IV.

LEARNINGS OR LESSONS YOU GOT FROM THE FILM

As we all know, movies are incredible types of entertainment or somewhat a
stress reliever that will help us forget our own lives in a while, and one of these movies
is “The Big Short”. This movie impresses us not only because it was a blockbuster hit,
but because it tells the story of the financial crisis, including those who saw the crash
coming and got insanely rich from it. Thus, it teaches us some financial/business
lessons and below are the following:
1. Shorting the Market is Very Risky
In the movie, it seems that some of the characters have been able to make a
fortune in shorting the market, but in reality, it is quite riskier than the “The Big Short”
made it seem. It requires us to first effectively evaluate the market and afterwards, get
the right timing. Also, both our appraisal of the market and our planning must be
precise. Aside from the fact that shorting the market is risky, i t is also exceptionally hard to
do with consistency and this made us run out of time. Indeed, even with a straightforward
alternative techniques, our options will still expire, but when we stick to a long-term, value-based
approach, it can help us lessen the problem.

2. Don’t Be Too Blind Following the Professionals without Doing Your Homework
This lesson we’ve got from the movie doesn’t only applies to businessmen or
other professionals, this also applies to us, individuals that keeps on relying with those
people who we think that are better than us. In simpler term, this can be applied to
many aspects of life. What we meant by this is we should not immediately follow the
professionals or experts when you, yourself didn’t do your part in making the homework
first. Always remember that no one’s perfect and even highly-paid professionals can be
mistaken. We are uniquely good in our own little ways, so trust yourself and do the
homework first before trusting the professionals.
3. Don’t Underestimate
When we think of taking higher risk, our immediate expectation would be getting
a higher return. Yes, this may sound appealing, but we should not take advantage of it
or we should not underestimate the idea of it because this doesn’t happen all the time.
Before taking a risk, we should comprehend first of what could turn out badly and think
wisely if the risk is really worth it or not.
4. Persistence and Determination
If you really want to achieve your goals and ambitions, then you must be
persistent and determined with you decisions and actions. Even if we face a lot of
challenges, it shouldn’t not be the hindrance for us to stop achieving our dreams, and if
you think of quitting, then think of why you started.
 Actually, there are still lots of lessons we’ve learned from this movie, but these
four lessons we’ve stated are what we think the most important, which could help us
become ethical future business owners as well as become better individuals. We should
keep in mind that shorting the market is risky. We must not directly follow the
professionals without doing our homework first. We shouldn’t underestimate the idea of
“higher risk and higher return”. Lastly, we should be persistent and determined when
achieving our goals.

V. WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THIS MOVIE TO CRITIQUE

In connection with the Mortgage topic from our RFBT 3, this movie digs deep
down on how mortgages can drastically affect our economy in just a short period of
time. Truthfully, legal and financial terminology are mostly hard to follow and understand
especially to those who have little to none vocabulary about law and finance.
Good news! This movie can cater to all legal ages, explaining in layman’s term
about our economy in a legal and financial point of view. But it focuses and uses a true
story event, the year 2007-2008 dramatically re-telling the financial crisis that spooked
the country of USA as the model for the topic. This true story event is the “Great
Recession”, this is a period of marked general decline observed in national economies
globally. This recession was the most severe economic rescission in the United States
since 1930s. This was an expected event due to weakened system, high arrogance and
greedy mouths of the select few. This devastated the world of the financial markets.
Regarding the on the focus event which is the 2007-8 financial crisis. To go into
specifics, it is about housing crisis and global economic meltdowns
The Big Short really makes it apparent on what happened. Of course to not bore
the viewers it included some celebrity cameos, such as The Margot Robbie in a bubble
bath explaining mortgage bonds and subprime mortgages while drinking champagne. A
star power actor, Selena Gomez found at the gambling table. It is entertaining,
humorous, and comical and has a great educational value all at the same time. The
comic + educational values altogether are just enough reason to watch the film.
Certainly, a ‘marvelous message’ can be squeezed out of the movie. The
negative consequences that started to ripple from year 2007 can still be felt to this year
and affects mostly of us, except the Special Top 1% of course. This is a vital film that at
least 18 and above must watch in their lifetime. This can be used as a great topic-starter
for people who are particularly inclined in the finance world.
 Lastly, one of the reasons why we chose to critique this movie is because of the
legendary actors and actresses line-up such as, Brad Pitt, Christian Bale Steve Carell,
Margot Robbie, and Selena Gomez.