Enron - The Smartest Guys in the Room  (2005)

With the advent of Michael Moore, sermonizing documentaries attacking every aspect of how the American Dream can fail have become a genre of their own in America. ‘Enron – The Smartest Guys in the Room’ is easily one of the best, surpassing its rivals by avoiding the pitfall of painting everything black and white, indulging in the melodramatic half truths much beloved of Michael Moore. You simply couldn’t make up the Enron story if you tried, and to director Alex Gibney’s credit he’s realised this, allowing the bare facts – memos, phone calls, conversations – to do the incriminating. The overall effect isn’t flashy, but for that very reason is all the more credible. Gibney cares much more about the how than the what: we know what the Enron executives were – criminals – but it is how they became criminals which is so interesting. The film gives us a peek inside the parallel universe of delusional, tortured logic that passed for reality at Enron. I did not find myself in sympathy with Lay, Skilling or Fastow, but I felt that afterwards I at least understood their motivations beyond simple greed. As a story about how a company dedicated itself to hiding the truth and confusing people, it is no small triumph that Gibney is able to explain clearly what fraud was committed and how. The judicious use of footage showing Enron executives lying through their teeth set against the actual facts eloquently expresses how deep the dissimulation went. Where the film was weak was on the shady political dealings with the Bush White House and with regard to Governor Gray Davis’ recall. Clear and incontrovertible arguments which were everywhere else apparent were conspicuous by their absence in these sections, and I was left unclear as to with what Gibney was actually accusing those involved. This documentary is superior to others in its genre because it seeks out the uncomfortable truths. Complacency cannot be prosecuted, but it was clearly as much to blame as the greed of Enron executives for what happened. The ease with which so many otherwise ethical people lost their moral compass is remarkable and reminds us that not only could it happen again, but next time it could be us.

As much as I love documentaries, I rarely see them twice. However, I have now seen this movie twice at the cinema and now own a region 1 copy. It's the totally compelling story of what was once the 7th largest company in the U.S. which disintegrated under a series of creative accounting scandals. Sounds dull? Not for a second of this 110 minute film does the pace or the interest sag. So intensively researched, you will believe you actually know all of the characters at the end. Your jaw will drop when you discover what corporations will stoop to in order to appear successful on paper. And when you have watched this, check out Bethany McLean's even more detailled book on which this film is based. Not just 1 of the best doc's of the year, one of the best films. Enjoy.

This was a terrifically paced documentary. The parts about how evil people could become when motivated purely by money were both terrifying and mouth open shocking. The idea of using Tom Waits music as a central score worked brilliantly in making the whole feel like a narrative and the sheer cheek of those invoved is astounding. First class accessible film making for all comers. Do not be put off by the highbrow overtones. I 'got' everything they were talking about, so you should have no problems.

I watched this a little while ago but it still sticks in the memory. The style is slightly in the same vein as Michael Moore's 'Bowling for columbine' but has no actual presenter. For most of us in the UK we do not really know the reasons why Enron fell such as it did and this documentary shows an excellent history of why it happened upto nearly present day. It shows the different businesses the company was involved in and also has detailed interviews with insiders/ex employees of the company. Since I work in a similar type of industry then I can kinda relate to some of the things that happened such as the energy crisis. Overall it is thought provoking and very interesting. Good narrator and serves as a wonderful beginners insight into the scandal. I gave this film four stars as it wont appeal to everyone in the family, I mean its not a childrens film.

This is an absolutely fantastic look at how greed can spiral out of control and lies can decieve even the peolple who start them. Even if you don't understand how markets and massive corporate companies work ( I don't ) this is still essential viewing for anyone interested in either the frightening power of big business or the car crash television of a mighty downfall. Enron's head shakers and movers basically fiddle the books, lie to investors and invent profits in a horrid attempt to be the biggest global company. This greed and head busting vanity filters all the way down to the most basic of traders on the floor, in turn companies are invented to soak up debts, California is held to ransom over electricity and anyone with anything to do with Enron suffers. It is incredible to watch the CEOs lie with scary sincerity about how everything is fine even when the cracks are splitting open at an extraordinary rate and they themselves are jumping ship by offloading all their own shares. Watch this in absolute disbelief. You'll be horrified at the greed, corruption and lies but fascinated at the inevitable collapse of something believed to be invincible. Especially enjoyable is the journalist ( one of the main narrators ) who dared to ask the question 'How does Enron actually make money? ' Nobody at Enron seemed able to answer this and so began the head scratching and questions leading to exposure and collapse. If you learn one thing from this film it will be ' Ask Why '

A documentary about greed. Enrol had it all and was worth billions of $, this film shows how they went from one of the wealthiest organisations in America to absolute bankruptcy, but you may take pleasure in knowing that although the director had a handsome payout of hundreds of thousands dollars, justice has now been done.

