Too Big to Fail - Il crollo dei giganti

Specifically, Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulsen is painted as having a great big unselfish S on his chest. I hate to parrot everyone else, but please watch "The Big Short" to see that everybody had blood on their hands.

HBO had to make SOMEBODY a hero in this, a film, not a documentary, so they chose Paulsen. In their version Paulsen is the somewhat naive guy who understands economics but does not understand human greed. The mechanics of what happened are well described. The dangers of what could have happened are well described. And there are several monologues where somebody - as part of conversation in a team meeting - explains how the big banks and investment houses got into this mess and then how AIG, the bank that insures the insurers, got swept up into everything.

The end of the film indicates that the big banks, with all of that fed supplied cash, just parked it and refused to loan it out - they were not required to do so - and the economy went into a downward spiral with hundreds of thousands losing their jobs and mortgage foreclosure becoming an epidemic.

I'd say the film is OK for grasping the basic mechanics of what went on, but understand it is a film and there has to be at least one hero - false or true - even if HBO is the producer and not Disney.

This movie is good--one of the best on the financial crisis other than Inside Job. It goes into many of the most interesting details and decisions of the crisis while staying entertaining.

My problem with the film is that it makes it look like the politicians and CEOs involved in the decisions actually cared and got emotional about them. In reality, that is not the case. The decisions which greatly affected the lives of millions of Americans had little, if any, effect on the people who made them--hence the distinguishable apathy in their public appearances. These men and women are among the richest in the world, and they knew they would stay that way regardless of how the crisis played out. They cared about the crisis only to the extent that they needed not be late for their dinner dates.

All animals are equal But some animals are more equal than others.

Unfortunately the filmmakers felt the need to create a "hero" of the piece -- unlike the source book, which simply tells what happened. They chose Henry Paulson (William Hurt), ex-Goldman Sachs CEO turned Treasury Secretary. But the real-life Paulson is no hero.

The film makes a point that Paulson sold all his Goldman stock before becoming Treasury Sec, but fails to point out that he was excused from all taxes on the sale, which saved him upwards of $50 million.

The film also whitewashes Paulson's $150 billion AIG bailout, claiming that AIG owed money to almost everybody in the world. In fact, AIG's largest creditor was, that's right, Goldman Sachs. Paulson failed to negotiate a hard-nosed payout of AIG's obligations, such as offering creditors 50c on the dollar, which the creditors would have had no choice but to accept. This would have saved US taxpayers a cool $75 billion. But it would have hurt Paulson's pals at Goldman.

My point being, Paulson was thoroughly compromised, and managed to feather his own nest and that of his old pals. What next? A stirring depiction of Dick Cheney's altruistic hiring of Halliburton in Iraq? This shortcoming aside, the film clips along nicely, and it's fun to see so many name actors portraying the Wall Street titans. James Woods is a perfect Dick Fuld.

The movie itself was put together very well following the chronicles of the fiasco that unfolded during the credit crunch. Where it went horribly wrong is by humanizing Hank Paulson. Making him seem vulnerable and genuine and sincere. It has recently been published that Saint Paulson tipped off 20 or so hedge funds about the coming collapse so they could unload their positions. And this film is attempting to portray him as the victim and the hero and laud him with applause for working so diligently on this problem. His colleagues at Goldman cleaned up on the CDS contracts betting on the inevitable crisis they knew was coming. James Woods did a very good job at making Dick Fuld's loathsome character believable, though.

I want to start off with saying I don't really watch these types of movies where it deals with a lot of politics and such because I find them boring, but this is not the case for "Too Big to Fail." I was highly engrossed and very surprised. Quite a few familiar faces who all do an excellent job. Music score was top-notch; just as thrilling as Dark Knight or Inception's musical score. Cinematography on point. Overall great story based on a major crisis we are still recovering from. I tip my hat to the director and writers.

E D I T: Although this is a good film, it is fiction. The film falsely portrays Henry Paulson as some type of hero when in reality he is not. It's very entertaining for a political thriller but do yourself a favor and watch Inside Job.