![]() ![]() He later started poaching Stratton stockbrokers who preferred to work at Victor’s firm in Manhattan over Belfort’s firm on Long Island. Within days of forming his own business, Victor began spreading rumors that Stratton was on the verge of collapse. It turns out the suspicion was justified. Victor wanted to start his own firm and was thus viewed with suspicion by Belfort. The Chester Ming ( Kenneth Choi) character, for example, is based on a real person named Victor Wang who had a much more interesting role to play in Belfort’s memoir than in the film. The merry band of misfits and former weed dealers that make up the core Stratton staff are mostly based on real people, but their exact work histories and relationships to Belfort are either simplified or omitted from the film. Belfort never even interacted with the FBI agent pursuing him until he was arrested. Belfort also wasn’t reckless or dumb enough to attempt to bribe an FBI agent, as depicted in the film. He would often use his health problems as a partial excuse for abusing various substances, but the film downplays his reliance on pharmaceuticals to alleviate his chronic pain. In an effort to perhaps make Belfort seem a bit less crazed than his on-screen persona, it should be mentioned that despite the film citing “back pain” in air quotes as a reason for his drug habit, Belfort really did have constant back issues that required multiple surgeries. Belfort makes it seem throughout his memoir that people constantly called him “The Wolf” but that appears to be, at best, a creative embellishment. Perhaps it was this idea of playing a character that led Belfort to dub himself the “Wolf of Wall Street.” There is scant evidence that anyone referred to him by that moniker until after the publication of his book. In his book, Belfort writes, “It was as if my life was a stage, and the Wolf of Wall Street was performing for the benefit of some imaginary audience.” Of course, that audience turned out to be real. ![]() ![]() One aspect of the film that accurately conveys Belfort’s mindset and perspective is its frequent use of fourth-wall-breaking narrations, in which Belfort speaks directly to the camera/audience. His first memoir, The Wolf of Wall Street, was published in 2007. Eventually, Belfort was caught by the FBI and after serving 22 months in federal prison, became a writer and motivational speaker. He later married the Duchess, and they had a tumultuous relationship filled with deceit and abuse that ended in divorce. He cheated on his first wife with a woman nicknamed “The Duchess of Bay Ridge,” played by Margot Robbie in the film. While all this was happening in his professional life, Belfort’s personal life was plagued by addictions to numerous illegal substances, primarily cocaine and Quaaludes. He recruited young, mostly working-class kids from Long Island to work at Stratton and indoctrinated them into what he repeatedly calls, in his 2007 memoir, a “cult.” They were taught to worship at the altar of money and to con their clients into buying worthless stock. Belfort was violating probably hundreds of laws at any given time, most of which involved defrauding his shareholders and manipulating the stock of dozens of companies. The overall story of Jordan Belfort ( Leonardo DiCaprio) and his brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont, as presented in Scorsese’s film, is true to life.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |