This is a story of four people who have foreseen the 2008 economic crisis in United States. Eight years ago, subprime mortgage crisis required U.S. Federal Reserve to purchase $700 billion worth distressed assets to bail out most of the banks. The Big Short is a non-fictitious adaptation of the original book The Big Short by Michael Lewis. Like every book reader, I wonder if the movie has done justice to the book. (If there are any readers who read the book too, kindly share your opinion with us by commenting). Eight years ago, the Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs) manifested into a time bomb which would soon tumble the global economic stability.
The movie tells the story of four characters who foresaw this crisis and how they handled the consequences when rest of the world was blinded and by verbose terms used by few giant banks who would do anything to jeopardize a nation’s economy. During the housing boom in America, the ratio of borrowed money by investment banks to bank’s own assets reached unprecedented levels. This means that a significant economic imbalance was created and investment banks experienced a giant cliff drop scenario. Thanks to the bail out of $700 billion dollars, most of the banks could survive this downfall. In reality, most of these bankheads (the heads of the banks, in an otherwise respectful tone), the decision makers, escaped from law. Illegitimate ratings from agencies were given to more than 65% of the CDOs including AAA marked bundles. This ponzie scheme wasn’t and still isn’t understood by many. Yet there were few who could foresee and save themselves from the consequences.Michael Burry (Christian Bale) the Wall Street guru predicts the crisis first. Jared Vennett(Ryan Gosling) and Mark Baum(Steve Carell) were the first of ones to realize that Burry was right. Ben Rickert(Brad Pitt) , a retired banker helps two young investors in making immense profit after they read one of Vennett’s papers.
A very laudable background score from Nicholas Britell and a beautiful screenplay by Adam McKay and Chris Randolph sets a great stage for the characters to stage the true story retold in the most incredible way. This movie won the Academy Award for best adaptive screenplay. When compared to other movies about the economic crisis in 2008, this movie stands out in many ways. Firstly, the perspective. It belongs to those who are directly affected by the system which governs the Wall Street. Secondly, the story centers around individuals who respond in their own ways to the crisis and how they deal with the situation and make the most of it. While other movies blame only the executives of these insolvent companies, this movie tells a tale of survivors of an economic apolcalypse. Adam Mckay and Chris Randolph seem to have done an exceptional job with such seamless and illustrative screenplay. The Oscars they earned are certainly well deserved. The movie is a must watch for those who are fanatics of the business world.
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