A very well made documentary that explains the facts and motivations of greed which resulted with the biggest bankcruptcy in corporate history. The documentary is more talking heads and narration than a one man crusade which are the hallmarks of Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock who made Supersize Me. Maybe it was because of this the documentary, although informative, is not as engaging when compared to Bowling for Columbine. The documentary did need a little sparkling up with maybe the inclusion of animation or graphics. Limited to stock footage and recorded phone conversations it still cleverly lays down a fascinating story of how corruption, greed and the desire to be the best at all costs usually came at the expense of good ethics and morality. Having read about the black outs in California in the late 90s I was astonished to find that this was actually because of Enron's cynical policy to up the price of power by switching off power plants. Remarkable and sad at the same time. Dated now given that Kenneth Lay is now dead from stress induced heart-attack but fascinating all the same.

I had no idea all that Californian enery crisis stuff was down to them too. The Enron execs come across as truly horrid, so compelling to watch from that perspective. Good for the girl that outed them too. How brave is that?! Bit embarrassed to say that I didn't understand all of it given that I'm an accountant, but they do go into all the gory details of the financials. Not an easy to watch film, but I enjoyed it.

OK but fell asleep - only good if you have a real passion for the industry.

Not a bad documentary but not particularly compelling to watch and lacks real illuminating insights

This is a great documentary on how to run a succesful business and then how to destroy it. It's does get detailed in places but no so that you lose the flow of the film. It's a great insight in how greed can be dangerous and can cost you your livelihood. Great FIlm.....recommend it to anyone.

a piece of absolute genius and worthwhile to hear the big boss man being asked - are you on crack? bush should be made to watch it

Filmed in documentary style but found certain aspects difficult to follow as not financial whizz kid or lawyer. Not bad though worth a look.

Important subject but not the best documentary I've ever watched. Hard to follow if you're not aware of the financial terminology and of how finance works at this level. If you're a finance nerd you're gonna love this, not for everyone though...

Excellent if ultimately depressing exposee of corporate greed and fat cat pocket lining. Perhaps one day they won't have to make these any more. Don't hold your breath. STICK IT TO THE MAN WHENEVER YOU CAN!

Excellent if ultimately depressing exposee of corporate greed and fat cat pocket lining. Perhaps one day they won't have to make these any more. Don't hold your breath. STICK IT TO THE MAN WHENEVER YOU CAN!

Excellent if ultimately depressing exposee of corporate greed and fat cat pocket lining. Perhaps one day they won't have to make these any more. Don't hold your breath. STICK IT TO THE MAN WHENEVER YOU CAN!

Excellent, compelling documentary about an Energy Company and how it made billions only to go bankrupt, losing the lot because of fraud. Along the way Enron managed to rip off its employees. Only one gripe, the DVD finished without quite finishing the story. This meant I had to do a bit of research and find out what happened to the company bosses

It was the 80s when Michael Douglas' trading character in Wall Street came up with greed is good mantra - but these smartest guys took it to another level. This documentary is a great Enron taster but leaves the story unfinished and many parts unexplained. I guess there is inherent problem when most of the key characters in your story are on trial. There are some great little insights into the processes that took down the comapany and into the key players; indeed this documentary has a character driven plot. Definitely worth a watch and quite top level stuff so not too hard going and I suppose if you want more depth you can buy the book on which the movie is based.

Riveting documentary showing just how corrupting a little power can be in the wrong hands. Whatever punishments all involved were given can't have been enough. The movie grips from the start and makes what are, for somone with little knowledge of finance, relatively complex ideas easily understandable. It also shows how those involved came to make their choices without excusing them. Excellent watch.

