The Financial Movie
December 2019 Editorial
www.ink2quill.com

There is a long list of movie and book genres for a viewer to chose from nowadays. In fact, that list has grown over the past century to not only include genres such as romance, action and crime but also science fiction, cyberpunk and the financial genre. And the list keeps growing.

Films like Wall Street and The Big Short are the two best examples of this because so many films that fall into the category of a financial film also fall under other categories and so are never listed as such. For example, films about a con or deception that brings a huge payday like The Sting could be put in the financial film genre category. But it is considered only a gangster, action film.

Anywho, the financial genre film is a relatively new category of film that has only increased in popularity because of the times we live in. So what are the characteristcs of the fianancial genre film?

Well for starters it must take place in around the environment of large financial institutions or piles of money. The same way a western film takes place in the wild west of America, the financial genre should take place in the shadow of markets, sweet deals and staggering losses.

The second element to a financial film are the stakes. If the stakes of a gangster film are the very lives of the characters, then in the financial genre the stakes are the chance at winning an unimaginably large jackpot, such as the case with Wall Street, or of suffering a staggering loss. One which might might send an entire financial system into a coma, such as the case with The Big Short.

Another important element of the financial genre is what the main character chases, or seems to chase. In murder mysteries the detective chases the murderer or criminal. In romance it´s simply love. In courtroom films the main character often chases the truth to be presented in a trial and right a serious wrong. In financial films the main character chases money, lots of it, and it is during that chase that they discover certain truths, shocking truths.

I look forward to watching another good financial film. This relatively new genre may become as popular as the western was 50 years ago.

John

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