Wall Street

Det är svårt, för att inte säga omöjligt, att tänka sig hur någon annan på samma självklara sätt skulle kunna personifiera syntesen av kompromisslös girighet och knivskarp pondus som Douglas i den här rollen.

...little wonder that many would-be Gekkos see the film more as an inspirational video than a cautionary tale.

As with Platoon, Stone captures the horrific essence of an environment (in this case it's not the Vietnamese, but the financial jungle...

His film is an attack on an atmosphere of financial competitiveness so ferocious that ethics are simply irrelevant, and the laws are sort of like the referee in pro wrestling - part of the show.

...when Douglas's Gekko heralds rampant capitalism as "the essence of the evolutionary spirit," it's in the chillingly seductive voice of someone who's learned to survive and prosper in a degraded system.