TWOWS - Final Scene Analysis

Jordan Belfort steps onto the stage, the heads of audience members blocking segments of the bottom of the frame to signify the potence of his presence, and sighs. The camera pulls out into a
wide shot of the studio room, only complementing the power we have come to know Belfort as having from the start of the film, when he lists the material possessions he owns ostentatiously. The real significance, however, comes when he steps off stage and begins asking audience members to 'sell him' something as fundamental as a pen, a reference to an earlier moment in the film. The camera tilts up to show the faces of the audience, the final shot; they are all mesmerised by him.

Throughout the film, we have come to know Jordan Belfort as being a tyrant; he consumes class A drugs gratuitously, acts unfairly to those in his personal life, and cheats his way to the top. We, as an audience, should hate this man, yet we look at him with total admiration; in spite of his behaviour being massively looked down upon in an arguably more moral society, we are still drawn in. This is because of how Scorsese has positioned us through the film - we have been manipulated to see the events through Belfort's perspective, while still having the capability to step back and look at the events objectively, if we were so inclined. As Tony McKibbin maintains, in certain films, directors "want the viewer drawn into the film only to throw them out of it again at key moments."1 I would argue that this final shot is one of these moments - it acts as an opportunity to reflect upon Belfort's actions and, subsequently, our ignorance for following along. "The director is showing the flaws of us an audience. Is Jordan Belfort really the kind of person we should strive to be like?"2





Reflecting of the spectating audience in a film's diegesis is a technique that is not unique to The Wolf Of Wall Street. Inglourious Basterds, directed by Quentin Tarantino, demonstrates a similar mirroring position (as pointed out by YouTube user NowYouSeeIt) when in the final theatre scene.










1 - Spectatorship Theory | Tony McKibbin
2 - Ingourious Basterds: Making Fun of You (NowYouSeeIt)