Bud's Apartment
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Wall Street
cat_gio — 9 years ago(June 03, 2016 12:55 AM)
This was asked before but no one answered so I figured to restart it:
Did people in the 80s really go for eccentric apartments like his? Not just rich people in finance but anything that would relate to yuppies with money.
I find it extremely hard to believe people would want their walls made to look broken up with bricks and painting, not to mention the gaudish paintings and odd medley of metallics and aquagreen carpets.
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PacificPooch — 9 years ago(June 03, 2016 01:02 PM)
I'm a little young to speak from personal 80s experience, but I tend to think yes, some of the design elements are based on true yuppy style from the time. In fairness, I think much of what's become common stylistically for loft-like, cool urban apartments wasn't firmly established yet in the 1980s so there was more eccentricity on display.
That said, of course the involvement of Darien would push the look of the apartment to the extreme. -
cat_gio — 9 years ago(June 03, 2016 10:47 PM)
Right I was thinking more of the latter with Darien going overboard with the designs just because she could anything from it was something her character would do to maybe even being a plot point in that she was still "in Gordon's pocket" so to speak and wanted to see where Bud would draw the line.
Nonetheless, not that hard to believe in terms of '80s lifestyle, but even then, it would have been better to add other classic 80s signs like puffy hair and odd clothing designs at that point.
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knowmeby — 9 years ago(June 20, 2016 08:52 PM)
I think it's vaguely hinted at that Darien is mostly show and not much talent but people buy into it. Darien admits that Gordon got all her clients for her and there's that oddly comical moment when Gordon tries to set his plate down on the coffee table and it falls through- Darien excuses it by saying Bud always does that. That apartment was so disgustingly garish, I can't believe the filmmakers wanted anybody to believe that it was uber hip or desirable, more likely that it was just made up to look expense- with the gold leaf and faux aged walls. I've thought about this before, as I've seen the movie a few times, and it always stood out to me how ugly that apartment looked.
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imnotlurch — 9 years ago(August 15, 2016 11:41 AM)
Darien had no real soul and limited (if any) talent, and her designs reflected that. That apartment was all "big, bold, loud and busy" simply for the sake of being so. I don't think it was any mistake that Stone chose to show the installation of the cheap plastic materials Darien hand-picked to pull off whatever "striking" look/theme she thought she was trying to createit's just another way of showing how fake every aspect of Bud's life has becomeBud's apartment is as much of a faade as his overnight wealth and success.
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johnston.scot — 9 years ago(August 16, 2016 04:23 PM)
The basic concept is accurate, but they cranked it up beyond what anyone (well just
about
anyone) really would have done, to humorous effect. I actually kind of liked it. It efficiently conveyed how far Bud was straying from anything akin to common sense.
Just a note on "the basic concept is accurate:" exposing existing brick walls was a "thing" at the time. Of course, there's a huge difference between (a) removing plaster or wallboard that's covering up actual bricks versus (b) putting a fascia of fake bricks in a modern high rise. Therein the joke. -
JayHysterio — 9 years ago(August 29, 2016 02:02 PM)
I think the apartment was a metaphor for the 80'soverpriced like the stocks, artificially driven up not by value but by perception of value. Gekko references this when he tells Bud about a painting he bought and sold at a huge profit by saying "the illusion has become reality".
Also, as mentioned before, the coffee tableexpensive but not functional, yet it was no doubt purchased because it was deemed expensive, not whether it was designed or made well.
Also, during the interior decorating scene, not only were the adornments and walls in bad taste, they were actually fake sidings, basically glued to the existing drywall such as the fake brick facade.
It's also the theme that runs through the entire film, first by Lou Mannheim when he tells Bud how quick buck players come and go, but the longer term players actually make money for companies that provide research and jobs and are helping shape and build the future. Also Bud's Dad comments how Bud could've been something like a doctor and actually be a contributor to society instead of making money in the stock market "racket".
The whole movie could be summed up with Gekko's speech to Bud when Bud confronts him about the Bluestar breakup:
"The richest one percent of this country owns half our country's wealth, five trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons and what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It's beep You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own. We make the rules, pal. The news, war, peace, famine, upheaval, the price per paper clip. We pick that rabbit out of the hat while everybody sits out there wondering how the hell we did it. Now you're not naive enough to think we're living in a democracy, are you buddy? It's the free market."