The Wolf of Wall Street: Glorification of a Criminal?

MEXICO CITY – The movie “The Wolf of Wall Street,” directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, is coming with a wave of controversy this Friday to the theaters of Mexico after its premiere in the United States.

The movie is based on Jordan Belfort’s book by the same name. It tells the story of how Belfort made himself a millionaire with Stratton Oakmont, a brokerage firm that sold stock fraudulently and illegally, and how he was accused and tried by authorities.

The controversy is focused on two points.

Many people say that both DiCaprio’s performance and the script — adapted by Terence Winter and replete with drugs, sex and money — glorify Belfort’s practices and may encourage the creation of “wolves” such as those shown in the movie.

On the other hand, the film is also accused of lacking impartiality, considering that it only shows the “fun” side of the story: parties, success, orgies, drugs, pleasure. Additionally, it trivializes the story of the scam artists’ families and victims who fell alongside Belfort.

One person of this opinion is Joel Cohen, the prosecutor who took on Belfort’s case in real life.

In light of this, there is also a group of people who defend the movie and the way in which it is presented. Doesn’t the film also show that such actions have consequences? And isn’t this lifestyle what has been promoted to recent generations as the “American Dream”?

In regard to this last question, Steven Perlberg tells the story in Business Insider of the screening that he attended at a Wall Street movie theater where workers from that famous street had also been invited: “When Belfort — a drug addict who later attempts to remain sober — rips up a couch cushion to get to his secret coke stash, there were cheers. Then, intercut with Popeye eating spinach, Belfort is irrevocably high on Quaaludes (or “ludes,” a muscle relaxer) and dumps coke into his nose to remedy the situation — more cheers.”

The cast members themselves have not hesitated to respond to all the criticism. Jonah Hill, who played Belfort’s colleague Donnie Azoff, said, “I personally take away the message from the film that this behavior, this lifestyle, leads to a very bad ending. I think the movie is not glorifying this behavior, it is showing that it leads to bad places.”

Upon comments made to DiCaprio about the glorification of this lifestyle, he responded that with the movie “we’re saying that this is something that is in our very culture and it needs to be looked at and it needs to be talked about. Because, to me, this attitude of what these characters represent in this film are ultimately everything that’s wrong with the world we live in.”

Furthermore, DiCaprio says that Scorsese’s vision “allows you, as an audience — guilty or not — to enjoy in that ride without judging who these people are.”

It could be said that the purpose of a movie is to entertain and tell a story, and that it is the audience’s job to make its judgments afterward. The problem is whether or not we as a society have the elements to make an appropriate judgment that does not glorify the actions of Jordan Belfort.