In the mid-2000s, the banks that serve as the pillars of the U.S. financial system defrauded the American people, caused the worst global economic crisis since the Great Depression, and essentially got away with it. Only one executive went to jail for a calculated and widespread corruption that tainted every echelon of the U.S.’s top-tier financial institutions, from JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs to the since- collapsed Bear Stearns, AIG, and Lehman Brothers. Millions of Americans lost their jobs, homes, pensions, and retirements, and the big banks that survived the crash were compensated by the U.S. government with a multitrillion-dollar taxpayer bailout. What a disgrace. What a story.
But for all of the self-aware snark and superciliousness, The Big Short is an underdog story at heart. Three characters in particular contribute some moral sensitivity to the otherwise jaded proceedings: Michael Burry (Christian Bale), a brilliant hedge fund manager who detects the housing credit bubble in 2005 and accurately predicts its burst; Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt), a disillusioned former Wall Street trader turned lone wolf; and Mark Baum (Steve Carell), a principled money manager who convinces his team to begin shorting—betting against—securitized subprime home mortgages after Vennett inadvertently alerts them that the vast majority of these mortgages are fraudulent. Baum, Burry, Rickert, and Vennett may seem well intentioned and outspoken against corruption, but their motives are complicated by their knowing they could make a fortune. In the end they all profit from the crisis, with Baum and Rickert expressing only a modicum of remorse for how they cashed in on other people’s pain.
Directed by Adam McKay
