‘The Big Short’ is Effective
Making numbers, banking, and mortgages riveting.
The Big Short takes us back to a simpler time… before the financial crisis of 2008. A group of investors uncover just how flawed and corrupt the system is and decide to bet against the housing market.
Watching this movie is fascinating for me, a millennial. I graduated high school in 2008, right in the thick of the financial crisis. I was in college and working multiple jobs while the recovery efforts were happening and the government was bailing out the banks. I know that there was a time before this crisis, but I honestly don’t remember it. But I am very aware of the fallout.
The Big Short does a great job of dropping us into those years leading up to the financial crisis. Footage of pop culture moments is intercut between scenes of the film to remind us what the world was like in the early 2000s. Honestly, it’s a whole vibe.
The way that the characters talk is so fascinating because our world is so different today. Again and again, especially at the beginning of the film, characters remark that housing is so stable. That’s the safest place to invest your money — why would you want to bet against the housing market?
Then, piece by piece, we see just how corrupt and flawed the system is. As the characters uncover…