What a film, most people have heard of Enron but never knew what actually happened. The corruption involved in this is staggering leading its way to the very top. A must watch!

Anti-Corporation movies are flavour-of-the-month at the moment, and no bad thing. They do, however, vary wildly in their approach: so don’t expect any Moore or Spurlock-style confrontations in The Smartest Guys in the Room. What you get is a sober, piece by piece account of an organisation so out of control that it eventually destroyed itself. The particular shame of Enron, of course, is that while ordinary workers and investors lost billions, the fat cats at the top, aware of what was going to happen, creamed off massive amounts before the company collapsed. A grim and gripping tale, which this documentary relates well. That said, it’s a long way from a masterpiece. Corporate horror stories are two-a-penny; what’s required is to set them in some kind of context so we can understand what happened, not just shake our heads over it. Non-US viewers will have a hard time understanding the bizarre range of laws that allowed Enron to give the appearance of thriving while it was actually going under. The ‘mark-to-market’ law – under which it was able to pass off projected profits as fact – is dealt with in a matter of seconds. Could it happen elsewhere in the world? We’re not told. And while it’s all well and good to portray the Enron inner circle as the ghastly bunch they were, many of its thousands of employees – the ‘victims’ - must have shared similar values until the company blew up in their faces. Is this a human phenomenon, or a US one? Or is it something that just happens with capitalism? By ignoring this and other questions The Smartest Guys ends up more like the anti-capitalist horror flick Wal-Mart – the High Cost of Low Prices than the current masterpiece of the genre, The Corporation. Now there's a film that makes you want to think - as well as throw rotten tomatoes at the screen.

I didn't follow the saga closely in the press so this was a good summary as to what happened.

Quite an entertaining watch but sensationalist rather than accurate. The facts are muddled, spurious or misrepresented to suit the agenda of the filmmaker. This film seems more of a general attack on free markets/big business/republicans rather than an analysis of why Enron collapsed.

I'd read good things about this film, and it didn't really disappoint. It's fascinating to understand just how crooked the Enron bosses were and how things like the Californian energy deregulation played a part. It's not a thriller, but interesting nonetheless

Definitely worth watching, especially if you are interested in big business and/or accounting. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I was very interested to see in more detail what actually happen to the Enron Corporation. The film answered alot of questions and was reletivley entertaining, but did get a little complex at points, however with a repeat viewing I think alot more could be understood. Overall it was a well put together documentary about how power and greed can operate unchecked for such an extrordinary amount of time, because the ones who should have been asking questions were the ones making the money..

I was very interested to see in more detail what actually happen to the Enron Corporation. The film answered alot of questions and was reletivley entertaining, but did get a little complex at points, however with a repeat viewing I think alot more could be understood. Overall it was a well put together documentary about how power and greed can operate unchecked for such an extrordinary amount of time, because the ones who should have been asking questions were the ones making the money..

If you like documentries you will love this. You cannot believe that one of the USA's biggest Companies could get away with such corruption for so long. This film will really make you think.

A good documentary - coloured for the California market, but that's appropriate since Enron had such an impact there. The reenactments are a little cheeseball, but aren't they always? A good insight into how truly awful these people were.

Not really well made but the story behind is quite fantastic. How they got everyone fouled is unbelievable

really good insight into what happened. Shows you just how corrupt the whole ENRON corporation was and how deep it went. Highly recommend to those who are intersted in understanding the world of high finance and how easy it is fool the world. Very easy to watch and follow. Great stuff.

I must admit I knew very little about the Enron situation before I watched this film. This was a great documentary and well made. It delivered all the facts about what went happened with Enron - another review stated that the film wasnt factual - but I found that hard to believe, it gives the story mainly from one side - but this makes the story that more watchable and allowed it to be made into a film.

I'm a big fan of docu-films, I think well made ones are can convey important issues or news which is otherwise only on TV for a small space of time until something more interesting comes along. 'Enron', although mildly interesting, had a missing element to it, which was...WHY? Why did this massive fraud happen here? Why not before in any american company at any other time? What did these guys do with these huge amounts of money? What drove them to act like this? This vital missing part means I could only rate it as well as I would rate a Panaroma documentary on the same subject.

Worth watching. It reinforces how easily thing can go so horribly wrong

Holds ones attention. It is quite amazing and unbelievable as to what happened. Is it corrupt everywhere!

