Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)May 28th, 2005
ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2005 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
It was "a house of cards built on a pool of gasoline," "a human tragedy," and "the greatest corporate fraud in American history." With such easy pickings, ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM is an entertaining look at an extremely easy target. The financial shenanigans of the Enron Corporation are now legendary. And, in the spirit of full disclosure, I have to admit that I once bought a hundred shares of its stock and quickly lost my shirt on the deal.
Using images of a rabbit being pulled out of a hat, impossibly complex flow charts, strippers at bars and aerial views of refineries at twilight, this documentary is polished and funny. What it isn't is objective. Sure there were some major crooks at work at Enron, but the documentary isn't satisfied in skewering them. It feels the need to take on deregulation, Republicans and capitalism, as well. As the narrator (Peter Coyote) intones gravely, "Was it the work of a bad man or the dark side of the American dream?" Enron is lambasted both for cooking its books and for its unswerving quest to maximize its profits. One of these is evil, and the other isn't, but the film's murky messages confuse the two.
Director Alex Gibney, clearly having studied at the Michael Moore School of Journalist Ethics, tries to paint both the Bush and the Schwarzenegger administrations with guilt by association. Meanwhile, it completely whitewashes Governor Gray Davis and the Democrat led California legislature for their role in manufacturing and exacerbating the crisis, which culminated in the citizens of California ousting their governor for the first time in their history.
Much of the movie consists of demagogic Democrat Senators as they berate the Enron executives in front of a national television audience. Also shown are lawyers who cry crocodile tears over Enron's treatment of its employees. Towards the end of the film, we learn that CEO Jeffrey Skilling's lawyers alone earned over twenty-three million dollars in attempts to defend their client. And you thought there weren't any winners in this sad tale of hubris run amok.
ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM runs needlessly long at 1:49. It is not rated but would be an R for nudity and brief language and would be acceptable for teenagers.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, April 29, 2005. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the Camera Cinemas.
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