Good factual story

Rating: 7/10 (22 January 2016)

Well directed movie which tried to explain the collapse of the USA financial market which rippled its way round the world into a global depression. The movie was careful to explain some of the jargon to us in a way that's reasonably easy for us to understand. But this isn't a movie for everyone - it has limited appeal.
It's too simplistic to put all the blame at the door of the big banks – but they do deserve a major chunk of the blame. The SEC and the Ratings Agencies share an equal amount of blame for allowing this situation to become the monster that it did. It's a fact of life that in any disaster, there are winners as well as losers.
Capitalism does have its faults – make no mistake. But for now there isn't a better option. It is evolution at work. It's natural and right for all of us to want to better ourselves. But once greed rears its ugly head, then it gets nasty. As always, it's the have-nots that suffer the most – losing their jobs and struggling to keep a roof over their heads through no fault of their own. That's the reality and sadness of the whole situation.
It is horrendous that very few people were brought to answer for their actions – there was definite criminal activity. There were many people who weren't doing their jobs correctly in order to have prevented this debacle. Sadly, white collar crime isn't treated quite as seriously as all other crimes of theft and fraud by poorer people. But we all have some blame to bear. If we didn't give all our money to the Investment bankers looking for the best return on our dollar, then these situations wouldn't be as dramatic as they were. Society as a whole has to bear some blame too.
I did struggle a bit towards the end with exactly what was happening with these Investors and their funds, but just about hung on. Not enough emphasis was put on the real sufferers – the lower class poor public. People who lost their jobs because the banks collapsed and loans and investments to small businesses dried up. That's the REAL story. Even today people are still suffering from the after effects. It's a dog eat dog world – make no mistake.
I did like the fact that a lot of the events were based on actual events. Superbly acted and well directed. A very good effort. I was somewhat surprised that others in the theater laughed out loud when some of the characters used profanities in the workplace while at tense meetings....c'mon, grow up people - it's not funny to hear people use the F-word. It was used in context of a serious situation and because of the urgency of what was happening in the financial world. The people laughing were adults - not just College kids! Grow up. The words were there as a part of the reality - not for laughs!