Late Night Schlock: Financial Meltodrama
Posted: May 23, 2011 Filed under: Bailout Blues, Economy, financial institutions, Global Financial Crisis | Tags: Ed Asner, HBO Too Big To Fail, Paul Giametti, William Hurt 20 Comments
HBO premiers its adaptation of Andrew Ross Sorkin’s “Too Big to Fail” today at 9 ET/PT. I’ve got my bowl of popcorn all ready. My Businessweek hit my mailbox today detailing the all-star line up of the still living cast of real life crisis players. That’s Paul Giametti as Ben Bernanke over there on the left. William Hurt plays Hank Paulson. Ed Asner plays Warren Buffet. Oh, and Dan Hedaya plays Barney Frank. Did you ever imagine Hollywood recreating Barney Frank? It’s sort’ve humorous to think of all these Hollywood types playing Wall Street and Washington insiders. Same big Egos. Same program of you’re only as good as your last deal.
I’m still “reeling” from the idea of Business Week doing a Move Review.
Too Big to Fail, which premieres on May 23, follows the same trajectory as Sorkin’s book, from the collapse of Bear Stearns that spring to the rise of TARP in the fall. To the film’s credit, it attempts to make many of these still-horrifying moments pretty funny—and squeezes them all into 98 minutes. While the movie doesn’t shed much new light on the period, it offers one of the few pleasures left unfulfilled by the gusher of nonfiction thrillers, roman à clefs, wrist-slapping documentaries, and Oliver Stone. The bankers and government officials who rose to prominence in those months are depicted in all their glory and disgrace by real Hollywood actors—most of whom are far better-looking versions of the people they’re portraying. (Tim Geithner is pretty handsome, but Billy Crudup? Really?) TARP groupies will delight in the film’s attention to detail. Leon, the coffee cart guy parked outside Lehman’s office building, gets a chance to extend his five minutes of fame. The hideous toupee worn by Matthew Modine—playing Merrill Lynch Chief Executive Officer John Thain—might be the worst fake movie hair since Burt Reynolds’s heyday.
For the uninitiated, director Curtis Hanson—who won an Oscar for writing L.A. Confidential—drops some not-so-subtle hints. A voice-over in an opening scene refers to JPMorgan Chase’s (JPM) Jamie Dimon (Bill Pullman) as the “smart” banker; Lloyd Blankfein (Evan Handler) is called the “superstar”; and Citigroup’s (C) Vikram Pandit (Ajay Mehta) is called neither. As Hank Paulson (William Hurt) declares, “No one is sure if he’s running Citi or Citi is running him.” Fuld, played in all his vein-popping glory by James Woods, needs no description at all. Viewers are shown, in no uncertain terms, his ginormous hubris as he screws up a potential deal with Korea Development Bank. After being told by Lehman Chief Operating Officer Bart McDade to stay out of the negotiations, Fuld barges in, scares off the bidders, and blows what could have been a precious lifeline.
Here’s the review from LA Times TV critic Robert Lloyd.
The film’s main argument, really, is that we should look kindly upon Paulson and the best he tried to do; the other characters we rate by whether they help or hinder him. What moral voice there is here mostly comes out of his mouth. “We’ve been late on everything,” he admits, and admits also that no one in power wanted to regulate the financial industry because “We were making too much money.” (That’s about as pointed as the film gets on the subject of corporate greed.) Hurt, who (like his costars) seems to be playing the script rather than imitating the person whose name he bears, is a tall tower of movie-star appeal, and it does not hurt our opinion of Paulson that Kathy Baker plays his wife, although she has not much to do but sympathize.
So, if you’re up for an evening about the masters of the universe played by Hollywood’s elite character actors, you know where to go tonight. Here’s the trailer with its theme song Fortunate Song by Credence Clearwater Revival which is a damned good choice and a brief interview with Giametti. I also put him the HBO back story that’s part of the Opening the Vault series.
This has some of the back story on TARP and the meltdown including interviews with journalists that covered the event and the aftermath.
You can consider this an open thread. I’m at home still trying to kick my fever with a larger dose of antibiotics. No beer with the popcorn tonight. (sigh) I’m okay but this stuff is just friggin’ persistent.
