Enron - The Smartest Guys in the Room Details

[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.

Cooking the books and then themselves !

A very well made documentary that explains the facts and motivations of greed which resulted with the biggest bankcruptcy in corporate history. The documentary is more talking heads and narration than a one man crusade which are the hallmarks of Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock who made Supersize Me. Maybe it was because of this the documentary, although informative, is not as engaging when compared to Bowling for Columbine. The documentary did need a little sparkling up with maybe the inclusion of animation or graphics. Limited to stock footage and recorded phone conversations it still cleverly lays down a fascinating story of how corruption, greed and the desire to be the best at all costs usually came at the expense of good ethics and morality. Having read about the black outs in California in the late 90s I was astonished to find that this was actually because of Enron's cynical policy to up the price of power by switching off power plants. Remarkable and sad at the same time. Dated now given that Kenneth Lay is now dead from stress induced heart-attack but fascinating all the same.