Do We Want a Modern Morality Play?

Christina McDowell is the daughter of a man who worked for the infamous Wolf of Wall Street. She wrote an open letter to the filmmakers of the Wolf of Wall Street criticizing the movie. Jordan Belfort, who made millions of dollars through an illegal stock scam, had his exploits splashed across the big screen in a film directed my Martin Scorsese.

Christina was caught up in her father’s trial when the scam came crashing down and she had to live with the consequences, which included changing her name. In her letter, Christina is highly critical of the way the film portrays Jordan Belfort, who is played by Leonardo DiCaprio. She feels Jordan Belfort is held up to be almost a hero in the film and only adds fuel to Belfort’s hype.

But do the filmmakers owe us moral lesions? If we idealize Jordan Belfort – even ever so slight –is that wrong? Or does the film just owe us two hours of entertainment?

The public has always been fascinated with crime and the criminal lifestyle because it seems so glamorous. I mean why else would we watch The Sopranos, Dexter, Boardwalk Empire, Breaking Bad, or any numerous of other shows? There are parts of all of us that want to be the Wolf of Wall Street, to be able to buy a boat, life the luxurious lifestyle and do whatever we want, ignoring all of societies rules. Should we deny ourselves that guilty pleasure?

Morality plays were popular in medieval times, during a period the Church was extremely powerful. These plays were designed to teach lessons more than entertain. Most people would agree we don’t want to go back to such an extreme, but in ever writer’s heart there is a teacher in there somewhere who wants their work to have a purpose.

The Wolf of Wall Street is based on real events with real people at the center. Real lives were ruined by Jordan Belfort and his stock scams and he ended up testifying against many of his employees, including Christina’s father. Is the movie obligated to show the aftermath, the wreckage this all caused? Would we watch that movie or would we rather see the lifestyle Jordan Belfort lived?

I was commissioned to write a biography of a drug dealer who smuggled drugs from Canada to the United States and down to Mexico. At the height of his criminal career he was making a million dollars a week which puts him up on the Wolf of Wall Street level. I know many people’s lives were ruined by this drug dealer just as Jordan Belfort ruined lives.

I, like many people, was captivated by the drug dealer’s adventures of running drugs by airplane, smuggling cocaine into Span, and his encounters with Mexican cartels. I don’t believe the novel will entice people to become criminals or take drugs, but I supposed it bothered me I was indirectly making money off of crime. The book will probably not have any redeeming social or moral value but in the end I’m okay with it. As long as I’m able to entertain somebody for a while I feel like I’ve done my job.

What do you think? Do stories, especially real life ones, have to have some sort of message to them? What do you think of the Wolf of Wall Street and its portrayal of Jordan Belfort?

Please check out my latest suspense thriller Shame the Devil here

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