10 Classic Movies You've Always Misunderstood
2. Wall Street - Greed Is Bad
When you ask anyone what they think of when you say Gordon Gekko, you'll get one of two responses; a brick mobile phone or the phrase "Greed is good". Now while either make sense, with both getting a humorous mention in the 2010 sequel, the second element has been taken a tad too literally.
When your major character is also the movie's villain, their motives and beliefs can get muddled with that of the film. And thats exactly what people took from Wall Street. Sure, most understood Oliver Stone was passing judgement on greed thanks to the Sheen-Sheen relationship, but theres a big group of people who didn't see past the expensive paintings and lavish apartments. What makes this misunderstanding so depressing is what these people did after taking their reading of the film to heart; they went into the financial sector on the back of it.
In an interview around the time of Money Never Sleeps Stone was bemused by how many people looked up to Gekko as a role model, probably leading to the much more umming nature of that film (not to mention the real world events it details).