Why 'Margin Call' remains Wall Street's favorite movie

https://www.semafor.com/article/04/28/2025/jc-chandor-on-writing-margin-call-and-jeremy-irons

by jmsflknr • 1 year ago

44 28 1 year ago

lapcat• 1 year ago

This is no surprise, because people watched Oliver Stone's 1987 "Wall Street" and took home the message "greed is good". Michael Douglas played his part all too well.

ManuelKiessling• 1 year ago

I‘m no expert in this area, but isn’t it by now an agreed-upon insight that a society of people working towards selfish interests end up unintentionally bettering circumstances for the society at large?

JellyBeanThief• 1 year ago

It very much is not.

fatuna• 1 year ago

I think greed is good for society in the same way that nuclear reactions bring lots of energy. That is to say, it does, but left unchecked it brings destruction.

Ekaros• 1 year ago

Up to certain point, but underlying scenario in this movie pretty clearly proves that lot of greed ends up being just greed. Moving numbers around and not actually producing much real value. Were greed to make money from MBS products really needed? Well there was lot of extra debt to spend on consumption, but clear example of it not lasting forever.

Speculation and gambling is greed and not useful sort. Building new factory because you think you can make money is much better sort of greed.

davkan2• 1 year ago

No? Agreed upon by who? Only libertarians idolize self interest to such a degree as to treat it as some type of natural law.

kristianp• 1 year ago

I enjoy The Big Short more for it being a story about how dysfunctional the housing market had become.

sometimes_all• 1 year ago

I also enjoyed Too Big to Fail, which was the perspective from the Fed and the big bank CEOs point of view.

xfactorial• 1 year ago

Consider the plot and consider it is loosely based on real events.

Also: it’s a highly quoted movie on YouTube where copyright has not been strictly enforced.

Every part of it is a specific area of the business: the lay offs, the move forward after them, the analyst crunching the data, the gathering after his discovery, the communication, the meetings and the decision making.

All of it from the perspective of a financial institution, knowing what we know: I wonder what would have happened if that movie happened 15 years before the crash and the public perception of the content (probably dismissed as “too Hollywood”).

Rzor• 1 year ago

It's also a phenomenal movie.

snowwrestler• 1 year ago

One of the subtle ways in which this movie is so great is that it starts off as the story of a whip-smart junior person who discovers a shocking surprise... but as the movie goes on, it becomes clear that this was actually a risk that senior folks had already suspected and argued about, possibly for years.

By the second or third time watching it, I realized how much of the boardroom scene is kabuki theater. The CEO makes people get up and say their parts not necessarily to learn new information, but to milk the moment and bring everyone through a thought process. I think he knew what he wanted to do before he walked through the door. But he needed everyone else to understand the problem and believe in the drastic solution.

adeon2• 1 year ago

I feel a little stupid for asking... but what does "kabuki theater" mean in this context? Do you mean the CEO in the scene sort of "acted a rehearsed show" in a meeting to make sure everyone in the room followed through some thought process? Or maybe in other words (guessing meaning): making people get up and talk to force them to think through something (CEO's real goal), but the CEO framed it as him simply asking questions? (I have not seen the movie or the scene, apologies if the meaning is more obvious to infer if one has seen it).

I tried googling it but I get some movie theater in San Francisco and a Wikipedia page describing it as a Japanese theatre with dancing and elaborate costumes and flair. I've not seen it used in an expression before.

davkan2• 1 year ago

“Kabuki Theater” usually cynically implies some political posturing. That someone is putting on a show for the audience. It doesn’t imply rehearsal.

E.g. Someone might say that politicians arguing energetically about gun violence are playing it up for their constituents and don’t actually care about the issue. It’s all a performance, neither side actually cares if anything is accomplished. It’s a show for their constituents.

I’m not sure it’s the most apt phrase for the scene but it’s been a while since I’ve seen the movie.

jmcguckin• 1 year ago

This is a great movie. Spacey is great but Jeremy Irons is fantastic. I really like the speech where he says "Speak to me like I was a golden retriever."

Seanambers• 1 year ago

Margin Call hits the spot without becoming overly pompous like The Big Short. Its story is centered around Goldman Sachs.

And make no mistake Wall Street gambles full well knowing that the government will save them - Steve Bannon was right on the spot about that.

keiferski• 1 year ago

I think Margin Call is my choice for a “perfect” movie. It isn’t the most exciting, or impressive, or dramatic, or ___ film, but - it has absolutely no filler, every line of dialogue is exactly the right combination of explanatory and realistic, and the casting is incredibly spot on, especially considering that it’s an ensemble cast of big name stars. That’s as close to perfection as it gets IMO.

Rastonbury• 1 year ago

Wall Street is better imo, it is just relevant to the times of GFC versus the corporate raiders of the 80s

sylens• 1 year ago

It's a fantastic movie and Irons puts on a masterclass. I don't think I've seen Zachary Quinto in anything recently - seemed like he was huge in the early 2010s, going from Heroes to this to Star Trek

ksec• 1 year ago

Margin Call - The traders perspective

The Big Short - Banking, investor, hedgefund perspective

Too Big to Fail - Government perspective

Most of my friends dont like any of the these. Even those who somehow got through them liked Big Short most.

For me Big Short is the last on that list. Margin Call being first by a long short and then Too Big to Fail.

Why 'Margin Call' remains Wall Street's favorite movie

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