Honest question. Do you think that the many individuals working at big banks during 2008 did something wrong? I think there is a huge difference between what individual retail traders do and what is done at the big banks on Wall Street.

This movie was an indictment of that. I'm surprised you're not seeing that. That is what my original point was in my first comment.

It sounds like you're completely and deliberately missing the point. The greed, shortsightedness, and ruthlessness on Wall Street are 100% morally wrong. They cost American taxpayers trillions and are representative of how the wealthy wield disproportionate power in this country.

All of the things I pointed to, from the movie, in my comment above are criticisms of that. The whole movie worked to criticize Wall Street. It's like you're insisting that someone who wins at poker isn't doing anything wrong, and I'm trying to explain to you that the whole point is that the game is messed up and all the players in it are greedily trying to screw each other over, while costing the audience their money and livelihoods.

If you think that the movie was not intended as a criticism of some of the characters, you completely missed the point of the movie.

There are so many scenes that represent this, where characters regret spending their careers at the bank (Stanley Tucci's character talking about building a bridge and implicitly lamenting not spending more time doing something worthwhile, Kevin Spacey's character's speech to his team where he disappointingly assures his team that what they've done has been "for the greater good" when he of course doesn't believe it, Kevin Spacey's character "wishing" that he had spent his time digging trenches so that "at least there'd be some holes in the ground to show for it) where characters get fucked over and discarded (Stanley Tucci's character, Demi Moore's character), and other scenes (e.g. Zachary Quinto's character telling Kevin Spacey's character that his son is "a good person", strongly implying that many of the characters we've seen are not). Not even mentioning all the scenes that are meant to bring out the selfishness, ruthlessness, and greed (As Paul Bettany's character reminded us, "Whatever they do, this firm does not lose money.")

The tonal climax of the movie is Kevin Spacey's character protesting to Jeremy Iron's character about selling their securities and kickstarting the financial collapse during the board meeting. Just look at the scene right after the sale scene where Jeremy Irons's character literally goes through a list of disasters that were arguably caused by shortsightedness and greed, and literally saying something like "we never learn". Some of the best acting I've seen is Jeremy Irons trying to justify what they did, saying something like, "It's just money. It's not wrong". Cut to Kevin Spacey looking absolutely disgusted.

This movie was absolutely a moral indictment of the characters in it, and Kevin Spacey's character represented a protest to Wall Street greed, excess, and myopia. His dog dying represents his own corruption and the death of his conscience and soul, as he realizes he's never going to escape. Trading is absolutely a zero sum game and the movie was a criticism of it and everything Wall Street represents.

I agree. At first, you might think that the dog is just a subplot and unnecessary to the character. But I think the dog is central to the story.

Spacey's character, throughout the movie, is the sort of moral foil to the other characters' moral atrociousness. His main role in the movie is to protest to the CEO against unloading the bank's position and causing a financial crisis. He's sort of the "good guy" of the movie.

But we see, as the movie ends, that he is slowly pulled in and corrupted. He's forced to go along with the CEO's plan. You can see it in the speech that he gives his team at the end. He says something about how everything they've done has been "for the greater good", but it's obvious both in his tone and his mannerisms that he doesn't believe it at all.

At the end of the movie, he feels completely sick and demands to leave the company, but then after the CEO talks to him, he realizes he is forced to stay because he needs the money.

Where does the dog come in? The dog is an extremely powerful symbol. It represents his moral character, his soul almost. His moral character gets sick and dies as the movie progresses, and the final shot is of Spacey's character burying the dog. He's fully aware that he will never leave the company, always coming up with new excuses for why he "needs the money" or something else. He's mourning the death of every good part of his moral character.