Those 5 words are the first thing that come to my mind when I think of the movie, The Wolf of Wall Street. This movie was an adaptation of a memoir telling the incredible story of a man named Jordan Belfort. Belfort was a young, up and coming stockbroker in New York City, but he ended up losing his job due to Black Monday, when stock markets around the world crashed, shedding a huge value in a very short time. He then takes a job at a small brokerage firm selling penny stocks. He takes his charming and almost conniving ways that he learned working on Wall Street and he applies it at his current job and he becomes immediately successful because the commission on the stocks he is now selling is 50%. He becomes so prosperous that he is able to form his own company, called Stratman Oakman, hiring people with no experience on how to sell stocks. But, he is able to teach them his unique, and sometimes morally AND legally questionable methods and soon they all become successful as well. His sudden wealth catches the eye of legendary wealth magazine, Forbes, and they do a profile on him. The article is a hit, and suddenly hundreds of young, smart stockbrokers are lining up at his doors, begging for him to consider even looking at their résumé. He is able to expand the business to a full office and he lands big deals like the illegal 22 million dollar deal with Steve Madden. The sudden power catches up to him and he slips into a life filled with drugs, booze, and prostitutes. His fishy practices end up catching the eye of the FBI, and by the end of the movie, he is in a serious battle to keep his company afloat, and himself out of jail. .
Belfort was played by award winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio. I thought that DiCaprio did a really excellent job emerging himself into the role of Belfort, especially during the drug scenes. In an interview with the Huffington Post, DiCaprio said that he had lengthy conversations with Belfort, talking about what it was like being on hallucinogens, such as Quaaludes.
