MovieChat Forums > Other People's Money (1991) Discussion > How things have changed...

How things have changed...

posted 12 years ago by lexusis
5 replies | jump to latest

Oh how things have changed in the past few years that have made this movie so irrelevant.

The evil corporate raider coming in to destroy a small mom and pop industry that is fighting to stay alive!

With the things Wall Street's been doing in the past decade, and how all the "mom and pop" places have been happy to take a cheque and relocate to China, and heinously evil people like Bernie Madeoff, this movie is totally irrelevant.

I WISH people acted more like they do in this movie!

Yea, it's "other people's money" but in this movie is the "share holders" and "investors" that came together under Devitos company to buy more shares of this other company and commit a hostile takeover... Madeoff et al totally blew a hole in the meaning of "other people's money". A meaning that everyone attached to this movie could never even comprehend back when this movie was made.

[–] al666940-3 12 years ago

You're wrong on both counts:

1.- Madoff only stands out because he cheated RICH PEOPLE (who could get him back). Had he robbed middle class and poor people, he would be still in business, like countless televangelists.
2.- You're confusing this film with Wall Street:
a) In WT, Gordon Gekko is indeed the all evil corporate raider, clearly shown when he's offered a choice between running Blue Star profitably or break it and sell it profitably: he chooses the later simply because it's less work (he says so himself).
b) Larry in OPM only wants to sell off the wiring division of the NEWC company, not the whole company, because it's been run at a loss. When shown how it can be retooled (airbags insetad of outdated electrical copper wiring) to be run at a profit, he ponders whether to sell his share (greenmail) or keep the company.

That alone sets him apart from Gordon Gekko.

[–] CorumJI 12 years ago

Indeed, the OP is suffering from Cranio-Rectal-Insertion-Syndrome. This movie is the "anti-Wall Street", and it's more relevant today with idiots like the lazy gimme gimme gimme bunch of OWS protesters mouthing off than ever before.

Even the OWS people themselves are crooks, they're just ticked off because they've been unable to steal anything for themselves.

They did steal it when they got the chance --
Inside the Orwellian machinations in Occupy Wall Street
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/11/06/inside-the-orwellian-machinations-in-occupy-wall-street/

What to do when you get handed a half-million dollars to do some good with? Why, pocket it, of course, and walk away.

[–] al666940-3 12 years ago

Politics aside (I think just the exact opporite regarding OWS, thanks to them opportunity inequality in this country is FINALLY front and center), this is NOT in fact an anti Wall Street, just the tale of a different corporate raider:

This one as he himself says, adapts (when told Milken's in jail and other raiders Gekko was based on are either pennyless or in jail), thus learns to use different tactics and become less revolting to the public (keeping profitable companies running and only dispose/retool the unprofitable part), and operated within the law (no insider trading, which was one of the central tennets of Wall Street).

[–] spookyrat1 9 years ago

... and operated within the law ...

This is true. It is mentioned more than once through the film that Garfield's moves are all above board. It's the morality behind his operations that is challenged.🐭

[–] radioardilla 12 years ago

Post a link to Hot Air as something credible. You may as well walk around with a big neon sign saying "I'm a retard". The neon sign would be more honest.