I agree with previous posts: "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" is right up there with the biggest horror films of our time.
#THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM FULL MOVIE TV#
PS: In "Bowling for Columbine", Michael Moore proposed a TV show called "Corporate Cops" (based on "Cops!"), in which people like Ken Lay would get strip-searched. All in all, I definitely recommend "E:TSGITR". The whole way through, the documentary manages to be funny, just at the sight of what Enron was doing, abetted by Arthur Andersen. Enron's downfall - followed over the next year by the implosions of Adelphia, WorldCom and Tyco - just goes to show the dangers of letting corporations run rampant. Not to mention that Enron's collapse was accompanied by Lay's draining of the employees' retirement. Among Enron's more vicious acts was its manipulation of California's electricity in summer, 2001, and how Arnold Schwarzenegger let the company off the hook. What's really interesting is the intricacy of Enron's actions around the world, and how it pulled off all its shenanigans (aided, of course, by Kenny Boy's contributions to George W. The documentary, narrated by Peter Coyote, traces the energy giant's origins - including CEO Ken Lay's childhood - to its rise as one of the largest corporations in the United States. But as "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" shows, it shouldn't have been. When Enron filed for bankruptcy at the end of 2001, it was a shock to most Americans. Well worth a look and yet another good documentary making it into cinemas. A cautionary tale that I doubt that those that needed to learn from have learnt from. However it is well structured and easy to follow, stripping away the feared complexity of the tale and telling it in a fascinating and engaging way. Overall this is not a perfect documentary because it is a bit biased and based on commentary from subjects all on one side of the fence. The film also stretches to bring in Bush and his cronies as if they were also to blame it doesn't labour this point but what little it does is stretched again it could have done less and allowed the audience to draw its own conclusions. Sadly it does use this not to the point of distraction but just to the point where I wondered if the makers didn't think that the facts would be strong enough to make the audience get the point without the extra bit of hammering. Although they lay things out well, the film doesn't manage to avoid nailing its colours to the mast which is a shame because the story is compelling enough and damning enough to work without resorting to cheap digs, funny footage and so on. In fact I did wonder how much this film cost to make because the vast majority of it is stock footage and a handful of interviews.
Lesser hands could have fudged the telling but the team here structure it well and use footage from Enron and C-Span to really good effect. With the Enron film it is all the more interesting because it is a prime example of how it all fell down and how easy it is to con the market which, regardless of the legality of the accounting method used, is basically what they did! The film tells the story well and it is a tale that never struggles to fascinate. So I have watched films like this and like The Corporation with interest and appreciate the way that they sell a complex issue in easy to understand ways. Working for an American multinational myself I am always interested and critical of the business model of making more and more money and keeping the stock increasing in value being the only way to survive. However things would eventually catch up with the company and a few years ago the company collapsed in bankruptcy before the arrests began. And it did so, to the point where it was widely praised within the business community and by stockholders. However this could not go on forever and the company was under pressure to continually come up with new ideas to keep the deals and money flowing. With this in place Enron was able to earn money without actually earning money.
The method allows a company to claim projected earnings from projects once the deal is signed. When Enron was granted permission to use mark-to-market accounting it saw the start of the dramatic increase in its profits and its share price.
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