Janet Collins
Billy MArt, Life and Big Business
September 23rd 2008 11:20
Art, in my mind, cannot be accused of imitating life when it comes to Hollywood and the movies on big business. I am not talking so much about the stories on business or the stockmarket themselves but about the characters within them. The depiction of many of these characters and the associated wealth always seems to be at odds with society's view of wealth and devious business practices. I remember watching a movie in the early eighties called Trading Places, a humorous take on big business and the stockmarket. It was probably the movie that plucked Eddie Murphy from obscurity and into the mainstream as I hadn’t seen him before – but I could be wrong.
The movie explored the nature-versus-nurture theory and centred around a one dollar bet by the older owners of an investment organisation. The bet had one saying that anyone could run an organisation given the right environment and trappings just as anyone could become a thief when put in difficult circumstances. The bet turned into an experiment and the privileged nephew running the company was moved out in favour of a street person.
The experiment led to some pretty hilarious events but I always remembered how the nephew and CEO of the company, played by Dan Ackroyd, was – at least until he was on the street - depicted as being rather stupid. His worldliness only developed once he was left penniless and homeless on the street.
In another movie many years later, Wall Street, based on a real life story of greed and stock market manipulation, Michael Douglas, played the character of Gordon Gekko, whose illegal and underhanded tactics saw him fall from hero to villain bringing a young stockbroker who idolised him down as well. It was the “greed is good” era, a motto that promoted greed as an essential motivator for success and the trappings that go with it.
There have been plenty more movies that either depict money as the route of all evil and those born into a life of privilege as either completely naive or stupid. This is far from reality as I see it. Wealth is lauded and has great influence. How it is accumulated is neither questioned nor examined until everything collapses and that is what is coming to the surface right now.
America isn’t alone of course. Australians too have an insatiable appetite for the American dream of being rich, famous and influential often turning blind eyes to manipulative behaviour of businessmen, despite the fall from grace of some of our own – remember Alan Bond, Christopher Skase and not so long ago the executives from HIH and FAI Insurance.
It is not wealth creation or accumulation that is in question here. It is more to do with business ethics or rather the complete lack of them in achieving not only a wealthy lifestyle but position and status. American and Australian societies are either ignoring history’s lessons or adopting the “if you can’t beat them, join them” approach. And I dare say, once all the hype about all this is over, it will once again be business as usual.
Meanwhile, we can all keep watching movies that warn of the evils of wealth and greed or give us some sort of relief in the thought that we may just be far better of as a savvy average person or even one who has very little rather than a naïve rich person who has been born into privilege.
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Comment by colocountry
Would a movie about an American beaurocrat charged with watching over the rules of the financial market ever get past the moguls who decide what will be the fodder for world-wide audiences? Sometimes truth is far more macabre than fiction. For a country so strict in their application of anti-trust legislation, it seems incongruous that Capitol Hill didnt see the current saga coming??!!
Col
Comment by colocountry
Would a movie about an American beaurocrat charged with watching over the rules of the financial market ever get past the moguls who decide what will be the fodder for world-wide audiences? Sometimes truth is far more macabre than fiction. For a country so strict in their application of anti-trust legislation, it seems incongruous that Capitol Hill didnt see the current saga coming??!!
Col