I admit I did learn some interesting facts from this film, but I had hoped for more details on how the scams were actually organised and accounted for. On the whole I found myself pretty bored and did consider switching off at several points along the way.

An enthralling insight into one of the most outrageous corruption scams of 20th century commerce. It's a classic tale of power, greed and deceit, as ancient as the Greeks and Romans. An original Hollywood screenplay could not have had more intrigue. How did they get away with it? How did they persuade dedicated accounting professionals to agree to their concepts? How did they hoodwink great corporate and political world leaders? This documentary carefully takes us through the mind boggling corporate complexity and executive audacity in an era when the stock market blossomed with multi-national billion dollar takeovers and mergers that allowed the protagonists to weave their wierd and wonderful schemes and to be feted as having discovered the holy grail of profit and wealth making. You'll need to pay attention to follow the plot.

This is the kind of documentary that leaves you wishing you'd read the book on which it's based. There's just something missing. Of course it's an investigative journalists dream story - Bethany Mclean - chief writer - is interviewed and the relish with which she hunted the bad guys is writ large.This doesn't - of course - lead to a satisfying cinematic experience. The film struggles because the fraud being described is incredibly complex - it's hard to picture exactly what went on. There's so many people implicated - the enron board - the banks - the traders - the accountants. There's no real good guy / bad guy dynamic - the basic requirement of cinema crime surely?. Everyone is bad, so you just want to be rid of the lot of them. There are some very powerful moments - recordings of Enron trader phone calls reveal unhinged levels of greed and Enron's corporate videos are an abject lesson in corporate arrogance. I'm glad I watched it, because as a piece of US history the Enron scandal is jaw droppingly fascinating. It's just not that cinematic which takes me back to the opening. I wish I'd read the book.

yeah good film/documentary it just makes u think what is going on right this minute all over the world.. a good one to watch

in a nutshell this film was good at showing some of the more outrageous developments at enron in the simplest way, to the point that if someone is interested in what they did that was so bad but doesn't understand the abstractness of economic jargon when spoken or written, they would get the gist from watching this and seeing directly how certain things played and what the repercussions meant. but as someone who had read many of the more scandalous situations involving enron (and not even from sources solely about covering their doings but in books by greg palast et al and such) i found it disappointing that a film supposedly about enron specifically didn't bother to even touch on some of their other, even more questionable doings.

An interesting, and sometimes scary insight in to what can happen when the controls don't work, and corporate greed becomes the ultimate driver. A movie which needs concentration to follow, and can lead the viewer to wonder whether they are getting a very one-sided perspective of events - rather like most documentary movies of recent times. Probably also a good movie to watch for those studying business at college.

An interesting look at how enron fell to pieces, worth a look.

A very good documentary. I had seen it before but wanted to see it again. If you like informative pieces of film making this is for you.

OK, so this is never going to win the Palm D'Or at Cannes. Its a documentary, and not a wonderfully made one at that. But the content will leave you sickened - especially the Inquiry scenes where the Enron bosses basically try to slime their way out of answering questions as to why they were lining their own pockets with millions while the company crashed around them. There also seems to be a bit 'missing' - we have the lead in to the crash, and the aftermath of the crash, but not the crash itself. There's no footage of the company during those 16 days when it all went pearshaped. Mainly aimed at an American audience, the only real reference to the UK is Arthur Andersen, Enron's crooked accounting company which was based in the UK and deservedly went under. There are lots of smug guys in expensive suits sounding off about how much money they are making at the expense of the unknowing public -about as hard hitting a criticism of the capitalist mentality as you are ever going to need.

A good explanation of what went wrong at Enron, but I was still left a little confused about what the company was actually making in profits and how much was lies. How much was the market fall part of its own downfall? However, the explanation behind the California blackouts is frightening. Just who is running the country? Well worth watching if you want to see how greed can damage the world.

Okay, but very sensationalised. Worth a look, if like me, you didn't really know what happened.

Interesting enough but who still needs to be told that commodities traders (and the banks that lend money to them) are rapaciously greedy & highly unsavoury individuals ? More suprising was why the Federal Reserve gave Enron special status to deceive so many investors. More of a Panorama programme than a great film.

