Too Big to Fail (film) explained

Genre:Biographical drama
Director:Curtis Hanson
Music:Marcelo Zarvos
Country:United States
Language:English
Producer:Ezra Swerdlow
Cinematography:Kramer Morgenthau
Runtime:98 minutes
Network:HBO

Too Big to Fail is a 2011 American biographical drama television film directed by Curtis Hanson and written by Peter Gould, based on Andrew Ross Sorkin's 2009 non-fiction book Too Big to Fail. The film aired on HBO on May 23, 2011. It received 11 nominations at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards; Paul Giamatti's portrayal of Ben Bernanke earned him the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie at the 18th Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Plot

In 2008, news channels are full of reports about the mortgage industry crisis and the forced sale of troubled investment bank, Bear Stearns, to commercial banking giant JPMorgan Chase, with Federal guarantees. With Bear Stearns out of the picture, short sellers turn their attention on another investment bank, Lehman Brothers.

With their share price falling rapidly, Lehman Brothers tries to negotiate a deal with Korean investors. The deal hinges on the condition that Lehman's toxic real estate is excluded, but falls through when CEO Dick Fuld insists the Koreans reconsider accepting the real estate assets. The most promising US-based buyer for Lehman, Bank of America, is uninterested without Fed involvement, but U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is adamant that the government will not subsidize any more acquisitions.

To resolve the situation, Paulson and President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Timothy Geithner, gather the leaders of the biggest US banks over a weekend, trying to coerce them to underwrite the deal. The bank leaders seem to reach an agreement, but Bank of America backs out, choosing instead to buy another threatened firm and Lehman's rival, Merrill Lynch. Paulson tries to negotiate for Lehman with British bank Barclays, but their involvement is blocked by British banking regulators. With no buyers remaining, Lehman is forced into bankruptcy.

Lehman's collapse affects the entire financial system. Paulson tries to reassure news media of the soundness of the decision to let Lehman fail, but the stock market goes into freefall. Meanwhile, insurance firm AIG also begins to fail. French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde warns Paulson that he must not allow AIG to fail, as the crisis is affecting Europe as well. Unlike Lehman, the Treasury rescues AIG with an $85 billion loan, deeming it “too big to [let] fail”.

Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve System, argues that Congress must pass legislation to authorize any continued intervention by the Fed or the Treasury. With the availability of credit drying up, Paulson's plan is to buy the toxic assets from the banks to take the risk off their books and increase their cash reserves. Bernanke and Paulson lobby Congress, with Bernanke emphasizing the potential of fallout worse than the Great Depression if they fail to act. The committee of representatives appear close to agreeing, when U.S. Senator and Presidential candidate John McCain, with great fanfare, announces that he is suspending his campaign and returning to Washington to work on the legislation.

Paulson has to threaten McCain not to interfere, and beg the Democrats not to back away from the negotiations. After a wave of panic and personal haranguing from President George W. Bush, the legislation passes on a second attempt and the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) is created. Paulson's team realizes that buying toxic assets will take too long, leaving direct capital injections to the banks as their only option to use TARP to get credit flowing again. Along with FDIC Chair Sheila Bair, Paulson informs the banks that they will receive mandatory capital injections. The banks agree to the loans, but TARP legislation stops short of forcing them to use the money to restore credit for ordinary consumers.

The stock market continues falling until 2009 when it finally stabilizes, signaling the end of the crisis. An epilogue notes that the banks made little use of the loan money to ease credit conditions as intended, while Wall Street compensation continued to rise, reaching $135 Billion by 2010.[1]

Cast

The cast includes the following:[2]

Reception

Critical reception

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 74%, based on 27 reviews, and an average rating of 6/10.[3] On Metacritic, the movie received a weighted average score of 67/100 from 17 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[4]

The A.V. Club gave the film a B rating.[5]

