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PLOT: This film explains how such Enron executives as Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling created a toxic corporate environment, made themselves very, very rich and then bailed -- leaving the little guy unemployed and broke. It's disgusting, actually.
You should know going in that Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room may make you sick -- literally.
This is the story, based on the book by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, of Enron, America's seventh largest employer, and how the company went bankrupt. It's a gobsmacking tale of corruption and greed.
Meet Ken Lay, the top Enron executive. He's a man with humble roots and strong ties to the presidential Bush family.
And here is Jeff Skilling, another Enron exec. He's described as a former nerd with fantastic speaking skills. When the going gets tough, he takes the money and runs. You know -- allegedly.
The movie explains something called mark to market, the truly fantastic, creative-writing type of accounting system that permitted Enron to say pretty much anything it wanted to about company assets.
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The smoke and mirrors overseen by Andy Fastow, the CFO of the company, goes like this: The man had to hide 30 billion dollars worth of debt. So he did.
Gamblers all, the men who ran Enron into the ground seem to share a general amorality that really has to be seen to be believed. The last part of the film, which concerns Enron's creation of the California energy crisis, will leave you dizzy.
Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room implies that Arnold Schwarzenegger's election as Governor of the state is partly a result of Enron's fiddling.
It is truly frightening.
As Enron began to go down the drain, the executives cashed out in an every-man-for-himself scramble; at the same time, workers were encouraged by Ken Lay to continue buying Enron stock. Some 29,000 people lost their jobs. Plenty of others lost their life savings. About $2 billion in pension money disappeared. There goes $65 billion, folks ...
Chock full of chat from former Enron employees, including whistle-blower Sherron Watkins, and dusted with pop images and cool music, Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room is a surprisingly entertaining look at the sucking black hole of corporate morality in America. The film contains controversial audio and video tapes, material taped (in some cases) by Enron executives themselves.
Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room is a story told with a nice streak of dark humour throughout. It finishes up with the Tom Waits song, God's Away On Business.
Filmmaker Alex Gibney finished Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room in time for Sundance this year but has said he was urged to finish the film prior to last year's U.S. Presidential election -- because of the creepy Enron/Bush connection.
"But I think, in a way, this is a film that transcends Democrats and Republicans," said Gibney. Amen to that.
(This film is rated 14-A)