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Buy itProduct Description
One of the greatest scandals in American corporate history is chronicled in the riveting documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. Based on the bestselling book by Fortune magazine reporters Bethany McLean and Peter Elkin, and directed by Alex Gibney (who also produced The Trials of Henry Kissinger), the film is an epic morality tale, drawing upon a wealth of insider interviews and archival material to show how Enron, once the nation's seventh largest corporate entity, essentially faked its bookkeeping to report profits that never existed. The corrupt and closely-guarded mismanagement by Enron executives (including Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, later placed on criminal trial) is revealed through such heinous concepts as "Hypothetical Future Value" (a way of reaping fortunes based on false profit projections) and the use of offshore "shell" companies to hide the massive losses that eventually toppled the company (along with the venerable Arthur Anderson accounting firm) and left 20,000 employees jobless. As a maddening portrait of hubris and white-collar crime, Enron transcends political and corporate boundaries by showing how smart and powerful men grew blinded by greed and brought ruin upon themselves, along with thousands of otherwise innocent victims. For better and worse, it's a perfect double-feature with eye-opening 2004 documentary The Corporation. --Jeff Shannon
Product Details
| Publisher | Magnolia |
| UPC | 876964000406 |
| Number Of Discs | 1 |
| Original Release Date | 2002-10-11 |
| Creator |
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| Region Code | 0 |
| Format |
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| Directed By | Alex Gibney |
| Release Date | 2006-12-19 |
| Label | Magnolia |
| Title | Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room [HD DVD] |
| Studio | Magnolia |
| EAN | 0876964000406 |
| Starring | John Beard,Tim Belden,Barbara Boxer,George W. Bush,Jim Chanos |
| Running Time | 110 minutes |
| Theatrical Release Date | 2002-10-11 |
| MPAA Rating | R (Restricted) |
| Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 |
| Manufacturer | Magnolia |
Customer Reviews
Fast shipping, responded to emails quicklyReview by Pete'ee, 2010-08-27
A+++ seller, responded to my email within 2 hours, shipping was extrememly fast and cheap, product was as claimed.
There is No There There, a political hit piece
Review by Gearhead, 2010-07-31
I have personal knowledge of the California energy "crisis" (everything's a crisis). In the mid 1990's I gave sworn testimony before both the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) as an expert witness. As a former Democrat I was hoping for more "there" to be there, its not. The flick is just a political hit piece produced in 2005 when it was popular to blame political opponent Bush.
It strings together unrelated clips trying to build a political conspiracy but provides no real information. To be sure the Enron executives were not honest and just as sure all of Enron's crooked activities occurred when Clinton was president. I am not blaming Clinton and will state that Enron is not Clinton's fault, however the flick is wholly one sided and dishonest blaming Bush who was not even sworn in as president until 2001 as Enron was collapsing.
Based on personal knowledge here are just a few of the flick's intentional distortions.
1. California electric rates were never deregulated. They have always been heavily regulated by both CPUC and FERC. The flick's assertions that California electric rates were deregulated is a political hit on deregulation.
2. Enron was able to jack up the California rates because of the regulations, not the lack of regulation. Enron had "smart" people who figured out how to use the regulations for their benefit. Other power producer were prevented from selling into California as rates rose high because the regulations prevented them from doing so. This is so typical of government regulations, they help the big corporations and hurt the regular people, but the flick blames it all on Bush and says he appointed the FERC Commissioners. The truth is the FERC commissioners were Clinton appointees with Bush appointees rotating into office while Enron was filing bankruptcy. The flick is dishonest, Bush had nothing to do with California rates.
3. The film asserts that Ken Lay was a Bush supporter. The truth is that Ken Lay was a fellow Democrat who was the head of Ann Richard's finance committee when Bush ran against her for Gov of Texas. As a former Democrat I wish the flick at least occasioned the truth instead of always painting the other side as the devil. Literally the flick has a scene where a low level employee is dressed for Halloween as the devil, how informative is that?
4. The flick does not even mention that Clinton was president the entire time the crooked activities occurred. I am not blaming Clinton and specifically state that Enron is not Clinton's fault. I am giving my opinion of the flick which is that the flick is useless if one wants real information and the flick is dishonest in its analysis. The flick is pure politics and it is surprising that so many are duped into thinking they are getting analysis instead of spin.
5.The flick is dated. The trailer at the end gives updates but is too old or dishonest to mention that around 2006 the government ultimately lost the Andersen case. The Andersen conviction was flipped by the Supremes 9 to 0. When is the last time you saw a nine to nothing decision by the Supremes not even sending it back to the lower court but overturned it altogether? The film update does note that Lay's conviction was vacated by a Houston Judge, however it is too dated to mention that Skilling's conviction was vacated by the Supremes in 2010 and remanded back to the lower court. Those who just accept what the film says think all three are convicted when the facts are that none of them are convicted.
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Thumbs up!
Review by Norman, 2010-05-14
Great movie!
Lot's of research and serious work behind the movie.
A Must see for all business related people, financial analysts, managers, lawyers, etc...
This is a real "learn from the past" lesson.
Burn, Baby, Burn!
Review by AvgMom2, 2010-04-27
This is the best documentary I've seen so far -- well written, directed, and executed. There was never a dull moment in this film. I suppose I can enjoy watching this documentary because I didn't loose any money with Enron, but I do feel badly for those people who did - their entire savings, retirement pensions, all gone.
This DVD is rated R for a reason. There's nudity and curses. One of the most disturbing scenes for me was listening to the Enron traders' taped conversation about the suffering the people of California was going through - blackouts (and there were several of them) artificially created by Enron:
"Yeah, now she wants her fxxxing money back for all the power you've charged right up, jammed right up her axx for fxxxing $250 a megawatt hour!"
By artificially creating this energy shortage, Enron reeled in BILLIONS of dollars from the people of California. If that's not extortion, I don't know what is. Just to show you, terrorists don't always wear turbans. They also wear designer suits.
A+ Documentary
Review by D. Patterson, 2010-04-24
The truth is: most documentaries are awful. They focus too much on the "human interest" side of things. Or they are just flat out boring. Not so with this one. It is engaging and is paced very well. My wife and I love this film.