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I hope the antibiotics keep working, Dak.
I think I’m going to wait and watch this one on demand. I don’t think I could deal with it tonight.
But, come on–who really thinks Tim Geither is “handsome?” Give me a break. He looks like a weasel.
I still stand pat with my Beavis comparison.
Wish we had HBO, Dan Hedaya was great as Nixon in the movie Dick.
I hope you get rid of the MRSA this time Dak.
Popcorn sounds real good…
So far I am riveted but I’m a finance geek.
I’m riveted too. How much of this is true?
It’s supposed to be based on the Sorkin book which is nonfiction. Most of the events are true but they’re relying on Paulson’s book and some interviews probably for some of those meetings. I know Sorkin interviewed most of the players at the time.
It does seem very flattering for Paulson though except the parts where he forgets to consult and ask all the parties to different deals like the British Bank regulator e.g. Barclay buying Lehman brothers.
That’s what I meant. Paulson, Geitner, and Bernanke come off as the good guys, working to save America and the world from the banker’s greed. I didn’t think they were so innocent in all of this.
Lol That jumped out at me too, with the high forehead, the hair and the pointy ears it’s like Beavis mated with an alien. I guess he’s handsome compared to our future President Jo-Jo the Talking Donkey, though. Feel better, dak.
As I remember it, Sorkin’s book kind of gives Hank Paulson a pass. Does the movie commnet on how Goldman was participating in the Credit Default Swaps while he was chair of Goldman. Do they comment on AIG counter parties were paid 100% versus taking a cut in negotiations
Nope, it’s not that technical. It was only 1 1/2 hours long and it’s fast paced. Paulson was treated kindly by this movie.
Hey y’all want to see something sick…
Molester living legally above children’s museum | ajc.com
The Children’s Museum did not even know he was living there.
How does Bernanke come off in the movie. My view is that Greenspan was singularly a problem and Bernanke was not far behind in terms of mis managing the solution. Despite his Ivy League status, he was actually a desciple of Chicago Freidman
Bernanke comes off as the academic who knows this is really really bad and says so in pretty straight terms to every one involved. Geithner looks like some one who keeps trying to work deals and knows the inner workings of things. Paulson keeps trying for private market solutions but can find none and finally just does what’s necessary.
The CEOs are all petulant children for the most part.
Kat, did you ever see Michael Moore’s Capitalism a love story? What did you think about it.
It was on one of the other movie channels this weekend. Of course Moore paints Obama as a savior coming to save us. (That part of the movie irritated me to no end.) But he did put Paulson Geithner and Summers (and a bunch of the others) as the ones who f’d things up.
Just saw this over at New Deal:
HBO’s Too Big to Fail: Searching for Heroes in All the Wrong Places » New Deal 2.0
Dak – could you share with us your view of Paulson switching from purchase of toxic debt to providing the banks money directly.
I think that is realy the thory of Freidman. Can we say anything about how well that worked?
I have the view that it helped the recovery. However I still favor nationalization of the banks and a strong fiscal program building up the infrastructure.
the financial system was crashing and the toxic asset buy would’ve taken too long ..it meshes with bernanke’s research on the great depression as being a shortage of commercial and consumer credit. It was rumored that no bank was going to roll their commercial paper so even McDonald’s wasn’t going to make their corporate payroll. They weren’t the only multinational multiconglomerate either. The contagion had spread out of the money sector and they didn’t have time to work those deals. Imagine trying to value that crap alone getting every one to agree to it.
In a way, one could say that McDonalds and GE were over leveraged because they did not have corporate reserves to make weekly payrol.
That basically says business models need to be revised. If you do not have revenues to make weekly payroll, you need to revise business procedures. The role of a manager is to access, take and manage risk. You get paid the big bucks to keep your company out of trouble.
JP Morgan head (Jamie Diamond) says this lies 100% on the bank CEO’s.
It is the sophisticated cash management models that they use now. The don’t want any “idle” dollars. Problem is that life and the economy aren’t always business as usual.
Everything in the movie was known as it was happening…but such events are only allowed to be shown as drama/history, not news. So we have to wait 2 years for the news report. And of course the same cast is still in place, ready for the sequel