The 9th of December is International Anti-Corruption Day.

To understand corruption, let’s study it the American way: American films on American corruption.

  

The Money Masters

This is not as much a documentary as a 3h 30 min lecture on the history of money in the USA. There are no interviews or footage, only pictures overlapping with great quotes and narrating voice-overs.

Still, this MUST-SEE video would help you understand how things are happening today. At first glance, it might look like something passable, but this is the basis for understanding any past, present, and future economy. It is well documented, well synthesized, and well narrated.

Following this presentation, you will understand the following:

• why did the Roman Empire last so long;
• why actual money needed to have a correspondent in gold;
• how the Federal Reserve in the US is a private bank that has the right to print as many dollars as they wish, lend it to the state of the USA, and then illegally tax the American citizens;
• how the Central Banks came around, and how they work;
• the Rothschild family history;
• the truth about the reunion at Jekyll Island;
• and many, many more…

If you are into the economy, you are not allowed to miss this presentation and take notes!

More about the film here. If you like this film, support fundamental research by purchasing the full-quality DVD here

  

 

Inside Job

One of the best documentaries about the financial crisis, it has one of the best-structured approaches I have ever seen in a documentary. It presents the history, the causes, the effects, the actors and the victims, from A to Z. Together with Alex Jones’ “Fall of the Republic”, it is the best film ever done about the new era of the world economy which started in 2007. However, one of the most significant merits of the film is the way it takes a complex issue and approaches it in such a manner that it makes it easy for anyone to understand.

This film has been considered “the most important film at the Cannes festival (2010), the best full-feature documentary of the year (Oscar – The American Academy for Motion Pictures and Sciences). It received the Director’s Guild Award and the Writer’s Guild Award in 2011. it has been presented at the Toronto Film Festival, and it received many awards and nominations for excellence in filmmaking, especially in the US. One of the Oscar receivers said at the ceremony it would be great to have jailed some of the CEOs who were awarded lots of money after their companies broke.

Matt Damon proves his narrating abilities by adding to the film’s atmosphere. A clear-cut 360-degree documentary. A must-see!

My rating: 8 / 10 (Masterpiece)

Trailer

(keep reading ↓)

  

Monopoly Men: The Distant Murmuring of a Secret Government

This is an episode of Phenomenon: The Lost Archives, a TV series of documentaries tracking insightful subjects, narrated by Dean Stockwell. I have seen it initially in English but only found it on YouTube dubbed in Spanish (see below).

This documentary tells the story of how the Federal Reserve of the US is not a National Bank but a private corporation, which has the power to emit currency and then lend it to the US Government and tax its citizens. How did this come to a fact in 1913, when it was founded? Similarly to The Money Masters [review and watch full], this documentary presents the history so that it makes us conceive the implications.

Seeing this, you will better understand how the coup d’etat to the US, supported by President Woodrow Wilson in 1913, financed the First and Second World Wars. The mechanisms that led to the crisis of 1929 are also investigated here, narrowing the focus on this particular interest: how the most crucial money-making machine got out of public control – which will help you understand many things about why today we have some of the specifics of economics.

  

Casino Jack

Director George Hickenlooper, not much known, but the author of some brilliant other movies, takes the true story of an American lobbyist who has managed to scam tens of millions of dollars and, through his story, he creates a portrait of the American political scene which will make you understand how things work in America and how laws are made.

This docudrama is also one of the best parts for Kevin Spacey (the greatest since American Beauty – he also got a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor). Funny, brilliant, excellent. Great script and great acting. A true masterpiece. A movie you will love to watch again and again. Definitely, a must-see.

My rating: 8 / 10 (masterpiece)

(keep reading ↓)

 

The Informant! (2009)

Steven Soderbergh, one of the best film directors in Hollywood, is famous for the brilliant and extensive way he approaches tough subjects such as drug trafficking (Traffic, 2000, Oscar for best film director), sex (Sex, Lies and Videotape, Palme D’Or, Cannes, 1990), corporate trials (Erin Brockovich, 2000 – Julia Roberts’ Oscar for best actress), bureaucracy (Kafka, 1991) and rise of communism in Latin America (Che, part I & part II, 2008).

Based on the book of Kirk Eigenwald, written after a real story, this corporate thriller is masterfully plotted around Matt Damon’s character, who helps the FBI to bring down a company but gets drawn and lost within his own lies. A unique informant, Mark Whitacre, will leave you absolutely speechless. Seeing this movie, you will understand how easy it is to steal millions of dollars and lose count of it by treating it like a misdemeanor.

My rating: 6 / 10 (good movie)

(keep reading ↓)

Other 2 films:

  

Miss Sloane

  

Syriana

(keep reading ↓)

Enjoy watching all of them!

 

Marcus Victor Grant

Copyright text © Marcus Victor Grant 2010-present. Updated for publishing in 2021. Copyright © Marcus Victor Grant, all rights reserved.

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