"Independent Lens" Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Alex Gibney

Writers (WGA):

Bethany McLean (book) and
Peter Elkind (book) ...

TV Series:

"Independent Lens" (1999)

Original Air Date:

January 2005 (Season 8, Episode 22)

Genre:

Documentary

Tagline:

It's Just Business

Plot:

Corporate audio and videotapes tell the inside story of the scandal involving one company's manipulation of California's energy supply and its, and how its executives wrung a billion dollars out of the resulting crisis.

Plot Keywords:

California | Manipulation | Bush | Business | Suicide

Awards:

2 wins & 8 nominations

Cast

Peter Coyote	...	Narrator
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
John Beard	...	Himself
Barbara Boxer	...	Herself (archive footage)
George W. Bush	...	Himself
Jim Chanos	...	Himself
Dick Cheney	...	Himself
Bill Clinton	...	Himself (archive footage)
Carol Coale	...	Herself
Gray Davis	...	Himself
Reggie Dees II	...	Young man the stripper dances in front of (as Reggie Deets II)
Joseph Dunn	...	Himself
Max Eberts	...	Himself
Peter Elkind	...	Himself
Andrew Fastow	...	Himself
David Freeman	...	Himself
Philip Hilder	...	Himself
Al Kaseweter	...	Himself
Kenneth Lay	...	Himself
Jay Leno	...	Himself (archive footage)
Bill Lerach	...	Himself
Loretta Lynch	...	Herself
Amanda Martin-Brock	...	Herself
Bethany McLean	...	Herself
Mike Muckleroy	...	Himself
Reverend James Nutter	...	Himself
John Olson	...	Himself
Lou L. Pai	...	Himself
Kevin Phillips	...	Himself
David V. Porter	...	"David" a Quoted Enron Trader
Nancy Rapoport	...	Herself
Harvey Rosenfield	...	Himself
Marla Ruzicka	...	Herself (archive footage)
Arnold Schwarzenegger	...	Himself (archive footage)
Maria Shriver	...	Herself (archive footage)
Jeff Skilling	...	Himself
Mimi Swartz	...	Herself
Robert Traband	...	Himself
Sherron Watkins	...	Herself
Henry Waxman	...	Himself
Andrew Weissman	...	Himself
Colin Whitehead	...	Himself
Charles Wickman	...	Himself

Series Cast

These people are regular cast members. Were they in this episode?

Angela Bassett

...

Host

Also Known As:

Independent Lens: Enron: Rise and Fall (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for language and some nudity.

Runtime:

109 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Ireland:15A | USA:R | Australia:M | Brazil:14 | Singapore:NC-16 | Australia:PG (TV rating) | Germany:o.Al. | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Houston, Texas, USA

Company:

HDNet Films

Trivia:

Among the protesters who disrupt the meeting with Jeff Skilling at San Francisco's Commonwealth Club is Marla Ruzicka, who was killed on 16 April 2005 in Iraq by a suicide bomber. She founded CIVIC (Campaign for Innocent Victims of Conflict) which worked to help the victims of the war in Iraq and she was a former Global Exchange activist.

Quotes:

Gray Davis: [upon being asked whether the rumors that he was responsible for the black outs in California are just a plot by the Republican party to get him recalled]
[shouts]
Gray Davis: Hello!

Movie Connections:

Features "The Simpsons" (1989)

Soundtrack:

Californication

An American Tragedy

This film is a profoundly entertaining chronicle of American corporate power run amok. Profound because as it dramatizes the rise and fall of Enron, the film casts a longer shadow over the still largely unchanged corporate environment that spawned this smoke and mirrors company. Entertaining due to clever use of storytelling devices, imagery and soundtrack, despite what looks to be a low budget.

The film's strength is in its portrait of the massive "group think" inside and outside of the corporation that supported Enron's rise. It is astounding and chilling to look back on the cheer leading role played by banks, financial media, accounting firms and government. And though Enron, the film, may be weak on explaining how the company built itself up from a simple gas pipeline business to a post-modern corporate megalith, it was probably a wise choice to leave detailed descriptions of the financial manipulations to the book of the same name. The film, does though, miss an opportunity early on to provide a basic explanation of the central paradox of Enron -- earning heaps of money by exploiting commodities trading and accounting methods, while losing heaps of money in real world ventures. Enron set up its first commodities trading desk to capitalize on inside knowledge of the gas business, and then tried to replicate this model with water, broadband, electricity, etc. In actually a trading firm, Enron evaded investment firm regulations by portraying itself as an industrial firm.

Yet, despite some shortcomings, the storytelling is powerful, especially the eye-opening dramatization of Enron's role and the political manipulations behind the California energy-crisis. After viewing the suffering of average Californians, juxtaposed against the callousness of Enron's West Coast energy traders, it felt good to see Kenneth Lay walking in handcuffs.

More than once, the phrase, "this can happen again," echos in the film. It has happened before -- leveraged buyouts, the Savings and Loan crisis, the burst Internet IPO bubble, the 1920s Stock Market crash. A new financial vehicle generates untold riches for some, goes bust, and millions, sometimes billions ... disappear. Enron, the film, is the textbook on how one corporation recently stole from investors, employees and its "customers."

Ask why do we keep on letting this happen.