할리우드 금융위기 서사와 밀레니얼 ‘반(反)영웅’의 탄생

Abstract

The September 11 attacks as well as The Great Recession (which resulted from the subprime mortgage crisis in 2007) has affected the collective identity of Millennials in America. While The September 11 attacks have influenced millennials’ political perspective, the Great Repression has too often determined the economic condition of many millennials through a vicious of bankruptcy, to unemployment, and to increasing pressure to pay back student’s loan, and to bankruptcy again. This article analyzes Hollywood films portraying the financial crisis, subprime mortgage crisis, and financial workers through an antihero lens: Limitless (2011), Cosmopolis (2012), The Big Short (2015) and Buffaloed (2019). Millennials, who were frustrated at the unsuccessful result of Occupy Wall Street, which tried to subvert the financial system, resonated with these films. These films appeal to millennials with an anti-elitism sentiment, particularly against Wall Street, by showing the way that they can appropriate and take advantage of the flaws instead of changing the corrupt system. For example, The Big Short and Buffaloed introduce financial literacy, the ability to understand and effectively manage various financial skills including saving, investing and debt to the audience by characters breaking the fourth wall and talking to the audience directly like an economy tutor. The audience can understand how the financial system works and where it fails and follow how the characters in these films successfully beat the system. The GameStop incident proves a real-life example where minority shareholders manipulated the stock price of GameStop by discussing it on an online forum. This incident (resulting from discussion on subreddit called “Wall Street Bets”) has become an iconic event showing millennials fighting back against Wall Street controlled hedge funds. This event has been also currently being developed into a movie which will portray antihero millennials while the stock price of AMC entertainment, the only film theater stock listed on US stock market skyrocketed and touched more than 20 times in five months by “Wall Street Bets.”