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38
12 Rounds Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
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MPAA RATING: Not Rated
Starring Ken Lay
This documentary is the inside story of one of history's greatest business scandals, in which top executives of America's 7th largest company walked away with over one billion dollars while investors and employees lost everything. (Magnolia Pictures)
| GENRE(S): | Documentary |
| WRITTEN BY: |
Alex Gibney
Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind (book The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron) |
| DIRECTED BY: | Alex Gibney |
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: January 17, 2006 Theatrical: April 22, 2005 |
| RUNNING TIME: | 110 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: | USA |
Nominated, Grand Jury Prize (Documentary), 2005 Sundance Film Festival
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The average user rating for this movie is 8.3 (out of 10) based on 31 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Taylor gave it a2:
Interesting scandal. Horrible movie! So poorly put together.
Joe P gave it an8:
Excellent movie, shows how greed affected the entire country and almost brought the country to its knees in the biggest corporate scandal in US history.
Bill S. gave it a10:
A reflection of how many CEO's have forgotton their real role...to protect their organization, their employees and stockholders...not to fill their pockets and egos.
hollyc gave it a9:
Wow---well made documentary. Easily one of the better movies I've seen recently. I think all Americans---should see the documentary. It is simply an outstanding "crime story" mostly, but illustrates the lone problem in all corporations: stripping individuals of responsibility--and the culture that arrises. It's easy to rape California if that's your job and you're ordered to do so by an authority you've deemed qualified. Heck, this is basically a film ready-made for corporate ethics classes now required at most business schools. I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't used in those classes already! Well done--and I'm certainly now interested in reading the book it was based on.
Evan S. gave it an8:
It's surreal, arresting and depressing to see this kind of thievery in high places. The tone is never shrill or manipulative which feels right once you meet these crooks. Most of those charged in the scandal will be slapped on the hands with a maximum ten year sentence, but after watching this film, it's appalling to think these criminals are running free in Sugarland.
J A gave it an8:
the Tom Waits tune comes up during the credits...when everyone walks out... Anyways, good film, explained a lot to me but I beneffited from having someone with 25 years banking and accounting experience watching it with me, to sort out some of the complicated stuff and point out LIES (I.e- the one about Bush's relationship with Kenneth Lay being unprecented...ha...) The whole thing really comes down to accounting books being cooked and Jeffrey Skilling initially implementing mark to market to wholly take advantage of illegal bookeeping. The emperor has no clothes.
Larry S. gave it a9:
This is better than Roger Moore and his diatribes disguised as “documentaries.” This one is documentary making at its best, relying on fact after fact after interview after interview to build a case, rather than polemics and smart editing as Moore does. Enron is served up as not an act of great thievery by several crooked smart guys, but as a failure of corporatist, deregulated America. Consumers in California were manipulated by phony power shortages directly caused by Enron’s traders, and there are audio tapes of them laughing at their ability to fleece more millions out of the state’s “little people.” Another Enron spin off manipulated the market for bandwidth on the Internet, creating confusion and driving up the price when it was starting to fall. Enron spun all these off from their first accomplshment, droving up natural gas prices when the market wanted to go the other way. Because it makes a factual rather than a polemical case, it can be cited by those of us who want to argue against the deregulators and those who believe that markets and capital investment should be left unfettered to build the New Jerusalem of the rich. Another blemish on the Bush years, and very well done.
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