Classic American films: The Wolf of Wall Street – Martin Scorsese finds twisted fun in despicable subject

In this regular feature series on some of the most talked-about films, we examine the legacy of classics, re-evaluate modern blockbusters, and revisit some of the most memorable lines in film. We continue this week with The Wolf of Wall Street , the 2013 film by Martin Scorsese.

Martin Scorsese films fall into two camps: those about people trying to be good (see Silence or Kundun) and those about people trying to be bad (see Goodfellas or The Departed).

Say what you like about the former, but he’s much better when showing sympathy for the devil. And when it comes to terrible behaviour, this riotous 2013 account of the (true) rise and fall of crooked stockbroker Jordan Belfort – played by Leonardo DiCaprio – is the real deal.

Based on Belfort’s self-serving book, and adapted with wit and panache by Terence Winter, the film opens with a whirlwind of information, most of it delivered straight to the camera as if Belfort is selling himself to us too. In 10 breathless minutes we see him presiding over a dwarf-tossing contest at the office, doing drugs with prostitutes and crashing his helicopter on the front lawn of his mansion, before summarising his twisted take on the American dream: “Money makes you a better person.”

Just as Belfort and his smirking cronies operate outside the law, so too will the film smash all the rules, encompassing slow-motion, adverts, direct address and show-stopping drug freak-outs to dramatise Belfort’s dizzying rise and not-far-enough fall. Depending on your tolerance for obnoxious white men with a stadium-sized sense of entitlement – and DiCaprio is suspiciously brilliant throughout – it’s a hell of a ride.

Belfort’s story begins as a 22-year-old broker on Wall Street as Black Monday decimates the industry. Licking his wounds, he takes a job as a penny stock salesman on Long Island, “selling garbage to garbagemen”. But because this side of the industry is unregulated he is soon making money hand over fist, no matter what the consequences. “Was all this legal?” he asks us. “Absolutely f**king not. But we were making more money than we knew what to do with.”