Sunday Matinee #134 Wall Street
Greed is good FOR WHOM?! Also: Poltergeist?!
Wall Street | 1987
IMDb | Letterboxd | RRMC
Context: Young stockbroker Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) wants to work with famous corporate raider Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas, in an Oscar-winning role), but gets more than he bargained for along the way. Here, Gekko makes a plea to stockholders to bend to his will, even if it’s not in their best interest (which they may or may not yet realize…).
Gordon Gekko: I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them! The point is, ladies and gentlemen,that greed, for lack of a better word… is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and capturesthe essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms-greed for life,for money, for love, knowledge… has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words,will not only save Teldar Paper… but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you very much.
Luke 12:13-21 | EnterTheBible.org
Eighth Sunday After Pentecost | 08.03.2025
Context: The middle chapters of the Gospel of Luke see Jesus alternate between teaching and healing, though it could be argued that his teachings are indeed healing. Here, he tells a parable about prioritizing what’s important. Once again, he offers a strong opinion about becoming a servant to money…
16 Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. 17 And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ 18 Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ 20 But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”
Commentary:
This speech, with the oft-quoted – even if it’s not exactly like this in the film – line of dialogue, “Greed is good,” is likely more famous than the movie it came from. Gordon Gekko is doing what people like him do best: justify what they do, how they do it, and why they do it. We see fools lead fools all the time, pulling the wool over their eyes without a second thought. And yes, I’m talking about more than just in the movies..
Gekko’s infamous plea for people to roll with his way of doing things somehow inspire them to applause. In this sense, they are all being fooled while boosting his profit margin. But isn’t Gekko also fooling himself? Playing the game is one thing. Rigging the game is quite another. Whatever shred of human dignity Gekko could have deep in his core gets trampled over with this speech. He may think he’s making a profit, but the cost is is soul.
The parable from Jesus calls out greed, as well. When the landowner sees that he has too many crops for his storage facilities, his first instinct isn’t to sell it or get rid of it or even – and oh my, perish the thought regarding such as astounding level of generosity – give it away. No, instead he says, not enough storage? I’ll build more!
This parable reflects our world today both at the macro and micro level. At the macro level, we have an abundance of resources and a tragic distribution system. For example, it’s been said could feed the world if only we used the food we already have. But that’s not what we do with it. Perhaps it’s easy to say well, the “we” is certainly not “me,” because I’m not personally involved with the globalization of food distribution. But then we remember the abundance of resources that many of us have. And what do we do? Buy more storage bins, stuff the closets, buy a bigger house, fill the garage, get a storage unit. Or two. Indeed, we have our own storage bins that we knock down to build bigger..
But there is hope. The “buy nothing” movement is growing, where neighbors give away gently-used items to their neighbors to improve their lives. Are a few recipients hoarders? Flippers? Sure, it’s likely. But most are grateful for one more resource which can be a gamechanger. The biggest difference with this sort of movement? It’s all for free. Not a garage sale, but a giveaway.
Gordon Gekko stores up treasures, thinking himself rich. But he’s storing up other people’s treasures. The landowner in Jesus’s parable builds bigger storage units to keep his resources to himself instead of see a new way to put resources in other people’s hands. In both cases, their motto is a mix of “Greed is good” and “Eat, drink, be merry.” But neither motto serves God, nor loves neighbor.
This parable isn’t, at least in my experience, one of Jesus’s most-famous parables. As for this scene from Wall Street, my hunch is the line is quoted by more people than who have actually seen the film, and even that is skewed and shortened to its essence. Have we ignored this parable because it speaks too loudl to our lives? Do we shrug and smile and say, “Yep, those 80s sure were about excess with the greed, whattaya gonna do?” and just keep the machine going? There has to be a better way.
What resources do you have in abundance? How do you put them to work to better the world? If you have a tendency to save up some of your resources, which are they, and why? What attitude toward abundance and sharing can make you “rich toward God”?
Oh, and a bonus mention of Poltergeist. Yeah, it isn’t rated R, but it’s one of early 1980s PG-rated movies that is way scarier than its PG rating and led to the path that created PG-13 (Oh, Spielberg, what have you done?). Anyway, when I thought about movies where characters are greedy, greedy, greedy, no matter the cost to others, one one of the first characters I thought of was real estate agent Mr. Teague (James Karen). And if you haven’t seen this one and have no idea why Steven Freeling (Craig T. Nelson) is screaming at him, oh boy, you’re in for a treat!
Glad you were here today. God’s peace and good movies to you!