Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Stockbrokers and Mob Men

AMC had been running the classics Wall Street and The Godfather, Part II the past couple of weeks. Its a contrast in morality (well, not extremely), but both operations, that of stockbrokers and mob men, are run the same way:

Information is Key - In Wall Street, Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas' character) primary modus operandi is to get in on inside information to ensure the best profit possible. He quotes Sun Tzu's Art of War, "...a battle is won even before it is fought...". In GF II, Michael, in more than one occassion, is persistent on getting the information right out of people. He does so with intimidating fashion with his brother-in-law (before he orders him wacked) and Fredo (also before he is wacked later on).

Don't Get Personal - Nothing exemplifies it better in GF II when Michael Corleone's family is attacked at his house. This not only shows us how ingenius Micheal is in sniffing out his enemies but on how brutal he gets, ultimately ordering the hit on his brother Fredo. In Wall Street, Charlie Sheen's character had himself reduced to using his father's connection with the airline to get Gekko's attention. But it was Gekko's wrong move to buy Blue Star Airlines and suddenly reveal a plan to break it up. This angered Sheen's character and brought about his vendetta against Gekko....who eventually goes down.

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