Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Director: Alex Gibney.
At one time Enron was the 7th largest corporation in America, worth over 70 billion dollars. Within a year it was bankrupt, thousands of investors lost their savings while key executives ended up with more than 1 billion dollars.
This documentary markets itself as an exposé of the machinations behind the façade of a powerful corporate entity. It is a story of deception and of clichéd business mistakes leading to ruin. It is told in painstaking, sometimes tedious, detail. The Enron corporate scandal is explored in the wider context of American culture and the harsh ‘results = numbers’ foundation of global economics. As such it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but if you enjoyed The Corporation, The Yes Men and Stupid White Men (yes, the last one is a book) the chances are that Enron is worth a look.
The film structure is in chapters, and is based on the book of the same name by journalists Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind. They are both interviewed and an impressive amount of good footage, especially of CEOs Jeffrey Skilling and Ken Lay, has been compiled. A thorough attempt is made to explain what the motivations of these key players were, making the documentary more interesting by assisting the viewer to develop character insight. At the times the story is funny in a black-humour way because the viewer is shown the astounding ability of these guys to present fiction as truth and exploit people and markets without scruple. One of the best examples of this is the exploitation of the Californian energy crisis. Also, recording of traders’ conversations are used with eerie effectiveness.
By the end of the documentary I thoroughly disliked most of the main characters, especially Skilling and Lay, because they were presented as unashamedly self-serving. Andy Fastow, the ultimate creative accountant, was in many ways a classic ‘fall-guy’ but according to the film he has many millions to show for his part in the scandal too.
Enron is capably directed by Alex Gibney, an experienced Emmy Award-winning writer, producer and director. His previous work has mostly involved producing including the series The Blues working with Wim Wenders on The Soul of a Man. He was also writer/producer of The Trials of Henry Kissinger.
I would recommend seeing Enron if corporate fraud and the role of business in global affairs are interests. It is also a sturdy example of the documentary form but is a little plodding at times, relying on the story to maintain interest.
The film website is fun and can be found at: http://www.enronmovie.com/
Marianne Close
