Leonardo di Caprio was interviewed by Andrew Marr on Sunday morning about his new film 'The Wolf of Wall Street'.
The story of an ambitious young fraudster who created and set up a major bucket-shop share selling operation, revelling in the advice given to him by one of his mentors in immoral philosophy - "...the name of the game is to move the money from your client's pocket into your pocket..."
Marr raises the issue of the moral message being sent by the film and wonders why it seems to contain no final dénouement for the young con man. He posits that such films normally seek to end on an ethical message that crime does not pay, whereas this film does not, so the audience is left in a moral vacuum. It is as if Marr is a subscriber to the theory that films about financial criminality must never end with the protagonists getting away with the proceeds of their crimes, as this sends a suspect moral message to the audience about the nature of crime, greed and dishonesty. The film must, it seems, become the vehicle for a moral parable, whereby good, truth and justice triumph at the end.
In this film,. it seems, the obverse is true, and in such a representation, di Caprio, very cleverly, identifies the major conundrum at the root of financial regulation in the 21st century in Western capital markets. In the programme, Marr asks him whether his portrayal of the fraudster is authentic because in the end he gets away with his crimes. Di Caprio's answer is prophetic; he says; "...Yes, I believe it is authentic because when you look back, most of the people doing this stuff got paid bonuses..."
I believe that this revisionist view of the financial sector is closer to the truth than many people are willing to admit.
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