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"Wall Street"

« Greed is good »


Wall Street - affiche

titre original "Wall Street"
année de production 1987
réalisation Oliver Stone
scénario Stanley Weiser et Oliver Stone
montage Claire Simpson
photographie Robert Richardson
musique Stewart Copeland
production Edward R. Pressman
interprétation Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, Daryl Hannah, Martin Sheen, Terence Stamp, Sean Young, James Spader, Hal Holbrook, Saul Rubinek, Sean Stone, Oliver Stone
 
récompense Oscar du meilleur acteur pour Michael Douglas
 
suite "Wall Street : l'argent ne dort jamais" de Oliver Stone, 2010

Critique extraite du Guide des films de Jean Tulard

Un témoignage sans concessions sur les requins de la finance et le délit d'initié popularisé en France par diverses affaires. Bien fait en dépit d'un certain schématisme propre à Oliver Stone.

Critique extraite de 50 ans de cinéma américain de Bertrand Tavernier et Jean-Pierre Coursodon

Oliver Stone passe de la jungle vietnamienne ("Platoon") à la jungle boursière. Un commentaire sur les valeurs dominantes des années 80, cupidité et soif de puissance en tête. Michael Douglas joue les arrivistes mégalomanes comme son père (Kirk, dont il est le portrait craché) 30 ans plus tôt.

Référence dans la littérature française

« [...] ça me rappelait un film sur Wall Street où le héros était le top du riche, au firmament, et il se faisait coincer pour une histoire de fraude, du jour au lendemain il n'a plus rien, sauf la honte et la prison, et on le voyait dire "Ne rien avoir est terrible, mais tout perdre est plus dur encore". » Extrait du roman "Cantique de la racaille", Vincent Ravalec, 1994

Texte du discours de Gordon Gekko aux actionnaires de Teldar Paper

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 [Teldar management] own less than 3 percent of the company. And where does Mr. Cromwell put his million-dollar salary? Not in Teldar stock; he owns less than 1 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 steak lunches, their hunting and fishing trips, their corporate jets and golden parachutes.

Cromwell: This is an outrage! You're out of line, 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 gentlemen, 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.

Wall Street - affiche polonaise
Affiche polonaise de "Wall Street" © Andrzej Pagowski (1988)
Affiche tchèque de "Wall Street" © Jan S. Tomanek

Wall Street - générique

Les films de Oliver Stone © Faboolis