Awards and nominations

YearAwardCategoryNominee(s)ResultRef.
Artios AwardsOutstanding Achievement in Casting – Television Movie/Mini SeriesAlexa L. Fogel and Christine Kromer [6]
Hollywood Post Alliance AwardsOutstanding Color Grading – TelevisionKevin O'Connor[7]
Outstanding Sound – TelevisionMichael Kirchberger, Chris Jenkins, and
Bob Beemer
Online Film & Television Association AwardsBest Actor in a Motion Picture or MiniseriesWilliam Hurt[8]
Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture or MiniseriesPaul Giamatti
Best Direction of a Motion Picture or MiniseriesCurtis Hanson
Best Writing of a Motion Picture or MiniseriesPeter Gould
Best Ensemble in a Motion Picture or Miniseries
Primetime Emmy AwardsOutstanding Miniseries or MovieCurtis Hanson, Paula Weinstein,
Jeffrey Levine, Carol Fenelon, and
Ezra Swerdlow		[9]
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a MovieWilliam Hurt
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a MoviePaul Giamatti
James Woods
Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic SpecialCurtis Hanson
Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic SpecialPeter Gould
Primetime Creative Arts Emmy AwardsOutstanding Casting for a Miniseries, Movie or a SpecialAlexa L. Fogel and Christine Kromer
Outstanding Cinematography for a Miniseries or MovieKramer Morgenthau
Outstanding Main Title DesignMichael Riley, Bob Swensen,
Adam Bluming, and Cory Shaw
Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Miniseries or a MovieBarbara Tulliver and Plummy Tucker
Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Miniseries or a MovieJimmy Sabat, Chris Jenkins, and
Bob Beemer
Satellite AwardsBest Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television[10]
Best Actor in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for TelevisionWilliam Hurt
Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Miniseries or Motion Picture
Made for Television		James Woods
Television Critics Association Awards[11]
Art Directors Guild AwardsExcellence in Production Design Award – Television Movie or Mini-SeriesBob Shaw, Miguel López-Castillo,
Katya Blumenberg, Larry M. Gruber,
Holly Watson, Peter Hackman,
and Carol Silverman		[12]
Cinema Audio Society AwardsOutstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Television Movies and Mini-SeriesJames Sabat, Chris Jenkins,
Bob Beemer, and Chris Fogel		[13]
Golden Globe AwardsBest Miniseries or Television Film[14]
Best Actor – Miniseries or Television FilmWilliam Hurt
Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television FilmPaul Giamatti
Guild of Music Supervisors AwardsBest Music Supervision for Television Long Form and MovieEvyen Klean
Producers Guild of America AwardsDavid L. Wolper Award for Outstanding Producer of Long-Form TelevisionCarol Fenelon, Jeffrey Levine, and
Paula Weinstein		[15]
Screen Actors Guild AwardsOutstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or MiniseriesPaul Giamatti[16]
James Woods
Writers Guild of America AwardsLong Form – AdaptedPeter Gould;
Based on the book by Andrew Ross Sorkin		[17]

Home media

The DVD was released on June 12, 2012.[18]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Too Big to Fail. Complete Season DVDs. June 28, 2012. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20160305235459/http://www.completeseasondvds.com/dvd-info/B004EPYZDA/Too-Big-to-Fail.html. March 5, 2016.
  2. Web site: Too Big to Fail: Cast & Crew . January 31, 2012. . HBO Movies.
  3. Web site: Too Big to Fail (2011) . . . June 25, 2018.
  4. Web site: Too Big To Fail Reviews. Metacritic. CBS Interactive. June 25, 2018.
  5. Web site: Too Big To Fail. The A.V. Club. The Onion. June 25, 2018. May 23, 2011. Scott. Tobias.
  6. Web site: 2011 Artios Awards . September 26, 2011 . www.castingsociety.com . en.
  7. Web site: 2011 HPA Awards . . September 8, 2022.
  8. Web site: 15th Annual TV Awards (2010-11) . Online Film & Television Association . May 15, 2021.
  9. Web site: Too Big to Fail . Emmys.com . . July 13, 2017.
  10. Web site: 2011 Satellite Awards . . . July 10, 2021.
  11. Web site: The Television Critics Association Announces 2011 TCA Awards Nominees . June 13, 2011 . . June 15, 2013 . dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20140213154537/http://tvcritics.org/2011/06/13/the-television-critics-association-announces-2011-tca-awards-nominees/ . February 13, 2014 .
  12. Web site: Nominees/Winners . . July 29, 2018.
  13. Web site: 'Hanna,' 'Hugo' and 'Moneyball' Nominated for Cinema Audio Society Awards . January 19, 2012 . . May 9, 2019.
  14. Web site: Too Big to Fail – Golden Globes . . July 5, 2021 . .
  15. News: Kilday. Gregg. Producers Guild Awards Name 'The Artist' Motion Picture of Year; 'Boardwalk Empire' Scores TV Drama (Winners List). February 9, 2018. The Hollywood Reporter. January 21, 2012.
  16. Web site: The 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards . . May 21, 2016.
  17. Web site: Previous Nominees & Winners: 2012 Awards Winners. Writers Guild Awards. May 7, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20150512181500/http://www.wga.org/wga-awards/previous-nominees-winners.aspx. May 12, 2015. dead.
  18. Web site: Too Big to Fail. Complete Season DVDs. June 28, 2012. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20160305235459/http://www.completeseasondvds.com/dvd-info/B004EPYZDA/Too-Big-to-Fail.html. March 5, 2016.

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