Lots of movies help people comprehend this life better, learn a couple of lessons, and make everything possible to improve this life and enjoy it. There are so many topics, which directors are eager to disclose in their works, and one of them is human desire to earn more money without taking into consideration possible consequences.
To my mind, Wall Street and Boiler Room are one of the most interesting and educative films about the ways of how young people want to achieve the desirable success by means of frauds, lies, and violations. These two movies have lots in common: Wall Street, stockbrokers, violation of law; but still, it is necessary to admit certain differences between the main characters, their economic status, and the situation in the world in general.
Wall Street is the movie, starring Charlie Sheen, Michael Douglas, and Daryl Hannah, and directed by Oliver Stone in 1987. The events, described in the movie, are all about 1985. Boiler Room is the movie about the stockbrokers of the 1990s, directed by Ben Younger in 2000. Such wonderful actors as Giovanni Ribisi and Vin Diesel starred in this movie and presented a wonderful picture of the young men of the 1990s, who were extremely eager to improve their lives by any possible means.
Of course, the similarities of these movies are quite obvious: they both touch upon the questions of stockholders and earning easy but dirty money. Wall Street is considered to be the major place in the lives of the characters from both movies. All characters are ready to break the law in order to achieve the desirable purposes: Bud Fox and Gordon Gekko from Wall Street, and Seth Davis from Boiler Room.
The plot of these stories develops in one and the same way: one anti-character achieves certain success and tries to develop own business. However, numerous problems and personal sufferings appear with time and frustrate all the plans. As a result, the character learns something more significant for this life in order to change everything and become better.
In order to underline the similarities of these two movies, I want to consider two characters: Gordon Gekko (Wall Street) and the center of Boiler Room, Seth Davis.
Without any doubts, Gordon seems to be rather greedy person with his own ambitions. However, his attitude to different situations and reactions on unpredictable changes are quite normal: he is a child of a blue collar family; he knows which troubles this life may present; and, finally, he knows enough to comprehend everything and choose the best way out. In his turn, Seth is a young boy from a successful family, whose father is a judge.
The house, Seth lives in, is really nice, and he does not suffer from money absence. This is why the goals of the characters and the ways, they choose to achieve them may be explained and even justified. However, Seth’s desire to have more money and no ideas what to do with them are remain not quite comprehensible.
Of course, Wall Street and Boiler Room are rather interesting movies, which present a clear picture of how one game, one desire, and one mistake may change the whole life. It is better to watch such movies in order to learn, in order not make the same mistake, and in order to help some other people solve problems and not to be destroyed by own desires.