《华尔街之狼》与商业无关

    圣诞节刚过，我向三位朋友提议一起去看《华尔街之狼》(The Wolf of Wall Street)。但玛蒂，一行人中唯一的女性，不愿意去。她抗拒的并不是这部电影对待女性的方式，无休无止的脏话，甚至也不是非常暴露的色情场景——所有这些方面都已被人深入剖析过。她抗拒的理由是：她可不想给乔丹•贝尔福特(这部电影改编自他的著作）送钱，哪怕后者只能获得12美元电影票中极其微小的一部分。一想到贝尔福特靠欺诈客户发了大财，并因此锒铛入狱，现在竟然通过贩卖自己的行骗故事来赚钱，她就恶心不已。（事实上，贝尔福特被要求将他从这部电影中赚得的一半收益赠与其犯罪行为的受害者，他最终选择捐出所有收益。）

    事实上，《华尔街之狼》上映后的几个星期以来，各路记者和影评人已经在网络上发表了无数文章，纷纷质疑这部电影是否充分地谴责了贝尔福特的行为，是否是在不负责任地诱导我们为他庆贺。

    但具有讽刺意味的是，马丁•斯科塞斯执导的这部电影其实并没有详细讲述贝尔福特身陷大牢的详细过程。在长达3个小时的播放时间内，它几乎没有讲述他究竟做了哪些非法勾当。就这方面而言，不同于预告片给人的感觉，它并不具备大量商业电影应有的元素。

    《华尔街之狼》上映后，一系列迅速发家的战利品以蒙太奇手法冲入观众的眼球：巨型豪宅、豪华游艇，莱昂纳多•迪卡普里奥饰演的贝尔福特驾驶一辆敞篷轿车飞驰而过，一旁的娇妻正在“侍奉”他。画面随后回放。我们看到贝尔福特在罗斯柴尔德集团(Rothschild)谋得了一份股票经纪人差事；他很快就被解雇，随后在长岛一家名叫投资者中心(Investors Center)、经营低价股的投资公司找到了一份工作。在这部电影中，为数不多的贝尔福特做实际业务的场景就是出现在这段任职期间。我们看到巧舌如簧的贝尔福特向一些笨蛋出售一堆连名字都没有的股票，然后从中赚取高达50%的经纪人佣金。我们看到他正在向同事们传授这些骗人的伎俩。

    等到Stratton Oakmont投资公司离开车库，搬入真正的办公室时，这部电影基本上就讲完了贝尔福特发家致富的奥秘。它只对主人公挥霍财富的方式感兴趣。没错，许多场景发生在Stratton公司的办公室内，但根本就没有展示这群人的营商之道。《华尔街之狼》或许会让你认为，这些新员工不必辛苦赚钱，就被径直引入密室，过上了滥用毒品，声色犬马的生活。这是一部关于瘾君子的电影。据说女主角在拍摄大场面前总要猛喝三口龙舌兰酒，就这部电影而言，这样的举动似乎恰如其分。

    Just after Christmas, when I suggested to three friends that we go see The Wolf of Wall Street, Maddie, the lone woman in the group, refused. She wasn't objecting to the movie's treatment of her gender, its nonstop dirty language, or its graphic sex -- all of which have been extensively dissected. Her objection: She didn't want to give any money (even a tiny portion of her $12 ticket) to Jordan Belfort, who wrote the book that inspired the movie. She hates the idea that Belfort got rich from conning clients, went to jail for it, and now is again making money by selling the story of how he did it. (In truth, Belfort is required to fork over half of what he makes from the film to the victims of his crimes and claims he's chosen to give away all his payments from the movie.)

    Indeed, in the few weeks since The Wolf of Wall Street hit theatres, journalists and critics have flooded the web with articles about whether the film sufficiently condemns Belfort's actions, or whether it irresponsibly invites us to celebrate him.

    The irony, though, is that Martin Scorsese's movie really doesn't tell the story of exactly how Belfort landed in jail. It spends very little of its three-hour running time on what he was doing illegally. In that regard, and contrary to how it looks from trailers, it isn't much of a business movie.

    When The Wolf of Wall Street opens, we get a splashy montage of the spoils of quick wealth: giant mansion; opulent yacht; and Leo DiCaprio, as Belfort, speeding in his convertible while his trophy wife, er, attends to him. Then we rewind. We watch Belfort land a job as a stockbroker with Rothschild; he's soon laid off and finds a job in Long Island with a penny-stock outfit called Investors Center. It's at these stints that we get our only glimpses in the film of Belfort doing actual business: We see him fast-talking, selling some chump a ton of shares in a no-name stock that comes with a 50% commission for the broker. We see him coaching colleagues on how to do it.

    By the time Stratton Oakmont moves out of the garage and into real offices, the movie is pretty much done showing us the mechanics of how Belfort got rich. It's interested only in the extravagance of his wealth. Sure, much of the movie takes place in Stratton's offices, but never to show people conducting business. Wolf of Wall Street would have you think new employees were ushered straight to the back room for drugs and hookers without ever having to earn any money. This is a film about a drug addict. It's a film for which, appropriately, the lead actress slugged three tequila shots before shooting a big scene.