The Return Of Greed

Fifteen years ago, Oliver Stone's "Wall Street" told the story of an ambitious stock trader (Charlie Sheen) who befriends an industry titan, the gloriously named Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas, who won an Oscar for his performance). Though the film was a morality tale in which the young upstart sells his soul to get rich quick, "Wall Street" didn't change people's minds about money. In fact, perhaps inspired by Gekko's motto, "Greed is good," investors continued to play and win throughout the 1990s.

And business only got bigger. Now, in the wake of corporate financial scandals and a falling market-and with President Bush facing questions about his own business practices at Harken Energy in the late 1980s-Americans are once again talking about greed. But this time, it's about its costs. NEWSWEEK's B. J. Sigesmund spoke with Stone about his movie's resonance. He also asked the controversial director of "Platoon" and "JFK" about politics and the ongoing war on terror. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: So, greed is ... back!

Oliver Stone: I think greed never left. We bought this whole concept of capitalism, and we let it go too far ... Everyone bought the bubble, including myself. I wasn't heavy into it, but I bought in, and lost money.

How has the market changed since you made "Wall Street"?

The problems that existed in the 1980s market grew and grew into a much larger phenomenon. Enron is a fiction, in a sense, in the same way that Gordon Gekko's buying and selling was a fiction ... Kenny Lay--he's the new Gordon Gekko.