Critical Analysis of The Wolf of Wall Street

'The Wolf of Wall Street' (2013) is a film directed and produced by Martin Scorsese. Scorsese is famous for directing films such as 'Goodfellas' (1990) and is know for his gangster movies. 'The Wolf of Wall Street' is set in the social context of 1980s/90s and  is a hybrid between the crime, biographical, drama and comedy genres. It could also be argued that the film fits into the gangster genre.

First of all we can see 'The Wolf of Wall Street' as a drama. The story contains all that can be expected from a drama and more. First of all Jordan Belfort (DiCaprio) is a happily married man but because of his casual sex life and frequent use of drugs he is divorced and marries an ex-model (Robbie). He continues to use more and more drugs and hires many prostitutes. This leads to Jordan and his second wife falling out and eventually she divorces him when he is in prison.

Secondly we can see the film as a comedy. From the start we are entered into the hilarious life of Jordan Belfort. All through the film we hear controversial humour relating to drug use, sex, homosexuality, incest, disability and money. We also see events intended to make us laugh such as Jordan sinking his yacht and taking a large amount of quaaludes. Staring in the movie are a number of comedy actors such as Jonah Hill this helps bring more humour.

'The Wolf of Wall Street' could also be seen to fit into the crime genre. Firstly the only reason why our protagonist is rich is because he is illegally making money through the stock market. He also solves a lot of his problems through violence e.g. when he finds out his butler has stolen some money his co-workers beat the butler up. It can be argued that the movie is actually a gangster film. Jordan Belfort may not be a gangster but he has become a multi-millionaire illegally and has friends who are drug dealers. Much like a gangster film 'The Wolf of Wall Street' focuses on fast cars, drugs, attractive women, expensive clothing and greed. Jordan Belfort has all of these. During the film he claims that he takes enough drugs to "sedate Manhattan, Long Island and Queens for a month". This is very similar the classic gangster film 'Scarface' (1983). The whole movie is based around one man's greed just like a gangster movie would . Even when he gets the perfect wife and family he goes out every night sleeping with prostitutes and taking vast amounts of drugs. At one point in the film Jordan is told he could end up in jail for a long period of time, because of his greed he resorts to giving the FBI information about his friends and co-workers. this has a lot in common with other gangster films. In 'Scarface' (1983) Tony Montana shoots his best friend because he wants no one to have a relationship with his sister, in 'The Godfarther' (1972) Michael Corleone abandons his wife and children in order to run his organised crime family. The idea that within the gangster film genre protagonist usually betray or abandon there loved ones in order to become more rich or powerful proves that 'The Wolf of Wall Street' is a gangster movie.

'The Wolf of Wall Street' contains a lot of iconography. Money is the most important thing in the movie; it buys him drugs, prostitutes, houses, cars and is probably how he got his wife. Because of this importance Scorsese uses symbols to show what the money does. Jordan snorts cocaine through a $100 note showing that money is what buys Jordan drugs and even helps him snort them. Jordan also points out that money itself is a drug and can make you "invincible".


Scorsese plays with this view of money again when there is a scene where Jordan has sex with his wife in a bed full of money. This scene shows that when you have money just like Jordan Belfort you can do what you want. Martin Scorsese's view on Jordan is not shown we do not know if he thinks Belfort is a bad man, All we do know is that money has a lot of power and Scorsese shows us this perfectly.

Another scene shows symbols that relate to capitalism and USA. In the scene Jordan gets a brass band to perform patriotic American music whilst a stampede of prostitutes run on to the stock floor and stock brokers fight over which one they can have sex with. Martin Scorsese's use of the brass band shows that he thinks Jordan has achieved his own version of the American dream, it may not be he traditional version but this is Scorsese's view of capitalism in the modern world. In one of the only emotional bits of the entire movie Jordan refers to his company as Ellis Island. This refers to the island that was the gateway to USA for millions of immigrants at the turn of the century hoping to become rich. Jordan here shows himself as an american hero bringing millions of dollars to those who work hard. This leaves us to question again if Jordan is a hero or villain. Maybe he's both, Scorsese lets us make our own mind up.

'The Wolf of Wall Street' is full of brilliant cinematic content. Scorsese uses his creative genius to hide what the future holds for Jordan. In the scene with the brass band, Jordan watches a stock room full of brokers having sex with prostitutes, this was all his creation and he is proud of it. The brass band fades away and a different song fades in at this point as we see Jordan smile to himself the light starts to flicker, it starts to look like lightning then the scene ends. I believe this could Scorsese foreshadowing that something bad will happen to Jordan because he creates things like the stampede of prostitutes we just saw, or maybe it could mean there is a storm brewing and Jordan's life will get even more mad than it already is. Either way Scorsese is trying to sy something about Jordans greed.

In a few other scenes Jordan speaks directly to the camera. Scorsese has experimented with this before in 'Goodfellas' but has never used it before this much. The use of getting DiCaprio to speak directly into the camera makes the movie more personal. Instead of us seeing Jordan as evil and greedy we see him as our friend. This makes the film more watch-able as Jordan cheats on his wife over and over his relationship with the camera makes the film more personal towards him.

Philosopher Tzvetan Todorov claims that all films follow the same narrative pattern. He claim in a 1969 book that all films go through the same five stages;

1. Equilibrium
2. A disruption of the equilibrium
3. A recognition of disorder
4. An attempt to repair the damage
5. A new equilibrium

 Within 'The Wolf of Wall Street' these are the five stages;

1. Jordan Belfort has been been running successful and illegal brokerage firm for many years and is now a multi millionaire with two children and a wife.
2. FBI agents start to look into Jordan Belfort's business and suspect him of fraud.
3. Belfort decides to step down from his business to escape the penalties he may face but changes his mind at the last minute and stays with his firm.
4. Belfort is told he will end up going to jail but can have time removed his he cooperates with the FBI he agrees to do this.
5. Jordan is sentenced to 36 months in jail and makes a living doing seminars on sales after his release.

Soviet Folklorist Vladimir Propp claimed that within a story they are eight different character types here are the character types applied to 'The Wolf of Wall Street';

Villain. Agent Patrick Denham
Hero. Jordan Belfort
Donor. Brad
Helper. Danny Azoff
Princess. Naomi Lapaglia
Farther. Manny Riskin/Max Belfort
Dispatcher. Manny Riskin/Jean Jacques Saurel
False hero. Agent Patrick Denham

Semiotics in Romeo + Juliet

In a scene from Romeo + Juliet that I watched I noticed quite a few signifiers. One important one was what the two families were wearing. The Montagues were wearing black clothing where as the Capulets were wearing more colourful outfits this signifies that they are two different gangs each with there own gang colours. Black also symbolises bad and colour signifies the Capulets are good. The Montagues clothes were also quite tight showing there muscles, maybe signifying that they are a though, hard and fierce gang that want to dominate Verona. The Capulets wore loose fitting clothes signifying that they do not want to look hard or though cause they are laid back, relaxed and good.

Another sign I  picked up on was the weather. To start with the weather is sunny, its a nice day. even when the Montagues turn up the weather stays sunny because the Capulets make a fool of them. It isn't until Mercutio is wounded that the weather changes into a storm signifying an unhappy ending for the scene.    

Music is also another sign in the scene. It signifies the change in mood, just like the weather. To start with it is just summery background music but quickly turns into western/tribal music to signify the start of a duel of some kind. It then gets very dramatic towards the end as Mercutio dies.