Martin Scorsese’s exploration of corporate greed celebrates 10 years on December 25. DiCaprio’s performance – and the film’s warning – has proven ever more prescientThis content is imported from youTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
This content is imported from Third party. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.There’s a scene about halfway through Killers Of The Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese’s 2023 epic about the murders of members of the Osage Nation, when Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio have a heated debate about the best way to shoot a man in the head.
De Niro’s character, genocidal landowner William Hale is adamant that, when you’re trying to make a hit look like suicide, the front of the head is the way to go. “You told him to do it in the front of the head? Then why he do it in the back of the head?” De Niro demands. “It’s too simple; the front is the front and the back is the back!”
“I told him the front of the head, just like you told me. I promise you. I swear on my children!” DiCaprio’s character, the gurning, slow-witted killer Ernest Burkhart stammers. For a film of such leaden subject matter, the scene is surprisingly – and intentionally – funny, with DiCaprio building on his broader comic sensibilities most recently on display in 2021’s Don’t Look Up.
Both performances are effective, but DiCaprio’s humour is arguably even more acute when it takes a more insidious form. Instead of a bumbling bumpkin, DiCaprio’s powers shine best when the humour is paired with intelligence and even a malicious, self-satisfied air. We’ve seen it in Django Unchained but, a decade after it’s release, his role as Jordan Belfort in 2013’s The Wolf Of Wall Street (also Scorsese) is yet to be bettered.
From his endless extra-marital screwing around to throwing “fun tokens” at FBI guys in cheap suits, DiCaprio electrifies as perhaps the most compelling character in his oeuvre. Nowhere is the essence of Belfort’s self-deception, his epic corporate greed and yes,
DiCaprio’s skill, so readily displayed as in the much-memed “I’m not fucking leaving!” speech, delivered at the 02:15:40 mark. In just over two minutes, Belfort’s rallying speech to his troops offers up the most concentrated shot of the quiet menace that laces Scorsese’s most prophetic film.
“For years I’ve been telling you guys never to take no for an answer, right?” a contrite Belfort begins, addressing his most loyal stockbrokers, all of whom are gathered as if in mourning for a monarch. “To keep pushing and never hang up the phone… this deal that I’m about to sign, barring me from Stratton, barring me from my home… it’s me taking no for an answer. It’s them selling me and not the other way around. It’s me being a hypocrite.”
We can see Belfort’s regret here – not at his actions, but that he has been caught out. Were his hands not tied, had real justice been allowed to triumph, Belfort would continue righteously ripping people off because that is what he deserves to do.
Then things really ramp up. “You know what? I’m not leaving,” Belfort whispers to the crestfallen crowd. “I’m not fucking leaving!” he screams to rapturous applause, hugging, and general joyous disbelief among his adherents.
“The show goes on! This is my home. They’re gonna need a fuckin’ wreckin’ ball to take me out of here,” Belfort announces as female employees grasp each other, and mouth “I love you!” at him.
Like many scenes in The Wolf Of Wall Street, it’s utterly grotesque. What the memes miss is that we aren’t meant to be rooting for Belfort (even if he does look like Leonardo DiCaprio). We’re meant to be horrified by his hubris, and by the cult-like devotion of his followers, each as morally bankrupt as him.
DiCaprio, red-faced, struts, screams and peacocks across the front of the room. “They’re going to need to send in the National Guard, or fuckin’ Swat team ‘cause i ain’t goin’ nowhere! Fuck them!” In his violent refusal to step down, despite the full weight of the law commanding him to do so, we see an eerie foreshadowing of another red-faced Wall Street guy refusing to leave office, this time on the 6th of January 2021.
As well as being a riotously entertaining time at the cinema, The Wolf Of Wall Street served up a stark warning about greed, populism and entitlement. Scorsese recently recounted that some critics missed the point of the film, prompting another critic to ask “Do you really need Martin Scorsese to tell you that that’s wrong?”. It turns out, maybe some of us did.
A decade on, the “I’m not fucking leaving!” scene remains not just a masterclass in minacious comedic performance, and a DiCaprio highlight reel staple, but a warning against unhinged, charismatic leaders. We need to pay more attention than ever, because try as we might, just like Jordan Belfort, they’re not going anywhere, either.
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