“She’s apologizing for what’s about to happen.”
-Quote from “Margin Call”
A film that draws a person in, traps them in the intricacies of the storytelling, and causes deep thought is a film of true worth in my mind. I’m a huge lover of film, whether it be an action movie from Tom Cruise, an artsy horror film like “The Witch”, or an animated movie such as “Finding Dory.” But on top of those types of big money movies, I love films such as the ones we have watched in class so far. I especially loved “Up in the Air”. It’s plot line, and subtle comedic parts, as well as the moral message it showed throughout drew me in, and is probably forever stuck in my head. So when we, as a class, watched “Margin Call” it was another amazing breath of fresh air. A film with a purpose!
Before delving into what specifically the film is about I want to bring up Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow laid out five different stages/ levels of personal needs. It’s set up in a pyramid, the most basic needs at the bottom, working its way up to personalized needs. Firstly, there are Psychological needs, safety needs, belonging and love needs, esteem needs and self-actualization needs. The basic needs such as the need for food, water and rest are things all people need. The next few are needs I believe the movie “Margin Call” shows how the individuals losing their jobs might feel broken. It brings many of these needs to an unstable point, where it makes me question whether those needs are being fulfilled for these people. Such as needs of esteem and belonging, as well as safety needs.
Now, if someone is reading this, and hasn’t watched the movie, I’m sure they would be confused. Or maybe even mad that I haven’t explained what the movie was about. So I’d like to delve into that immediately to alleviate such stress and confusion. The film focuses on the Wall Street/Stock Market Crash of 2008. Which means it’s a film of distress and trying to come out on top in a very bad situation. A reviewer by the name of Roger Ebert said this in regards to that situation, “"Margin Call" depicts the last night of good times on Wall Street”(“Margin Call Movie Review” Ebert). It seems like that truly was the case. Businesses were flourishing until then, and I’m sure it seemed to be a time of beautiful bounty. Then, all of the sudden, through bad business decisions and other such factors firms started declaring bankruptcy one after another. Which caused the nation's GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and economy to be put on the brink of utter chaos. To fix this Congress pulled a huge bailout to save the economy.
In the film though, viewers didn’t see the bailout. What viewers and myself saw was a firm who, at the beginning of the movie, started cutting employees, pointedly the Risk Department. The quote I used at the beginning of this paper is a line from this part of the film. Where analysts and other employees from this department were being let go. One of these individuals, a head analyst who was working on a program to track and predict what would happen with the company’s business cycle is let go. He hands a zip drive to his protege, played by Zachary Quinto, (a prior rocket scientist) finishes the program and comes to the horrible conclusion that things are about to go horribly awry. After the department finishes their layoffs Sam Rogers, played by Kevin Spacey delivers a speech to the department. “They were good at their jobs, you were better”(“Margin Call”)!
The next 20 hours ended up being a crazy scrambling to retain money, sell stocks (for cheap), and minimize losses, as well as firing many people. I don’t want to skim over the story too much, and I’ll surely reference much more of the story in more detail later in the paper. For right now I just want to add that it was an emotional time in the movie, and a time where individuals morality was deeply questioned. A quote from Will Emerson, played by Paul Bettany, said, “They will make sure they don’t lose. Everyone else will lose money, but they won’t. They don’t lose”(“Margin Call”). Of course, he is talking about the head bosses. This statement marks the truth of the situation. Where normal, middle-class Americans, as well as employees of the firm, lost, and the bosses still came out, (of course) on top.
So a question that ran through my head...Is why did the public lose out while the CEO’s and leaders of the Wall Street Firms that went bankrupt came out fairly unscathed… Well, in the review by Robert Ebert, he says this, “I think the movie is about how its characters are concerned only by the welfare of their corporations. There is no larger sense of the public good. Corporations are amoral, and exist to survive and succeed, at whatever human cost. This is what the Occupy Wall Street protesters are angry about: They are not against capitalism, but about Wall Street dishonesty and greed”(“Margin Call Movie Review” Ebert). It’s no lie that many big corporations most definitely put their bottom line far above the welfare of individuals, the public or lower employees. The movie clearly shows this sad fact. Looking at the media right now it’s fairly obvious this is the case. Between cases of raising needed medication 300% or higher in cost,which harms people, or the Dakota Access Pipeline situation in North Dakota, things are fairly horrible right now.
