Blue Horseshoe Loves Endicott Steel

Oliver Stone is making a sequel to his 1987 hit Wall Street, sending pomade futures through the roof. When Wall Street came out I was too young to really know what was going on, but it was one of those films (like Real Genius) that we could all recite verbatim in high school.

And why not? The film had everything you wanted in the late '80s - slicked back hair, expensive suits, cellular phones, and arrogance for miles. In the end, all of this went into the dustbin when we got old enough to realize that girls were far more interested in Doc Martens and ratty cardigan sweaters. But for a period, Wall Street was the lifestyle movie of choice. It's where, as young teenagers, we first saw in action the contrasting collar and silk braces that represented "success." Will we see, this time around, a resurgence of Zegna stripes? God, I hope not.

Of course, none of this was by design. Wall Street was meant to expose the excesses and moral failings of the players at the time. That it became a hagiography should, perhaps, have been foreseen, but it's not an uncommon dilemma for filmmakers, I would think. I will be interested, however, to see how Stone approaches the recent market shenanigans, and whether the bad guys again come across so damn cool.

I've also been wondering lately when we'd see a follow-up to James Stewart's book, Den of Thieves about the Milken, Boesky, Siegel, and Levine scandals of the period. That book was a must-read when I was in high school, though, much like Wall Street, we all took the wrong message from it.

Den of Thieves really is a thrilling read, as I remember it. I should pick it up again. The backstory for the past decade has equally compelling characters, though, and I hope a sequel is, like its cinematic cousin, Wall Street, in the works.

Slightly off topic, but thinking about this reminded me of the great anti-drug PSAs of the time. This was always a favorite.



"And buy a decent suit. You can't come in here looking like this. Go to Morty Sills, tell him I sent you."

-- Gordon Gekko