Title: Wall Street 
Reviewed By: PJ Hruschak
Genre: Drama
Video Format: 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Audio Format: 5.1 Surround
DVD Format: SS-RSDL
Language Tracks: English and French
Subtitle Tracks: English and Spanish
Length: 126 minutes (2 hours 6 minutes) 
Rating R
Release Date: November 21,2000
Regular/Special Edition Regular
Region Code: 1
Studio: Twentieth Century Fox
THX: No
Commentary Director Oliver Stone complete film commentary
   
Documentaries "Money Never Sleeps" by Charles Kisecyak featuring interviews with Oliver Stone, Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen and Martin Sheen.This 47-minute documentary lends great insight into how the film was made, how the actors were inspired, and the relationships between Stone and the cast. Oliver Stone offers a few stories not offered in the commentary in this segment while supporting and expanding on many of the comments made in the commentary. Here he better explains his non-interference directorial style. Stone says here that he does not like to impede on an actor's moment when he or she is performing by watching them directly and allowing his own reactions to taint a performance. Instead, he prefers to keep distance while filming. This lead to many negative comments made by Michael Douglas after the film was released, who here admits that Stone helped make him a better actor. Martin Sheen is not shown much until the later sections of this documentary, so hold until the end in order to get to all four interviewees. 
   
Featurettes None 
   
Filmography & Biography None
   
Interviews Avaiable in the "Money never Sleeps" documentary.
   
Trailers & TV Spots Original theatrical trailers A & B, shown in full-screen format with mono audio. 
   
Alternate/Deleted Scenes & Clips 20 scenes with still previews
   
Music Video(s) None
   
Other None
   
Cast & Crew
Cast

 

Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, Daryl Hannah, Martin Sheen, Sean Young, Hal Holbrook, Terence Sharp
Written by Stanley Weiser and Oliver Stone
Produced By Edward G. Pressman ad co-produced by A Kitman Ho
Directed By Oliver Stone
Score By Stewart Copeland

 
 
The Review:
A young rookie stockbroker, Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen), is hungry enough for big money and power to corrupt himself and betray his father. Working for a legitimate and well-established firm during the day, Fox spends his spare time for the ruthlessly high-powered broker Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas). Using some ethically questionable tactics, Fox soon finds himself swept into the shady business world with big-stake deals, yuppies, fast women, fast money and betrayal. Fox's corruption puts him at odds with his father (Martin Sheen), an owner and mechanic for a small but promising airline. This is Charlie Sheen's second film with Stone, and one of Sheen's strongest performances. His acting is only downplayed by the Oscar-winning performance given by Michael Douglas, and a strong supporting role by his real-life father, Martin Sheen. 
Image & Sound:
The sound track on this film features several Frank Sinatra tunes that well outline the larger-than-life world of high-finance and insider trading. The audio quality is fine, but not great. There are moments of the film that are clearer than others. In several scenes the background sound will be overpowering compared to the somewhat muted preceding scene. The spoken tracks are clear throughout the film. The stereo is fine for the film's purpose, Since this is primarily a human drama with few visual effects, the audio and video clarity does not pay a crucial role in the integrity of the film. The video does have some non-digital degradation such as streaks and video pops. These can be seen for split seconds and are not nearly as bad a live showing of flat film in a theater. These also appear primarily in the earlier portions of the film (and throughout the trailers). They are not distracting and are mostly small specks. 
Extra Features:
The DVD's navigation is rather nice and simple, with quick fades between selections. Though there are not many extra elements on this disk, each feature is easy to find and simple to choose. The dollar symbol and dollar bill motif is nicely appropriate.

 
Commentary Track:
Oliver Stone's commentary offers insights to ever bit of this movie, including his love of the font used for the opening credits. He is quick to point out the extras in the film, such as a friend of his from the Vietnam War. The father figures in this film - Gekko, Fox's father and the senior stockbroker - Stone points out, are all based on his own father's personality traits. Stone also puts the timing of the film in perspective, being right after his success with Platoon and right after writing Scarface (he even describes Wall Street as an extension of the Scarface script). In one of his rare sidetracks on the commentary, Stone explains how he stuck to using Charlie Sheen for the Bud Fox role even after Tom Cruise called and asked for the role. Scenes such as the trading floor, Stone explains, were entirely fabricated on the floor of a building in New York, as was the stock brokerage, complete with fully operational computers and faux tickers. For several scenes, Stone describes how he originally envisioned and shot the scene, but had to edit the scene to make it flow more smoothly with the mood and plot of the film. The best example of this is early in the film when Fox is walking into his office building and enters a stuffed elevator. Originally the scene was to include brief thoughts from each worker, but Stone opted for a more silent moment. Stone is hardly cold in his commentary, though his voice seems to be naturally monotone. This is certainly a pleasure for any film student to view for learning insider secrets to creating a great film, and is enjoyable for the average viewer. Usually in DVD commentaries the commentator strays from the film a bit into useless but somewhat interesting tidbits. Stone rarely strays here, demonstrating that his research and insight went in to every moment, every fixture and setting in ever scene. 

 
Finals Words:
With strong father themes and intertwined subplots, this film is filled with enough drama to still be an exciting film, especially with Internet stocks rising and falling like the tides. This film is great to stir ethical discussions and will surely be shown on Court TV (even with its somewhat enigmatic ending). This film also popularized the phrases "Greed is good," and "Nicks and chicks," and is often referenced for the takeover scene where Michael Douglas gives his lengthiest monologue. Though the DVD quality might not be the greatest, this Oliver Stone classic is well worth watching and owning.