The film The Big Short by Adam McKay is about the financial crisis of 2008 due to the housing bubble in the United States. The film tries to explain financial institutions while telling the stories of people who made money realizing that there was a problem with the system. The narrative of the story is full of greed and ignorance, but also full of guilt and emotions. Furthermore, the movie keeps breaking the fourth wall to explain terms directly to the audience. For instance, Margot Robbie in the bubble bath, Anthony Bourdain in his kitchen, and Selena Gomez in a casino explaining subprime mortgages and synthetic CDOs is what makes the narrative depart from classical Hollywood narrative form. Although the movie opens with a quote from Mark Twain, the next scene where Ryan Gosling is explaining the revolution in bond trading by Lewis Ranieri, with a mustard stain on his shirt, is what can be considered an exposition to the movie. Lewis Ranieri’s introduction to mortgage-backed securities in the 1970s, while ensuring their low risk and triple-A rating by humorously backing it with “who …show more content…
He becomes angry when another person wants to get in his cab, fights with the guy, and keeps repeating the line “I love my job, I love my job.” It is visible that deep down, Mark is troubled. He feels guilt for not being able to and not trying to do anything for both his brother’s suicide and the market crash. His wife reminds him that he is just a banker, and that’s just life. These incidents help the audience to digest what Mark set in motion; what some might say is his betting, while others may think it is his
In his essay, “It’s Just a Movie: A Teaching Essay for Introductory Media Classes”, Greg M. Smith argues that analyzing a film does not ruin, but enhances a movie-viewing experience; he supports his argument with supporting evidence. He addresses the careful planning required for movies. Messages are not meant to be telegrams. Audiences read into movies to understand basic plotlines. Viewers should examine works rather than society’s explanations. Each piece contributes to Smith’s argument, movies are worth scrutinizing.
Joaquin’s expert use of the land and Mark’s spatial awareness encourages the latter to accept reality. Realizing that Mark was making no progress towards recovery, Joaquin decided to undertake a different tactic; he insisted Mark to visualize the event in Kurdistan and to recall the moment when Colin had gone missing by drawing a map on the wall. Joaquin asks Mark “and where was Colin?
J. D. Salinger's notable and esteemed novel, Catcher in the Rye, reflects the hypercritical views of a troubled teenager, Holden Caulfield, towards everyone around him and society itself. This character has a distinguished vision of a world where morality, principles, intelligence, purity, and naivety should override money, sex, and power, but clearly in the world he inhabits these qualities have been exiled. Holder desperately clings to and regards innocence as one of the most important virtues a person can have. However, he son becomes a misfit since society is corrupted and he yearns for companionship, any kind of connection with another to feel whole and understood again. Ironically, despite his persistent belittling and denouncing of others, he does not apply the same critical and harsh views on himself.
As Mark Spitz is trying to survive and make sense of the uncanniness surrounding him, his introspective commentary on the world around him drops hints and nudges at subtle symbols that nod towards the obsolescence of the previously enforced social system. He references the bleakness of the capitalist businessman in the aftermath of these events, depicting it as a zombie wearing a dirty pinstripe suit. The businessman once representing the epitome of success in our society, now “its infection had converted this creature into a member of its bygone loser cadre, into another of the broke and the deluded, the mis-fitting, the inveterate unlucky” (Whitehead 148). Moreover, Whitehead 's writing also addresses the decay of capitalism more directly, as he describes the bleakness of the physical ruins of banks and the once blooming FiDi; “putrefying mounds on the cobblestones of the crooked streets of the financial district” (Whitehead 95). The Financial District is home to the headquarters of leading financial institutions, with Wall Street commonly described as the heart of capitalism, this particular dreary depiction of its physical appearance denotes the overall theme of
He’s narrative makes it easy to comprehend the essentials, thus a background in Finance is not at all required. With a great story along a cast of fascinating characters Lewis accurately explains that investment banks such as Goldman Sachs and J.P Morgan never had been more creative in designing exotic investment instruments for traders to trade whatever’s thinkable. In The Big Short, we’re mainly introduced to subprime mortgage bonds and CDOs (Collateralised Debt Obligations) - the securities that ultimately went bad, and in the end caused the crash. They would contain mortgages, both bad and subprime (junk), repackaged and put together in tranches (French for a ‘portion of something’) to represent a ‘diversified’ pile of debt that investors could invest in – receiving fixed income over the length of the loan period. Bonds, both corporate, private or government – are known to be harmless investments, but Lewis reveals a dark secret that altered their solvency.
“Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand.” -(Neil Armstrong) Colin Watson is a teenage boy who has a tendency to get into mishap regularly, however as time goes on change occurs. The novel entitled “Marked” written by Norah Mcclintock, portrays a breathtaking situation many young adults are unaware of. This Canadian author surely knows how to grab the youth's attention. The protagonist of this story had some harsh history in his past, he has changed over time to become a better person. Due to this gradual change, he was recommended a job that required commitment. The issues Collin has to face due to this job brings advantages and disadvantages with multiple risk factors and difficult decisions. Mcclintock
In this presentation, I’m going to explain how the key roles worked together to create the 2008 financial crisis.
