Inside
Job is a documentary about the financial crisis that happened during the
late 2000s. This film explores how changes in the policy and banking practices
helped to cause this financial crisis. This was one of the most convincing
documentaries I have seen. The makers of this film did an excellent job of
proving to the audience what they were saying was absolutely true. There were
many devices and stylistic choices that were used to make this film so
effective and believable. Another aspect of this film that made it so
influential to me was that it was not really politically biased.
The majority of events discussed in
this film happened during the Bush administration so a lot of focused on the
governmental decision made under his presidency. The financial crash happened
in 2008, which was when Obama started his presidential campaign. The film went
on to discuss how Obama made fixing this financial crisis the staple of his
campaign. While watching this I figured the film was going to start discusses
how much better Obama was than Bush, but it pretty much did the opposite. Even
after Obama was elected president, he kept many of the people who caused these
problems as financial advisors for America. This film could have really easily
tried to blame President Bush for
all of the financial problems and cover up, but I thought it was interesting
the film believes that Obama’s administration is not making the situation any
better.
This
film relied heavily on interviews to tell the story. The filmmakers did a very
good job of interviewing people on both sides of the issue. With the
interviews, it was very easy to see who were the “good” people and who were the
“bad.” The “good” people were always open to answer any questions they were
asked, and the people who were accused of wrongdoing were very defensive and
often asked for the camera to be turned off. In addition, the filmmakers did a
good job of convincing the audience who was guilty by talking about a person
and then saying that they refused to be interviewed for this film. This was a
very convincing technique. Every time they did this I automatically assumed the
person was guilty.
This
documentary was very effective. It was done is such a way that I honestly
believed everything I was being told. I don’t know if this is a good or bad thing,
but it was what the film set out to do and it did a very good job.
I haven't seen this, but it's refreshing to hear that the blame didn't go to a particular politician or political party. This isn't easy to do, because almost everyone has some sort of a bias, and that either comes out or they start to just look wishy-washy. It sounds like this film did a well-balanced job of presenting the facts and not placing the blame (at least on the people who most often get blamed).
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering if there was any sort of call-to-action or a plea for justice, or if this was just a film who's purpose is to raise awareness. A film's agenda is something that I think also contributes to it's bias, whether they are trying to or not. There's a big difference between presented facts and changing minds.
I love a film where it presents the information in such a way where there seems to be very little bias theme in the film. I feel that making a film with very little persuasion one way or the other takes a lot of commitment and gusto. The film seemed like it was ably to present Obama as it really was and Bush as he really was and use the whole government as the reasons why the financial crisis happened rather than just blaming one president. One interesting point that you brought up was how the interviews played a big role in getting the truth out. The fact that the people who were quiet and not willing to indulge in the conversations showed that they were insecure and those who were willing to be interviewed and give their thoughts gave light to the situation. It's neat out having interviews really can open up the philosophical door because once people feel that they can open up and share their thoughts the story becomes so much more meaningful.
ReplyDeleteYou also said how you believed everything you were being told. I think that is a great accomplishment of film maker and it a good thing. You are a smart person and can think and reason for yourself. If a film can help you understand what both sides of a subject are and give you all the answers that came as you watched the film. I am interested to watch this because the way you have said it was so informing and in biased. I feel like anything that deals with information including the government is so biased because it is trying to speak to one of the parties.