The Wolf of Wall Street- Lucia Kruseman

The Wolf of Wall Street is a movie narrating the life of Jordan Belfort and how he became incredibly rich by selling penny stocks in the stock market and his fall that involves crime, corruption and drugs. One of the main soundtracks in the movie is the song “Hey Leroy, Your Mama’s Calling you” by Jimmy Castor. The soundtrack appears after the motivational speech that Leonardo Dicaprio, as Jordan Belfort, gives in front of his workers when Steve Madden is invited to Stratton Oakmont to be introduced to all the stockbrokers that work in there. Leonardo start telling them to start dialing the phone and start selling Steve Madden’s stocks so they can become all richer. When the “Hey Leroy, Your Mama’s Calling you” soundtrack enter the scene the scene becomes all quiet and you can only hear the soundtrack in my opinion the producer diced to do this, so people will focus on the music of the soundtrack. The soundtrack is more like a Caribbean song and it makes you feel kind of in a jungle, and actually the scene looks like a jungle since all the stockbrokers are like crazy answering the phone and trying to sell stocks as fast and as much stocks as they can. Later the soundtrack it lowers it volume and the FBI police appears in the scene analyzing Stratton Oakmont and you start to hear Jordan’s voice saying how much the stock price has gone up and at the end Donnie, acted by Jonah Hill, mentions that they made $22 billion dollars in three hours. One of the ethos in this movie and scene is first of all the main actor, Leonardo Dicaprio as Jordan Belfort. Leonardo Dicaprio is a really well known actor and has done several really known movies in the past years. Another ethos is that just before the soundtrack starts Jordan gives a speech motivating and telling the stockbrokers to start dialing the phone that that’s the only way they are going to become rich. So in this speech he is showing authority and credibility with the stockbrokers. The pathos in this scene is mostly excitement and adrenaline since in the background all the stockbrokers are like crazy trying to sell the Steve Madden stocks and also the soundtrack is exiting since the rhythm of the music is fast and makes you even want to dance.

Another good soundtrack from the movie is “Sloop John B” by Me First and The Gimme Gimmes. This soundtrack starts just after Jordan kicks the two FBI agents out of his boat, named Naomi. Jordan starts mentioning how he is going to calculate taking all his drugs so he can make his flight all the way to Switzerland; because there is no way that he is taking that flight sober. You start haring Jordan telling at what exact time he is going to take each drug and what he is saying it appears in accordance with the scene. So when he mentions that by 8:30 pm he took some more drugs he was at the bar completely drunk. The music of the soundtrack makes the scenes more exited and shows the adrenaline of the moment. Since he is in a rush because he has to catch a flight but he is making sure that he does not get sober in that flight. As Gianetti and Lundsford mention in their book Understanding Movies “The pitch, volume, and tempo of sound effects can strongly affect our responses to any given noise” (Understanding Movies, page 208). If the scene would have a slow motion soundtrack the effect in the audience would not be the same as the fast and high pitch music that it does have. The ethos of this soundtrack in accordance with the scene is the ethics in the scene all the drugs that Jordan takes makes it look like normal and fun, while indeed it should not be like that. The pathos is the high pitch and the fast music brings up more the excitement and adrenaline of the scene while Jordan is taking all the drugs and describing at what exact time he is taking then and it shows how his condition is getting worst. The logos of the whole movie is that since Leonardo Dicaprio is such a good actor and he is well known, people that liked the movies that he has done before they would most likely want to see his new movie too.  Also since it is a movie about wall street that is a topic that mostly adults like and it becomes interesting to them, because of all the economy and history wall street has and its recognizable name.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iszwuX1AK6A