5 Things The Wolf Of Wall Street Celebrates (And Condemns) About America

3. Excess

Excess is as American as apple pie. We live in a nation where the food portions for an individual can easily feed two or three. Why do we need Big Gulps? Because we want it and we want it because we can have it. Bigger is always better; moderation is for losers and it's incompetent. If you want to go, go all the way.

"The question is, 'was it legal?' Absolutely not. But we were making more money than we knew what to do with."

The length and content of the film is enough to demonstrate our love of excess. Drugs, sex, and money are pop up as prevalent themes as we watch the film. Running at 3 hours, Martin Scorsese isn't shy about dedicating an hour of it to debauchery in order to pound it into our skulls that yes, this is what America wants. Right? Excess is what you think you want and need, but the risk is that in the rush of all the booze and sex, we may have overlooked the obvious question. Is this really what we want? Scorsese uses excess in the film by showing multiple sex and drug use scenes as filthy fun, but after a while, we become desensitized to it. Fun hits its expiration date and instead, all of the excess appears empty and hollow. What happened to the pursuit of...