Holden Caulfield is a strange character in the story The Catcher in the Rye. He is first seen this way by when he gets expelled from a school called Pencey Prep. He is expelled for flunking almost all of his classes. Holden then watches his school play in a football game from afar and decides he wants to say bye to his teacher. After that he decides to leave Pencey early and head home to New York. He goes out drinking and hitting on women while he is there and then goes to see his sister, Phoebe. He is very close to his younger sister and really connects with her. This disorder that Holden has could be believed to be bipolar disorder; which he displays in different occasions throughout the novel.
The Wolf of Wall Street is based on the life and also the author, Jordan Belfort. Jordan becomes discontent with his everyday life and realizes his talent for selling. As he continuously gains more money, he begins using more drugs. Way more drugs. Jordan starts his own brokerage firm named Stratton-Oakmont. Jordan hires a staff of, well, criminals to help him sell cheap stocks. They would sell all of these cheap stocks to their customers, then Belfort would buy large amounts of these stocks, running up the price, and then dump it. Finally, Jordan begins running into a lot of legal trouble as the FBI is on to the ways his brokerage firm works. Although Belfort has the FBI watching him very closely, he continues to spend huge sums of money on things such as boats, cars, houses, strippers/hookers, and last, but certainly not least, drugs. As Jordan’s already massive drug problem continues to escalate, he has to keep a very large portion of his money in a European account to hide it from the Feds. Belfort ends up going to prison for 22 months for fraud of his
The Wolf of Wall Street is based on a real-life story on a young gentleman by the name of Jordan Belfort. Jordan was a former stock broker who was indicted for crimes such as; stock-market manipulator, penny stock, money laundering and more. He was from the lovely city of New York city and realized at a young age his talent for sales. He decided to use his techniques in the stock industry learning the in out and outs of stock and bonds.
This film exploited the impact on privatized banks, its impact on the economy, and its deals with the government. Much of the money is being spent on greedy leadership while the rest suffer. It discusses the collapse of the stock market, which created a global recession and doubles the national debt of the united states. It highered the poverty rate and caused many people to go bankrupt; leading to suicide. This disaster was not a mistake; it was caused by an out of control industry.
However, the real life implications regarding this simplified and skewed understanding are not discussed. The financial crisis as a natural disaster disseminates the idea that the crisis was not preventable and lacked direct human causes. This shifts blame and accountability away from the individuals and system that created the financial climate that eventually had to crash. Thus, making it harder for the average person to understand why certain changes should be made within our neoliberal capitalist system, and also quieting angry claims for greedy and shady bankers to be held accountable. Metaphors are a powerful way to disseminate ideas, but when these ideas cripple the populations factual understanding of an event metaphors can become problematic. They cause changes in understanding that hinders the call for progress and changes to our system that should come as a reaction to the 2008 financial
The Wolf of Wall Street produced and directed by Martin Scorsese tells a story of Jordan Belfort, a stockbroker living a luxurious life on Wall Street. Due to greed and corruption, Jordan falls into a life of crime and abusive activities. Belfort made millions of dollars by selling customers “penny stocks” and manipulating the market through his company, Stratton Oakmont, before being convicted of any criminal activity (Solomon, 2013). Jordan reveals behaviours and impulses all humans have, however, on an extreme level. This movie illustrates “why ethics is another tool whose importance cannot be overstated” (Delaney, 2014). Without ethics and morality, individuals can never truly live an honest and happy life.
This movie starts off as Jordan Belfort, the main character in the movie, losing his job as a stockbroker in Wall Street. After losing his job, he goes and gets a job in a Long Island brokerage room. In the brokerage room, he sells penny stocks. Thanks to him being aggressive in his selling skills, he was able to make a profit. With the new income, he gives his wife a bracelet and she asked him why doesn’t he go after the people that can afford to lose money, not the middle-class people or lower income people. That is when he gets the idea to get a lot of young people and train them to become the best stock brokers.
Margin Call depicts a realistic take on what happens inside a Wall Street firm. It is about a company that is downsizing their workers because of a firm’s crisis. One of the victims, Eric Dale, was working on a major analysis when he was laid off. He hands his coworker Peter Sullivan his USB, which contains the major analysis. Peter stays late and cracks the issues and calls his coworkers and bosses in about the financial disaster he had discovered. He had discovered that the company is about the crash. He tries to get ahold of Eric, no luck. He then calls his coworkers Seth Bregman and Will Emerson, who are at a bar and tells them that they need to come back to the office for an emergency situation. After showing the situation to Will, John Tuld, the Chief Executive Officer, quickly hears about it. They all have a conference meeting and decide that the company will sell all of the mortgages, which have little to no value. Once the sale is completed, the company tries to save their reputation by saying that this issue was nonpreventable.