The Meaning Of The Film The Banker: An Explanation Of The Plot & Ending. In 2020, George Nolfi’s feature film The Banker was released on Apple TV. The declared genre of the film is drama. The plot is based on the real life story of two black businessmen. What is the meaning of the film “The Banker” and what did its author want to tell the viewer?
Description of the story
Black boy Bernard Garett from Texas works as a shoe polisher. But she dreams of becoming an economist, earning money with her mind. Texas is not suitable for this – blacks here can only serve or do manual labor.
In 1953, Bernard (Anthony Mackie) travels to California with his wife and son, where the hero rents out real estate. The difference between his business is that people with any skin color can rent premises from him.
The protagonist actually shows his abilities to businessman Patrick Barker, with whom they become unofficial partners. Patrick puts all the signatures in the contracts, but the profit from the transactions is divided in half.
Suddenly Barker dies. On paper, he is the sole owner of all the purchased property. His heiress wife refuses to cooperate with a black guy – Garett remains out of work.
Bernard’s wife introduces him to a former employer, an influential man, Joseph Morris (Samuel L. Jason). Despite the difference in characters and the negative first impression of each other, men come to mutual cooperation.
In addition to earning money, their joint business is aimed at combating racism. The heroes face a difficult task – to improve the living conditions of black US citizens, to give them the opportunity to live on an equal footing with the “whites”: rent housing in any part of the state and freely take loans.
Joe and Bernard are going to buy a building with the largest banks in Los Angeles. Because of the then flourishing racism in the United States, they personally could not do this. All transactions for the acquisition of banks for them are carried out by Garett’s white acquaintance, Matt Steiner (Nicholas Hoult). Joe and Bernard are his “faceless” contract partners.
Mat understands little about economics, but his comrades teach him all the intricacies of banking. As a result, the guy copes with his task – the transaction is successful.
On a note! It’s no secret that the plot of the film “The Banker” is based on real events. In the middle of the 20th century in the USA, 2 black citizens (names coincide) really bought up the largest banks in California and other states to issue loans to “blacks”, and also rented out houses from “white” areas to them. In the presented picture, the characters and their actions are slightly idealized, and economic subtleties are abolished. On the other hand, the director’s talent and the excellent play of the actors make the drama easy, partly comedic and accessible to any viewer.
Garrett doesn’t stop there. He wants to help black citizens of his native state and persuades Joseph to buy a bank in Texas.
At first, everything goes well, but the desire to be independent, inattention, and excessive self-confidence of Mat lead to the collapse of the business and the closure of Texas banks owned by comrades. Garett and Morris are arrested. Matt faces 50 years in prison.
Ending and hidden meaning
How did the movie “The Banker” end? Mat, with the permission of Garett, puts all the responsibility in the courtroom on the shoulders of partners and avoids punishment. Bernard and Joe refuse to hide the true goals of the business, openly calling for the fight against racism. After serving 3 years in prison, the comrades go to the Bahamas, where they are waiting for 2 banks opened by them earlier and unnoticed by the US Government.
Now let’s figure out what the meaning of the film “The Banker” is. The main theme that haunts viewers throughout the film is the fight against racial superiority.
For a long time after the abolition of slavery, the problem of hatred of the white population towards black citizens dominated most states of America – somewhere more, somewhere less. “Blacks” were humiliated, refused to serve in credit institutions, restaurants, shops, did not give them the opportunity to occupy certain positions. There were entire “white” neighborhoods where blacks were not allowed to enter.
The author reminds the viewers of the inadmissibility of such a situation – after all, even now not everyone is tolerant of representatives of other nations. All people are equal, regardless of their race, gender, taste preferences, and no one has the right to despise others for differences on the listed grounds.
Parallel, but no less important, is the theme of selflessness and courage of people in the struggle for equality. Joe and Bernard weren’t afraid to take their stand on racism in court, even at the cost of their freedom. And how they risked, building their business for the benefit of the black population. How much effort, time and money invested to achieve their goals. And all is not in vain – over time, the problem of inequality was put higher and higher and solved at the state level.
The themes of “friendship” and “fidelity” are also covered here, but how could it be without them. What man does not wish for such a kind, gentle, faithful, loving wife as Yunsi, or such a reliable comrade as Joe and Bernard?
But Met personifies in the film the image of a young, undecided in life and irresponsible person. No, he is not shown here as bad, but his inattention, excessive self-confidence, lack of sober calculation become fatal for everything that was created by the heroes with such difficulty.
Interesting! Samuel L. Jackson put it this way: The point of The Banker is that when we start feeling too smart, everything starts to fall apart.”
Of course, not only the Met is to blame for what happened. Bernard himself, from the guy’s story about an unsuccessful attempt to create his own business, could make a verdict that there was no commercial vein in it. Warned the hero about the unsuccessful choice of the candidate and Joe.
Despite the dramatic nature of the picture, the ending of the film “The Banker” is encouraging and sets viewers in a positive mood. The characters seem to say: “Life will get better!”. And two saving banks make it clear that everything will be just fine for this trio.
So, The Banker is definitely a film with meaning. Interesting, exciting, sometimes sad, and sometimes funny, he looks at one go. In the process of viewing, it is important to hear the author of this deep picture – a person always remains a person, regardless of the color of his skin.
