I agree with you, however we were flooded with stories of people working in McDonald’s getting 500K mortgages. When the collapse happened, the story out of Washington was it was our fault. They blamed poor loan decisions and the fact that the poor banks were forced to lend to minorities. Well, we had no other choice but to bail them out. “It wasn’t the banks fault.”
I think the movie does a good job of pulling the curtain back.
Depending on who was telling the "story," one of the many different "stories" out of "Washington" (i.e., the same politicians who created the regulatory mess in the first place) was that it was "our" fault... "We" (the people / humans) have what is known as a "confirmation bias", so we tend to see, hear and choose the "stories" we would like to believe in the first place (or be comfortable with, or get angry about — depending on whichever your natural tendencies or preferences usually are and/or whichever chemical, hormonal or situational/circumstantial mood is at the time)...
Just because the "Big Short" is telling you just one of the "stories" and manages to make sweeping conclusions by injecting its political "color" and point of view (however clumsy, as Jeffrey Tucker and others pointed out) doesn't mean that it is the correct point of view unless you really want to believe it, or have no [other, real] facts before you.
They blamed poor loan decisions and the fact that the poor banks were forced to lend to minorities.
And you don't see anything wrong with them laying off that blame on someone else, other than themselves? As an example, isn't Dodd-Frank law named after the two people who were the principals in demanding relaxed lending standards to accommodate certain "disadvantaged minorities" and "poor" (not necessarily poor, but those who were not able to afford higher mortgages when market prices went up which is usually what happens with higher demand) and who were screaming the loudest, standing in the way of reforming the "accountable" federal agencies and GSEs, in the name of the "social justice"? "We" always want to put the blame on someone else for "our" own mistakes or misfortunes — those who were able to "flip" the properties and were the winners in the "musical chairs" game of "flipping" real-estate before mortgage market collapsed felt/feel pretty smart for taking advantage of the opportunity provided to them by the government and dutifully executed by the banks, some of which saw the danger and have taken the measures to protect themselves — i.e., "insurance" or selling most of the "paper" in the forms of MBS and CDOs to others who were either "greedy" or had no [real] choice in the matter). Are we ever blaming or asking the questions of those who were buying the properties knowing they had no means or reserves to pay back the mortgage? Well, we had no other choice but to bail them out.
The "bank bailout" really had nothing to do with whose "fault" it was, it had everything to do with stopping the collapse of the [U.S. and the world's] financial system, which was necessary and proper, as the government (and the Fed / Central Banks) is ultimately the "last resort" in these rare occasions. And of course, the government was in great measure responsible for this particular financial crisis (compare with the Dot-Com / Internet / telecom / technology crash of 2000-2001 when no "heroic measures" needed to be and were not taken because the "financial system" was not affected while the finances of many people, financial institutions, pension funds that participated in the "bubble" became vapor or suffered greatly...)
And the "bank bailout" eventually didn't cost taxpayers a penny, most of the loans were repaid with interest and in the aggregate the Fed and the government ended up with the surplus of money made on the "bailout"... not even mentioning the money from all the phony "nuisance" and "social justice" lawsuits against the surviving banks that followed and are still going on today from federal agencies and states' and cities' Attorney Generals and every two-bit "regulators" who see the banks as nothing more than a "pot of money" they can tap whenever they want money and burnishing their political cred, ambitions and careers.
"It wasn't the banks fault."
Sorry, but unfortunately, that's not the prevailing view, probably not even on FR, where I constantly see the incessant blame for Great Recession and sluggish economy laid on the "banksters" and The Fed and calls for wholesale "perp walks."
Again, "we" always want to blame someone else for the troubles, and the politicians who are often actually responsible for the societal problems (minimum wage, mandates, regulations, ObamaCare, "public" debts and deficits, just to name a few) are great at pointing fingers and convincing people — who are not known for researching the facts, especially when they are drowned in media carrying the [liberal / Krugmanian] point of view on most things of financial nature — of some large scale "industry" malfeasance.
"Big Short" is not swimming upstream here, trying to sell people on what they either already believe, or are very receptive to believing... In terms of Hollywood's "production values" it is well made and has plenty of stars, it's also a fun "commercial" for ill-advised and stifling Dodd-Frank "reform" of banking industry, giving even more power and creating more (and more expensive) government bureaucracies.