Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Release Date:
April 22, 2005
Limited release
On the Big Board |
Position |
Staff |
In Brief |
41/166 |
David Mumpower |
This documentary is every bit as engaging as 2004's sleeker, more storied work, Fahrenheit 9/11. |
56/85 |
Kim Hollis |
Fascinating documentary is slick and informative. |
From director Alex Gibney comes this inside story about one of the biggest scandals in business history. Based on the best-selling The Smartest Guys in the Room by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, the movie examines how the top executives at Enron, America's seventh-largest company, managed to walk off with over a billion dollars even as their investors and employees were left in ruin.
The documentary centers primarily on insider accounts along with some provocative audio and video tapes. The film even goes so far as to play the voices of Enron traders as they manage to wrangle the California energy crisis to their own profit, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars for the Enron folks. In the end, the scandal had a huge effect that looks to have a continuing effect on the U.S. economy for some time. (Kim Hollis/BOP)