Chronicles the financial meltdown of 2008 and centers on Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.Chronicles the financial meltdown of 2008 and centers on Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.Chronicles the financial meltdown of 2008 and centers on Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
- Nominated for 11 Primetime Emmys
- 5 wins & 31 nominations total
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaTITLE DROP: Mentioned by Hank Paulson character while lecturing his aide ("Here's your too big to fail").
- GoofsA poster for Toy Story 3 (2010) is seen in Times Square. This movie takes place in 2008 and Toy Story 3 (2010) wasn't released until 2010.
- Quotes
Ben Bernanke: I spent my entire academic career studying the Great Depression. The depression may have started because of a stock market crash, but what hit the general economy was a disruption of credit. Average citizens unable to borrow money, to do anything. To buy a home, start a business, stock their shelves. Credit has the ability to build a modern economy, but lack of credit has the ability to destroy it, swiftly and absolutely. If we do not act, boldly and immediately, we will replay the depression of the 1930s, only this time it will be far, far worse. We don't do this now, we won't have an economy on Monday.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Ebert Presents: At the Movies: Episode #1.18 (2011)
This is the scariest movie I've ever seen. But that's just me.
As some who works deep in the world of finance and lost sleep with the rest of Wall Street during that dark and disturbing week, it's possible that I'm a little too close to this story. It hits home. Thankfully, Too Big to Fail opens up a window so that the rest of world can look in from the safety of their living room.
Forget monsters, serial killers, and the nouveau low-budget movement of "two guys in a room with a camera and a ghost."
This is real. This happened. This could happen again.
You'll be terrified to see just how close to the brink we came, how close we were to one of the biggest economic disasters in human history. And you'll be shocked to learn about the types of personalities in which the rest of the planet has invested so much power and authority. Troubling, yes. But it's an important piece of history as well.
In terms of production HBO knocked this one out of the park. That's to be expected, I suppose, when you sign one of the great working American directors in Curtis Hanson and use one of the most highly respected chronicles of the financial crisis as your source material. Andrew Ross Sorkin even has a cameo and gets credit as a consulting producer to make sure they got the facts straight.
So it's no wonder such a brilliant, top shelf cast fell in line. HBO must have had their pick of the litter. The names in this movie are not only eerie facsimiles of their real life counterparts, but these are the actors that can really act.
The ever-dependable William Hurt is admirable in the lead, bring a little humanity to Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, but it's the supporting performances that deserve special praise. Billy Crudup boils with intensity as an anxious, f-bomb dropping Tim Geithner, and Paul Giamatti perfectly captures the essence of Ben Bernanke, that quietly authoritative voice that the biggest egos in the world always shut up and listen to. Viewers at home will get a kick out of Ed Asner as Warren Buffett and, as is always the case with Buffett, his folksy charm serves as a bridge into to the arcane world of high finance. And former Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld is appropriately vilified thanks to James Woods, not for being a greedy fraudster, but for being a sadly out-of- touch executive unable to adjust to a world that changed overnight. Despite Fuld's arrogance and bluster, Woods invests him with a subtle sense of dignity.
Too Big to Fail achieves a rare feat for talky dramas: it sustains acute tension for ninety full minutes, never slowing down and never climaxing prematurely.
Even if you're not a financial insider or policy wonk you'll be on the edge of your seat from start to finish.
Just don't watch it late at night.
- TheEconoclast
- Jun 1, 2011
Details
- Runtime1 hour 39 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.78 : 1
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