I really enjoyed this film. I knew a bit about the Enron scandal before I saw the film and came away feeling I know more now. I definately left the film feeilng I wanted to explore the issue more.

Even if you don't understand business, this is an eye-opener. It is hard to credit what a business (ie. people running a big business) can get away with when legislators and others who should stop them are too ignorant or too lazy to think things through or just greedy. Not a fun or mass market film, just one that should be watched by anyone who has investments or a pension fund. Very thought provoking.

I watched ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM last night (the same weekend that I watched Michael Moore's SICKO) and I thought: do I really want to watch another documentary? But I'm glad I did watch it in the end because I found it fascinating. Greed, power, avarice, no scruples and then ultimately downfall. I watched this DVD late last night, thinking do I carry on with this or finish it off tomorrow. Although I was tired, I didn't want to stop. An absolutely compelling documentary, well-made and with good commentary by Peter Coyote.

American greed story which amazed the world because it was so easy and became so BIG (California was wondering why it had power cuts while ENRON fiddled with the fuses). The story is well told but gets a bit repetitive towards the end and could be 20 mins shorter than it is .. but then the STORY had to be told... Yeah I recommend it for city fans and Gordon Geckos ...

Didn't know what this was going to be like when I rented it from Amazon. I was surprised and disappointed to find it was a documentary and not a film.

I had to force myself to stay with it as I was in no mood for a documentary, but you find yourself being drawn in to the DVD wanting a bit more info, then I found myself yawning only to be drawn back in again.

It was a very interesting DVD, It is watchable, but don`t expect bubble gum TV from it, and your be amazed what the so called smartest people in the room got away with.

My oh my! These folks went mad selling the weather to rich greedy idiots and ruined the lives of innocent Californians along the way, you are shouting at the screen for half of the film and if you work in corporate multimedia like me - you are embarrassed and guilt ridden for the other half. Warning features evil evil nasties, worst then any 1980's yuppies from Thatchers Britain.

I think this is a very good documentary of what has happened and can happen again in the corporate world unless some controls are there.

A well-told documentary which sets out Enron's rise and fall from the first seeds of disaster to the arrest and sentencing of key employees. It gives insights by former employees, journalists and stock brokers into the machinations of a company that became the 3rd biggest company in the world, whose CEO worked and played with George HW and W Bush and whose share price plunged 99.5%in the space of a few weeks. The documentary ends before the death of Ken Lay (heart attack, July 2006). The documentary could have had more depth in places and it generally lacks a sense of humour but overall is a wonderful, educational and cautionary piece of work.

Shows just how far corporations such as Enron will go to make profit.

Superb Documentary highly recommended.

Watching this you can't believe it happened but current affairs shows it can (Sep08). good movie

This is so important to see and has so much relevance to the credit crunch and other financial swindles, going back to the South Seas stockmarket bubble, Ponzi and so much else. Basically the story of people who should have known better e.g. Arthur Andersen and high-profile merchant banks and financiers going along with highly ropey quite obviously irregular procedures and going with dodgy methods while blinded by their own greed and quite happy to look the other way provided the share price keeps going up and they got a slice of the action in their bonus 'marked to market' - hilarious when you understand the implications of that and incredible it was even permitted to happen. Also interesting to hear the pure nastiness of the energy traders who created the california blackouts. 'Burn baby burn, this is beautiful' they say as parts of the grid get engulfed by forest fires so they can ask power stations to shut down and artificially balloon energy prices in the interests of ransoming CA for quick gain. Credit crunch, mortgage meltdown, 1929, oil crisis, Enron, you name it - different stories with the same kind of actors. Each time people should learn but they don't! great viewing though and highly informative.

This is essential viewing for anyone who has any interest in world affairs and business. It is basically a long documentary with a real life story that tells itself without the need for too much creative directorial licence. Fascinating characters with a real focus on the human side of the corporation. I got the feeling that this is a case study in human nature, tragic in biblical proportions and puts the current global financial meltdown into perspective. It's an intelligent film that teaches you something, but I think you have to be in the right frame of mind to watch it - don't expect exciting movie escapism, more a long episode of panorama.

very relevant in the current finacial crisis

Definatly worth the watch!

