Inside Job, Blu-ray (2010)
Documentary by Charles Ferguson
Narrator: Matt Damon
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics 36913 [2/8/11]
Video: 2.35:1 anamorphic/enhanced 1080p HD color
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, English, Spanish, French, Arabic, German, Hindi, Turkish
Extras: Commentary track by Director & Producer, Deleted scenes (over 60 minutes), “The Making of Inside Job,” BD Live enabled
Length: 108 minutes
Rating: *****
Charles Ferguson encores his Iraq documentary No End in Sight with this important explanation of the global financial crisis of 2008. It opens and closes in Iceland – a country that was doing well, who tried the American-style deregulated banking, and wrecked their country. Ferguson isn’t as hard-pushing as Michael Moore, but he gets plenty of squirms and refusals from some of his interviewees – notably George Bush’s economic adviser Glenn Hubbard, who upped the whole deregulation that was started in motion during the Reagan Administration. Ferguson makes it plain that the borders between Wall Street, Washington’s government and the Ivy League were dissolved years ago.
This is the first documentary to clearly expose the shocking truth behind the 2008 economic crisis, and it’s not that complicated to understand either. The global financial meltdown cost over $20 trillion and resulted in millions of people losing their homes and their jobs. The documentary traces the rise of a rogue industry of unprincipled bankers interested only in making themselves wealthy by corrupting logic, politics, regulation and academia – starting with encouraging loans on sub-prime mortgages. Robert Gnaizda lists the various groups who should but have not been prosecuted by the Obama government. When asked why this hasn’t happened, he replies: “It’s a Wall Street government.” Obama has given top government positions to people involved in the crisis, which explains why none of them have been sent to prison for their serious crimes. It is clear the leaders of the crisis knew exactly what they were doing, and since the government bailout – costing taxpayers billions – they are not only not serving time but making even more outrageous profits for themselves than before.
Alan Greenspan comes across as one of the primary parties responsible for the crisis, as well as earlier on President Reagan for beginning the deregulation of investment banking, followed by President Clinton for continuing it. Among the many amazing revelations of the documentary is that there are now five lobbyists for every single lawmaker in Congress! Ferguson points out that for over 40 years there were no serious national financial crises due to government regulation, but now that that was lifted there have been several, of which the 2008 crisis in many ways equals the great Depression. The over an hour of deleted interviews fills out the documentary. The majority of the shots are of highest quality in the Blu-ray transfer; there is only a minimum of TV footage to illustrate some points. Good use of stills of some of the government and banking figures, since many refused video interviews. There is also an online study guide available at www.insidejobstudyguide.com
— John Sunier
