The International Movie

Getting ready for our Oscar party so I will just say a few words about The International. (Sorry for this huge poster but it was either this or a postage stamp!)

It may be improbable: an international bank becomes an arms broker, but is really buying up the debt of small countries involved in armed conflicts; plus they are buying and selling the same arms systems to their really big “accounts”.

An Interpol agent, Salinger, played by Clive Owen, is a desk jockey analyst who finally cannot take it anymore when various agencies stonewall him and refuse to investigate the bank.

The plot is as circular as the stairway in New York’s Guggenheim museum where an really over-long shoot out takes place. But that’s ok if you don’t mind shoot outs.

The ending is the most ironic (and cyncical) conclusion to a film I have ever seen. But it is a really intersting movie that makes you want to ask questions about … where all the money comes and where it goes.

-SPOLIER ALERT-

The ending: Why go through all the legal – and illegal hoops – to get the bad guys when all you had to do was call the mafia? It would have saved so much time.

The plot may be fiction, but I think the part about an international bank (think China rather than a financial institution in a small European country)becoming rich by buying up debt is a pretty strong point to make. After all, this is how China “owns” us, right?