This was an okay film. The film glossed over a large number of facts and then just presumes that you know about them. It lacked detail which would have made the story so much more interesting and insightful. Good as an overview but not a real enlightener.

The word for the people in this film begins with a B, ends in an S and has an A,S,T,A,R and a D, in the middle. If you'd like to discover just how greedy and self-conceited some people can be then watch this film. Fascinating.

Fascinating history of Enron and how far back the corruption went in history. Nothing learned though as Lehmans bankruptcy will no doubt show us.

I actually enjoyed watching this although the rest of the family sloped off with a deep frown. I thought it was well presented and had the thoughts and opinions of a range of people and led you through what happened without a lot of confusing jargon.

Excellent, really excellent, and quite easy to follow, although I did further enjoy and understand more with an extra sitting, and with someone who knows about corporate finance (an ex-lawyer in M&A in the City). I'm writing this early 2009 when more scams and so much financial arrogance has since slammed capitalist economies, so the documentary was timely, and a highly recommendable education at these times. But I wasn't at all surprised at this 'tale', when it comes to humanity, these people were in no way exceptions. The teenagery arrogance and greed was nothing new to me either, having spent several years in Design Agencies… I heard the same spite and cruelty in the taped voices of the power dealers (all dealing was taped in UK at least since the Big Bang, so probably similar in the US) as I've often heard coming from ex-colleagues, but then my colleagues were only designing piffling press ads, not dealing with millions of GBP or US Dollars around. And after Madoff, sub-prime, CDSs, short selling etc, one just wonders how many other crooks and how muck crookery goes on out there behind smoked windows and in crisp Saville Row suits… I'd better put away my Red Flag and have a lie-down…

For those with a passing interest in nefarious big business but no great financial acumen this is a good 'idiot's guide' that nevertheless (so far as I can tell) does not dumb it down so much as to misrepresent what really went on. It's a parable of our times and probably tells us a lot about why the wider Western economy went tits up a few years later: too many sloppy regulators, too many crooked lawyers, too many greedy speculators, and above all too many 'pied piper' figures flogging financial products so opaque and byzantine that nobody knew what they were buying into - with ordinary folks at the bottom treated with thinly veiled contempt throughout

This was a very good retelling of a shocking story of corporate greed.

Corporate lying, self-deception and psychopathic fantasy from the failed US energy trading company are captured brilliantly in this excellent documentary. Ken 'Kenny Boy' Lay, President Dubya's favourite mogul, and his spooky sidekick Jeffery Skilling prove that the Shameless among us are as likely to be found in corporate offices & 'empowered' corporations, as among the Gallaghers on the Chatsworth estate. The difference between the fantasy knockabout of Channel 4's comedy and this States-side depiction of Evil pacing boardrooms in $1,000 suits, was that Enron hurt its customers, ruined people's lives. Real-life sequences of Enron's traders giggling over which town they are about to cast into power outage & darkness, are spellbindingly compelling. A time-capsule of Bush-era corporate America? Don't fool yourselves! Though particularly bad, Enron's excesses are merely the logical conclusion of the corporation as Psycopath, fixated on nothing more than the brain-washed doctrine of 'Enhancing Shareholder value', letting nothing & no-one stand in its way, least of all the law. Bankers on both sides of the Atlantic, even after they've swallowed tax-payers subsidies by the gutful, are even today continuing to behave in exactly the same way as Enron five years ago, with fudged books & socio-pathic destruction of customers & communities. Joel Bakan's book 'The Corporation' is your key text!

I thought this was awful. You don't get any additional information over that available in the press. All this film is a series of clips ot Lay and Skilling giving interviews or making speeches. Boring!

particularly in light of the global economic crisis, this film is eye-opening and sobering. a simple tale that will leave you dumbfounded, enraged and perhaps feeling that we were all a bit naive about some things...

Interesting content and well put together, however, became slightly repetitive towards the end. Gives an unbiased account of the scandal and made the details very clear. A bit drawn out but altogether a success.

Scary depiction of the greed of the boys at the top! A must watch documentary on the corruption money brings!

A DOCUMENTORY ON THE PURE GREED AND ARROGANCE OF ENRON I RECOMEND IT

Unmissable! This is one of the best documovies I have ever seen, it’s fascinating to see the empire built out of nothing! Brilliant!

