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 Post subject: "The Big Short"
PostPosted: 01/04/16 11:18 am • # 1 
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I'm familiar with David Phillips' mindset and writings [and generally agree with his musings] since he is friends with my friend Bruce ~ his review on this movie makes me want to see it ~ has anyone seen it already? ~ Sooz

The Big Horror
December 31, 2015 | Posted by: David Phillips

There is a lot of discussion about the possibility of The Big Short perhaps being the best picture of the year. While I might have to think on that for a moment, as well as see other strong contenders not yet viewed, I do feel comfortable stating that I believe it is without a doubt, the best horror film I’ve seen all year. Maybe even farther back than that.

The monster depicted in this satirical tragicomedy does not have fangs or claws. Hell, it doesn’t even have an imposing name. There is nothing inherently frightening about the words “credit default swap” unless you know what it means and understand its responsibility for causing the financial crisis of 2008. To be honest, even after watching the film with its extensive discussion of such, I’m not sure how easily I could explain it even if I sat here until next week typing out my best definition.

You can Google the term and get a description, but I’m not sure it helps. Still, here it is:

Quote:
A financial contract whereby a buyer of corporate or sovereign debt in the form of bonds attempts to eliminate possible loss arising from default by the issuer of the bonds. This is achieved by the issuer of the bonds insuring the buyer’s potential losses as part of the agreement.

Like I said, maybe not helpful. What you basically need to know is it was essentially a process created by banks to allow individuals and companies to bet against the solvency of the housing market. Perhaps no single financial instrument caused more damage to the American and international economy than this one particular item. Basically, it’s people (well, mostly corporations, which if you’re a Romney, is a person) who became wealthy by betting on “home owners” (a loaded term if ever there was one–until the last payment is made, the buyer owns nothing more than a piece of the home’s value) defaulting on their mortgages and the purchaser of the default insurance collecting a pay out. To put it more simply, they bet on failure. Something subprime adjustable rate mortgages all but assured.

As much damage as the credit default swaps caused, it was simply the monster controlled by other monsters. Ivory tower, master of the universe creatures operating out of tall buildings on Wall Street who engineered a system doomed to fail because of the inordinate risk it created. Not risk for them so much. They tended to coast down from their metaphorically burning high rises on the cables of a golden parachute, but their companies, co-workers, and most of all, the average american tax payer was where the true victims could be found.

This is heady, complicated stuff for a 130 minute movie to take on. That it would be delivered so effectively by Adam McKay, the director heretofore known for a number of Will Ferrell movies you couldn’t pay me to sit through, is perhaps astonishing. Hell, check the “perhaps.” Working with a remarkable ensemble, led by Steve Carell (the closest thing to a moral center in the film), Christian Bale as the man who the credit default swap emanated from, and Ryan Gosling’s shark of a trader, McKay and crew start the film out largely in comedic terms. As the movie progresses, it becomes deeper and darker, biting harder until by the end the film’s own satirical bent collapses (deliberately) almost like the event it depicts. Leaving behind broken lives and the sad knowledge it’s not only possible we have learned so little from a crisis so recent that not only is it likely to happen again, but that it may be inevitable.

The film depicts a sickness of man. More particularly, the American man. The obvious one of greed. It doesn’t stop there though. It’s not only the venal desire for more at the top that is unveiled, but the indifference and ignorance as well as the distraction and confusion that permeates through what is left of the middle all the way down to the bottom. That sort of lack of knowledge and understanding which allows for small men in large offices to pull the strings on our lives while we are busy making other plans. Sure, the film puts front and center the government that allowed and perpetuated this happening and the corporate deities who created the weather and then complained about the rain–as the American tax payer provided the umbrella–as the explicit villains of the piece.

In fact, with rare exception, the average American isn’t depicted in the film despite being referenced on multiple occasions. Whether intentional or not, that absence struck me as a metaphor. That we are not aware of that which goes on around us. We are not involved enough in the factors that affect our own lives. We often don’t want to know what is out there and we live in hope more than in deed. While we may not be directly responsible for the actions of those in government and on Wall Street, we did set the scene, and are therefore partially culpable.

Earlier, I referred to The Big Short as a horror film, even though there is not a moment of bloodshed depicted onscreen during The Big Short. There is a sort of violence though. The kind committed in the film is shown not by fist or weapon, but through technology and clandestine meetings. Believe me when I tell you there is plenty of gore on display. The shredding of lives by calculation, instrumentation, and the sort of recklessness that is available when people are not seen as human beings, but as nothing more than numbers on a spreadsheet. Who does that to others? Monsters. Monsters do that.

And they will again.

http://www.blue-route.org/blog/blog/sports-entertainment/the-big-horror/


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 Post subject: Re: "The Big Short"
PostPosted: 01/04/16 6:39 pm • # 2 
I didn't see it yet. Zona and I are going to see Joy on Wednesday. I want to see this with probably Jeff. Revenant, too.

Speaking of horror movies, did you guys see He Never Died yet????


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