One of the class articles called “A Stakeholder Theory” brings up Kantian Capitalism, and is written by R. Edward Freeman. I feel like there is a fairly valid quote, right at the beginning of our reading that says, “One way of thinking about a corporation is as a boat, or an ocean, that casts its nets over the side and then hauls in the catch. A corporation is a profit making vehicle dedicated to maximizing returns to its owners; the shareholders”(Freeman). This type of thought, Freeman, throughout the rest of the article shows the issues of, and encourages a different approach. Encouraging corporations and individuals to look at stakeholders, aka, all those affected, and not just stockholders. In the film a quote I found extremely pertinent was, “It doesn’t seem like much of a choice when money is involved”(“Margin Call”).
The film while showing the corporate self centered side of things, also showed a bit of human morality. When tempted with making more money by doing something shady, Will Emerson said about himself and his boss, “We have always had the same ideas about what is right”(“Margin Call”). It showed a side of these men in the film that was needful to know that while some took extreme advantage of the situation, such as corporate CEO’s, some had morality to make things happen and still try to do what was right in their eyes.
I think the prior paragraph ties very well into one of the specific ideas, as a class, that we read. Which is of course about a very special parade of dwarfs. This idea of the lower classes, the observers, being dwarfs, and the upper class would be a parade of giants. By the end of the parade all the dwarfs could see are the knees of these giants, and the giants look down to see the tiny specks of those below them. Do people truly care if small bugs get crushed underneath individual's feet? Not usually. So why would the giants really care what would happen to the dwarves below? The obvious answer is that, they really don’t care too much.
Which brings me back to the idea of morality in business. Do these extremely rich CEO’s, bosses, millionaire business individuals need to have a high moral standard in regard to their business’ and related decisions? According to Albert Z. Carr, in the forward to his article titled, “Is Business Bluffing Ethical” his friend’s opinion of this is that, “If the law as written allows a man a wide-open chance to make a killing, he would be a fool not to take it”(Carr 143). But I think morally, this can be problematic! I can’t fully agree with some people’s idea that ethical sense and realities of business should be separated. But as the movie shows by multiple scenes of the leaders of “The Firm”(“Margin Call”), they think that there is this separation. That it only matters how much money they make, no matter how much they hurt the general populace. As a middle class citizen growing up, and being of a lower class now in college, it almost pains me to see millionaires so upset at losing money, seeings how I live on $300 a week. So for a person to be that selfish, not caring about anyone else, it’s almost difficult to understand. “Talk about ethics by businessmen is often a thin decorative coating over the hard realities of the game”(Carr 148). I suppose if a person was to look at the situation this way, it’s easier to understand. When playing a game, a person wants to win and come out on top. It is I suppose, simply a harsh reality.
I think it’s also a very important thing to note that, at the end of the film, Kevin Spacey’s character said, “All good things come to an end”(“Margin Call”). When greed spans philosophy humanity misses out. The lesser continue to be mistreated, and the rich continue to see themselves as giants deserving to be awash in ‘dirty’ money. At least, that is my opinion based on the facts of this film, our readings, and the differing articles and sources I researched throughout this writing process. To end fully, I would just like to say that I would highly encourage everyone who is interested in the economy, ethics, the U.S. government, wall street, corporate greed, and scandals that hurt the American populace to watch this movie! It is a masterpiece. From the actors, to the plot, to the information shown. Truly a great watch!
_Citations Page_
Ebert, Roger. "Margin Call Movie Review & Film Summary (2011) | Roger Ebert." All Content. Ebert Digital, 19 Oct. 2011. Web. 24 Oct. 2016.