The story of greed in Enron now seems outranked by the recent collapse of Finance as we know it. Some of the details were interesting but probably would have been better suited to a New Yorker article. A bit populist in the presentation as well when the audience is probably business oriented?

This film was highly rated by a lot of contributors to this website. On that basis I borrowed it but, hey, whoever said the reviewers were right. I work in the finance industry where I'm afraid practices such as those 'exposed' in the documentary are rather more commonplace. Indeed, the idea that people think Enron's financial scams were somewhat scandalous is the only thing that surprises me here. What is revealed, most importantly, by the reaction to this movie is the extent to which people are brainwashed into believing that capitalism can be ethical the stakeholder versus shareholder view of capitalism.

Shocking detail is revealed in this film about the Enron saga but I still felt there was an awful lot more shocking revelations that never made it to the surface. Why were its directors allowed to get away with it for so long? After all what they were doing was pretty blatant but it took a total collapse to bring the auditors in. The Enron saga can only be understood in a context of far wider corruption within both government and finance. To get an idea of how bad the situation is just look how quickly the Taleban got into the bad books when they decided to eradicate opium production in Afghanistan in the months prior to 9/11 and how 9/11 represented an ideal excuse to invade the country and reinstate the opium fields. They are currently producing 93% of the world's supply and before the ban it was 70%.

Enron - The Smartest Guys in the Room gives a clear picture of how things can go wrong in one business and how responsible people and institutions can fail to spot the signs of impending failure. The most important question in this documentary is whether bad people are inherently so bad that they are not capable of anything good; or is crime a consequent of the environment, such that any good man can be led to commit a horrible crime, by simply manipulating their environment?

Just another expose on how people in power manage to screw us over at every turn. Good documentary if a bit formulaic but in the end i ended up in that disbeliving state of impotent rage at how these people manage to sleep at night. Worth a watch for conspiracy / Michael Moore fans.

I knew little of the plainly criminal fraud that crippled the Enron corporation until I saw Alex Gibney's fantastic documentary. '...The Smartest Guys in the Room' takes its name from the employee's nicknames for the CEOs, and tells the story from a hind-sighted and balanced perspective, using facts, figures and interviews to tell the story direct to the viewer, and is blissfully free of 're-enactments'. This documentary took a difficult and not inherently captivating subject, a bankrupcy of an energy trading company, but explains the history of events in an understandable matter. By having a strong introduction at the beginning, and having clear chapters based on individuals and/or certain stages in the company's history, this story of corruption, greed and dishonesty from the CEOs that trickled down into the fabric of the company ethos is captivating stuff and a must watch. This can't be allowed to happen again.

great documentary from Alex Gibney.Rent It Out 10 Out Of 10

Nice documentary, well edited, good combination of archive and actual footage. Very interesting subject matter. Strongly recommended!

The way in which the story is told is staight-forward. It’s not flashy or strident, and it’s all the more chilling for it. I found it more scary than any horror film. The film was made before most of the verdicts in the case were handed down, but makes clear that nothing had been learned by Corporate America to stop exactly the same thing happening again. A couple of years later it did- but on a much larger scale. Nothing much seems to have changed even now. Scary!

Excellent docu and how insane risk and greed leads to inevitable downfall. And these guys were as bad as it gets rigging an energy crisis...amazing that there are so many highly qualified fraudsters out there doing what 'criminals' could only dream of.

Those who advocate ever lighter financial regulation should be forced to watch this film as an example of what could happen if watchdogs aren't given real teeth.

Ultimately I was disappointed by this film. We kept going to the end but nearly bailed on it a couple of times early on. The problem was that there was a lot of emotion about the people and what had happened, but getting to any facts was difficult. Senior ex-Enron people were interviewed and, again, we didn't really get any facts from them. They talked a lot about the people involved and how it must be destroying them, which really went without saying. The outcomes were unclear (or maybe we weren't paying enough attention by the end?) and, after apparently setting their stall out at the beginning with the extremely close links between Enron's Chief Exec and the Bush family, they then left almost every stone unturned. The best bits were when the co-authors spoke to explain things, which really left us thinking we should have just read the book.

Not a bad documentary / film. I enjoyed some of the in-depth delving. You will like this film if you are a fan of this genre.

This is useless. Mostly stupid interviews.