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Enron - The Smartest Guys in the Room
2005
Enron's former chief executive Jeffrey Skilling and founder Kenneth Lay have been found GUILTY of conspiracy and fraud following the 15 week trial which involved a total of 54 witnesses and a jury of eight women and four men. The decision came after six days of deliberations, with Kenneth Lay proving to be guilty on all 6 of .. Read more
| Starring | John Beard, Jim Chanos, Carol Coale, Peter Coyote |
|---|---|
| Director | Alex Gibney |
| Genres | Documentary |
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Enron - The Smartest Guys in the Room
Enron's former chief executive Jeffrey Skilling and founder Kenneth Lay have been found GUILTY of conspiracy and fraud following the 15 week trial which involved a total of 54 witnesses and a jury of eight women and four men. The decision came after six days of deliberations, with Kenneth Lay proving to be guilty on all 6 of his charges and Jeff Skilling found guilty on 19 of the 26 charges he faced. The former executives have been found guilty of misleading the public about the true financial health of Enron, which has become one of the biggest business scandals in U.S. history and has sent shockwaves through corporate boardrooms worldwide.
| Starring | John Beard, Jim Chanos, Carol Coale, Peter Coyote |
|---|---|
| Director | Alex Gibney |
| Studio | 20TH CENTURY FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | Watch now: 1 hr 44 mins |
| Certificate | DVD: , Watch Online: |
| Genres | Documentary |
| Language | DVD: English Watch Online: English |
| Released | DVD: 11 Sep 2006 Watch now: 30 Oct 2009 Production year: 2005 |
| Watch now | £2.49 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews
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America! How big is your crack pipe, and how often do you smoke it? When you have aggressions, do you wield your crack... read more on Time Out
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Most helpful member's review
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42 out of 60 people found this review helpful
[Highly rated reviewer]
A Great Watch
With the advent of Michael Moore, sermonizing documentaries attacking every aspect of how the American Dream can fail have become a genre of their own in America. ‘Enron – The Smartest Guys in the Room’ is easily one of the best, surpassing its rivals by avoiding the pitfall of painting everything black and white, indulging in the melodramatic half truths much beloved of Michael Moore.
You simply couldn’t make up the Enron story if you tried, and to director Alex Gibney’s credit he’s realised this, allowing the bare facts – memos, phone calls, conversations – to do the incriminating. The overall effect isn’t flashy, but for that very reason is all the more credible.
Gibney cares much more about the how than the what: we know what the Enron executives were – criminals – but it is how they became criminals which is so interesting. The film gives us a peek inside the parallel universe of delusional, tortured logic that passed for reality at Enron. I did not find myself in sympathy with Lay, Skilling or Fastow, but I felt that afterwards I at least understood their motivations beyond simple greed.
As a story about how a company dedicated itself to hiding the truth and confusing people, it is no small triumph that Gibney is able to explain clearly what fraud was committed and how. The judicious use of footage showing Enron executives lying through their teeth set against the actual facts eloquently expresses how deep the dissimulation went.
Where the film was weak was on the shady political dealings with the Bush White House and with regard to Governor Gray Davis’ recall. Clear and incontrovertible arguments which were everywhere else apparent were conspicuous by their absence in these sections, and I was left unclear as to with what Gibney was actually accusing those involved.
This documentary is superior to others in its genre because it seeks out the uncomfortable truths. Complacency cannot be prosecuted, but it was clearly as much to blame as the greed of Enron executives for what happened. The ease with which so many otherwise ethical people lost their moral compass is remarkable and reminds us that not only could it happen again, but next time it could be us.
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- aneurin from Oxford
- Posted 07 Aug 2007 16:58
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Most recent members' review
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8 out of 8 people found this review helpful
[Highly rated reviewer]
Unbelievable greed is fascinating
This is an absolutely fantastic look at how greed can spiral out of control and lies can decieve even the peolple who start them.
Even if you don't understand how markets and massive corporate companies work ( I don't ) this is still essential viewing for anyone interested in either the frightening power of big business or the car crash television of a mighty downfall.
Enron's head shakers and movers basically fiddle the books, lie to investors and invent profits in a horrid attempt to be the biggest global company. This greed and head busting vanity filters all the way down to the most basic of traders on the floor, in turn companies are invented to soak up debts, California is held to ransom over electricity and anyone with anything to do with Enron suffers.
It is incredible to watch the CEOs lie with scary sincerity about how everything is fine even when the cracks are splitting open at an extraordinary rate and they themselves are jumping ship by offloading all their own shares.
Watch this in absolute disbelief. You'll be horrified at the greed, corruption and lies but fascinated at the inevitable collapse of something believed to be invincible. Especially enjoyable is the journalist ( one of the main narrators ) who dared to ask the question 'How does Enron actually make money? ' Nobody at Enron seemed able to answer this and so began the head scratching and questions leading to exposure and collapse.
If you learn one thing from this film it will be ' Ask Why ' -
News and features
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Docs Rock
- 04 Mar 2009
Inspired by the release of “American Teen”, we’ve compiled own playlist of must-see twenty first century documentaries. It’s been quite a decade for non-fiction filmmakers. Once synonymous with earnest and boring, the genre has undergone a radical facelift and enjoyed the kind of box-office success that would have been beyond the wildest dreams of the old guard of fly-on-the-wall practitioners. If Michael Apted had been charting the life cycle of the documentary film... Read more
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Enron's former chief executive Jeffrey Skilling and founder Kenneth Lay have been found GUILTY of conspiracy and fraud following the 15 week trial which involved a total of 54 witnesses and a jury of ... -