the single largest shareholder in Teldar Paper, to speak. Well, ladies and gentlemen we're not here to indulge in fantasy but in political and economic reality. America, America has become a second-rate power. Its trade deficit and its fiscal deficit are at nightmare proportions. Now, in the days of the free market when our country was a top industrial power, there was accountability to the stockholder. The Carnegies, the Mellons, the men that built this great industrial empire, made sure of it because it was their money at stake. Today, management has no stake in the company! All together, these men sitting up here own less than three percent of the company. And where does Mr. Cromwell put his million-dollar salary? Not in Teldar stock; he owns less than one percent. You own the company. That's right, you, the stockholder. And you are all being royally screwed over by these, these bureaucrats, with their luncheons, their hunting and fishing trips, their corporate jets and golden parachutes.
Cromwell: This is an outrage! You're out of line Gekko!
Gordon Gekko: Teldar Paper, Mr. Cromwell, Teldar Paper has 33 different vice presidents each earning over 200 thousand dollars a year. Now, I have spent the last two months analyzing what all these guys do, and I still can't figure it out. One thing I do know is that our paper company lost 110 million dollars last year, and I'll bet that half of that was spent in all the paperwork going back and forth between all these vice presidents. The new law of evolution in corporate America seems to be survival of the unfittest. Well, in my book you either do it right or you get eliminated. In the last seven deals that I've been involved with, there were 2.5 million stockholders who have made a pretax profit of 12 billion dollars. Thank you. I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them! The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you very much.

[Bud is just finding out about a meeting concerning Blue Star]
Roger Barnes: Well, you're only the President of the company. What the hell do you know, anyway?

[Blue Star has gone from 24 to 16 1/2 in a very short time]
Gordon Gekko: Where the hell are you? I am losing MILLIONS! You got me into this company and sure as hell better get me out or the only job you'll have on the Street is SWEEPING IT! You hear me, Fox?
Bud Fox: You once told me, don't get emotional about stock. Don't! The bid is 16 1/2 and going down. As your broker, I advise you to take it.
Gordon Gekko: Yeah. Well you TAKE IT!
[shouts]
Gordon Gekko: *Right in the ass you fucking scumbag cocksucker!*
Bud Fox: It's two minutes to closing, Gordon. What do you want to do? Decide.
Gordon Gekko: [calms down] Dump it.

Marv: [Bud has been ignoring him] What the hell is the matter? Things are so bad out there even the rich are complaining, but not you. No. You're pulling in big money. So what's the score huh...
Bud Fox: HEY! I am SICK and TIRED of playing wet nurse to you all the time! Will you do your own homework, Marv?
Marv: [leaves] What an asshole!

Gordon Gekko: What's worth doing is worth doing for money.

Gordon Gekko: I'm gonna make you rich, Bud Fox.

Gordon Gekko: I'm talking about liquid. Rich enough to have your own jet. Rich enough not to waste time. Fifty, a hundred million dollars, buddy. A player. Or nothing.

Gordon Gekko: I don't throw darts at a board. I bet on sure things. Read Sun-tzu, The Art of War. Every battle is won before it is ever fought.

Gordon Gekko: If you need a friend, get a dog.

Gordon Gekko: The most valuable commodity I know of is information.

Gordon Gekko: Greed captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

Gordon Gekko: I look at a hundred deals a day. I pick one.

Gordon Gekko: You see that building? I bought that building ten years ago. My first real estate deal. Sold it two years later, made an $800,000 profit. It was better than sex. At the time I thought that was all the money in the world. Now it's a day's pay.

Bud Fox: Why do you need to wreck this company?
Gordon Gekko: Because it's wreckable, all right?

Gordon Gekko: Ever wonder why fund managers can't beat the S&P 500? 'Cause they're sheep, and sheep get slaughtered.

Bud Fox: This is really a nice club, Mr. Gekko.
Gordon Gekko: Yeah, not bad for a City College boy. I bought my way in, now all these Ivy league schmucks are sucking my kneecaps.

Gordon Gekko: Hiya, Buddy.
Bud Fox: Gordon.
Gordon Gekko: Sand bagged me on Bluestar huh? I guess you think you taught the teacher a lesson that the tail can wag the dog huh? Well let me clue you in, pal. The ice is melting right underneath your feet.
[punches Bud]
Gordon Gekko: Did you think you could've gotten this far this fast with anyone else, huh? That you'd be out there dicking someone like Darien? Naw... you'd still be cold calling widows and dentists tryin' to sell 'em 20 shares of some dog shit stock. I took you in...
[hits him again]
Gordon Gekko: a NOBODY!
[hits him harder]
Gordon Gekko: I opened the doors for you... showed you how the system works... the value of information... how to *get it*! Fulham oil, Brant resources, geodynamics and this is how you fucking pay me back you COCKROACH!
[knocks Bud to the ground]
Gordon Gekko: I GAVE you Darien! I GAVE you your manhood I gave you EVERYTHING!
[calms down]
Gordon Gekko: You could've been one of the great ones Buddy. I look at you and see myself... WHY?
Bud Fox: I don't know. I guest I realized that I'm just Bud Fox... and as much as I wanted to be Gordon Gekko, I'll always be Bud Fox.

Carl Fox: I don't go to bed with no whore, and I don't wake up with no whore. That's how I live with myself. I don't know how you do it.

Gordon Gekko: Well you take it, right in the ass you scumbag cocksucker.

Gordon Gekko: This is the kid, calls me 59 days in a row, wants to be a player. There ought to be a picture of you in the dictionary under persistence kid.

Gordon Gekko: It's not always the most popular person who gets the job done.

Bud Fox: Blue Horse Shoe Loves Anacot Steel.

Marv: You've been a real schmuck lately. So go thou and sin no more.

Gordon Gekko: You stop sending me information, and you start getting me some.

Carl Fox: Money's only something you need in case you don't die tomorrow...

Gordon Gekko: It's all about bucks, kid. The rest is conversation.

Carl Fox: He's using you, kid. He's got your prick in his back pocket, but you're too blind to see it.
Bud Fox: No. What I see is a jealous old machinist who can't stand the fact that his son has become more successful than he has!
Carl Fox: What you see is a guy who never measured a man's success by the size of his WALLET!
Bud Fox: That's because you never had the guts to go out into the world and stake your own claim!
[Long Pause]
Carl Fox: Boy, if that's the way you feel, I must have done a really lousy job as a father.

Bud Fox: There's no nobility in poverty.

Lou Mannheim: Kid, you're on a roll. Enjoy it while it lasts, 'cause it never does.

[after Bud lost $100,000 on a 'dog' stock]
Gordon Gekko: I guess your Dad isn't on the Board of Directors of *that* company, is he?

Gordon Gekko: If you're not inside, you're *outside*!

Gordon Gekko: Jesus, if this guy owned a funeral parlor nobody would die!

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