I wish I could have seen this film when it first came out back in the ’80s. I understand that it was a time when America grew rich as many developing countries went bankrupt. A time of increasing laissez-faire economics and decreasing corporate regulations under President Reagan. A time of superficiality and excess, occasionally called “The ‘Me’ Decade.”

Enter Oliver Stone, a man known for making films with socio-political slants.

Wall Street is the story of Buddy Fox, a young broker played by Charlie Sheen. Fox is the everyman of the picture, caught between blue-collar roots and white-collar dreams. He achieves his goal of getting to the top of the world, not through dumb luck or some deus ex machina, but through hard work and cleverly using what connections he’s got. Finally, he decides that gaining the whole world is not worth forfeiting his soul and makes amends with the loved ones he slighted on his way to the top.

Of course, he’s not the character everyone remembers.

That honor belongs to Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas. Gekko, by design, is the four-color caricature of white-collar businessmen residing in the nightmares of every anti-corporate activist. He makes absolutely nothing except good investments. His obsession with money is a distant second to his obsession with himself. He sees love and emotions as nothing more than blinding self-delusions. He cares and knows so little about those in the lower and middle class that he relentlessly strives to make money just so he doesn’t have to join them.

Yet Gekko remains a compelling character. Partly, this is because Michael Douglas gives the performance of a lifetime here. Mostly, however, I think that this is because Gekko does occasionally make some valid points. For example, during his infamous “Greed is Good” speech, Gekko points out how a company’s stockholders and board of trustees don’t actually run the business. That responsibility goes to the management, who has a relatively small amount of stock. Sure, the trustees can vote to boot out the CEO in the event that he proves incompetent, but the stockholders still lose a ton of money on that failure while the CEO sails out on a golden parachute. Doesn’t seem very fair, does it?

Of course, the big issue at play is that of insider trading. The movie does argue that the legality and ethics of manipulating stocks based on gossip is pretty gray, but it’s fascinating to watch as the story runs the gamut from white scenarios to black ones. At the start of the movie, Fox acts on gossip candidly given from his dad. About a half hour later, he’s spying on a foreign billionaire so Gekko can beat him to the stock market punch. Finally, at the climax, Fox is single-handedly orchestrating a ticker-tape rollercoaster for the purpose of screwing over Gekko and preventing hundreds of layoffs. This is when the SEC finally steps in to arrest Fox.

The message, as I understand it, is that the ends don’t justify the means and that the livelihood of thousands is not to be sacrificed for one man’s profit.

Charlie Sheen and Michael Douglas are the two most prominent actors by a long shot, but the cast is full of solid actors, all comprising a wide economic spectrum. There’s Fox’s dad, the union boss who speaks for the productive poor, played by — who else? — Martin Sheen. There’s Daryl Hannah’s love interest, the decorator who’s great at spending other people’s money but can’t seem to make any of her own. James Spader shows up as an old college friend that Fox uses as a pawn in his trading schemes. Over at Fox’s trading firm, we have a pink-slip casualty, a two-faced boss, a broker who cares more about hard work than money and a jealous cubicle-mate played by John “Dr. Cox” McGinley.

Technically, the film is quite good. The visuals are solid, especially in their use of shadow. The writing and direction have their weak moments (Gekko has a rather pointless moment by the ocean), but they still give a lot for the phenomenal cast to work with. But by far the best aspect of this movie is its pacing. For the most part, the film does a great job of portraying Fox’s meteoric rise in a way that’s gradual but constantly moving forward. Things crash hard and fast when they do, and Stone doesn’t linger on those moments or implications for too long. Indeed, Fox’s comeback is very swift, as would be expected from such a brilliant mind.

I have absolutely no idea how our economic system has changed since Wall Street was first released. In fact, I confess that economics in general have always been one of my weak points. Still, Oliver Stone’s meditation on the income gap and the pursuit of fortune appear to be as timely as ever. Save for the wonderful acting, there’s not really anything else extraordinary about it, but I’d say it’s worth a look all the same.