greed and gold

His films like 'Wall Street' and 'The Wolf of Wall Street' obsessively dissect the corrupting allure of wealth and material excess.

His revolutionary cinema critiqued capitalist greed through montage technique, most powerfully in 'Battleship Potemkin' and 'October.'

He masterfully exposed the dark underbelly of American ambition and financial desire in films like 'Sunset Boulevard' and 'The Apartment.'