The film asks us to look at the pile of gold and realize that the only thing you cannot buy is the one thing that matters: the ability to love someone more than you love your own security.
But Getty refused.
When his grandson was snatched off the streets of Rome and his severed ear was mailed to a newspaper to prove the kidnappers’ sincerity, the world expected Getty to write a check. The ransom was a paltry $17 million. For a man of his wealth, that was the equivalent of a middle-class person today paying for a parking ticket. All the Money in the World
Then there is the story of J. Paul Getty. The film asks us to look at the
Think about the geometry of that cruelty. Your grandson is being tortured in a cave in Calabria. You are calculating compound interest. The most devastating moment in the film comes when Getty’s trusted fixer, Fletcher Chase (played with weary disgust by Mark Wahlberg), returns from delivering the ransom. He tells Getty that the kidnappers, having waited months for the money, grew impatient. To pressure the family, they mutilated the boy. The ransom was a paltry $17 million
In that single line, the thesis is complete. For Getty, the kidnapping was never a crime against his bloodline. It was a failed transaction. The boy’s ear was not a piece of human flesh; it was a market fluctuation. He genuinely believed that a damaged product should be sold at a discount.