Shock. That is the primary feeling this film will elicit in you. Shock at such blatant unethical misconduct on such a powerful corporate level. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room is a documentary that chronicles the rise and fall of Enron, an energy company that practically ruled the world at one point due to fraud and faulty business practices that led to its eventual demise. The film is told through interviews with people who were at one point involved with Enron or have studied Enron to find out what made it fail. The evidence compiled so coherently in this film is sickening as it paints a perfect portrait of the lengths that corporate greed goes to. The film details a tragedy that not only deals with the economics of this corporation, but the psychological aspects that went into the process of such unethical practices.
This film is structured very well and I commend it for its use of a purely chronological telling of the story of Enron. It starts from Enron's beginnings and its first steps up the ladder of success. It then continues to detail the company's growing success and how it all affected the stock market, all the while throwing in hints that misconduct was occurring amidst this seemingly perfect achievement. The finally the film starts to detail just where everything was going wrong and the moral code of the players in this film begin to crumble. We see every last bit of fraud and it is honestly quite frightening to see just how terrible some of the people working at Enron were. This of course all leads to Enron's downfall and the film strongly emphasizes just how hard this hit the economic world.
Over the course of this film there is a lot of political and economic jargon thrown our way, and it can be a little difficult to keep up with. But overall it isn't difficult to get the gist of everything that is going on here, and by the end of the film it is easy to see just how bad these people are. There's nothing to make you question the validity of this film because, quite frankly, the facts are all laid out on the table before us and the director just connects the dots for us. And once the whole picture is put together it is absolutely stunning. Fraud on all different levels becomes evident, which is why the Enron scandal is considered to be the biggest corporate scandal in history, and rightfully so.
If I had one tiff with this film it would be the interviewees. Gibney, the director of the film, interviews some very important and legitimate people, yet they are all on his side. I would have liked to see more people interviewed that were on Enron's side in order to get the situation from their point of view. Of course it is easy to decline an interview for a film that is going to chronicle the role you played in the biggest corporate scandal ever, so I can't blame the film itself for this issue. Plus, a lot of the people who could have been against Gibney in his argument are in jail or were in jail at the time this film was made. I would say that Gibney makes the most out of what he had, but where the real engaging content of this film comes from is really the archival footage from the news, trials, and even secret videotapes with incriminating evidence and just how well Gibney puts it all together.
This is a fascinating documentary that frustrates as much as it intrigues. The Enron scandal is a complicated tale, but Gibney tells it in a very coherent and straightforward way that is as fascinating as it is shocking. Documentary filmmaking is an art, and Alex Gibney proves this by making true engaging art out of a story full of business and economics. This is a great film that tells a sickening story.
This film is structured very well and I commend it for its use of a purely chronological telling of the story of Enron. It starts from Enron's beginnings and its first steps up the ladder of success. It then continues to detail the company's growing success and how it all affected the stock market, all the while throwing in hints that misconduct was occurring amidst this seemingly perfect achievement. The finally the film starts to detail just where everything was going wrong and the moral code of the players in this film begin to crumble. We see every last bit of fraud and it is honestly quite frightening to see just how terrible some of the people working at Enron were. This of course all leads to Enron's downfall and the film strongly emphasizes just how hard this hit the economic world.
Over the course of this film there is a lot of political and economic jargon thrown our way, and it can be a little difficult to keep up with. But overall it isn't difficult to get the gist of everything that is going on here, and by the end of the film it is easy to see just how bad these people are. There's nothing to make you question the validity of this film because, quite frankly, the facts are all laid out on the table before us and the director just connects the dots for us. And once the whole picture is put together it is absolutely stunning. Fraud on all different levels becomes evident, which is why the Enron scandal is considered to be the biggest corporate scandal in history, and rightfully so.
If I had one tiff with this film it would be the interviewees. Gibney, the director of the film, interviews some very important and legitimate people, yet they are all on his side. I would have liked to see more people interviewed that were on Enron's side in order to get the situation from their point of view. Of course it is easy to decline an interview for a film that is going to chronicle the role you played in the biggest corporate scandal ever, so I can't blame the film itself for this issue. Plus, a lot of the people who could have been against Gibney in his argument are in jail or were in jail at the time this film was made. I would say that Gibney makes the most out of what he had, but where the real engaging content of this film comes from is really the archival footage from the news, trials, and even secret videotapes with incriminating evidence and just how well Gibney puts it all together.
This is a fascinating documentary that frustrates as much as it intrigues. The Enron scandal is a complicated tale, but Gibney tells it in a very coherent and straightforward way that is as fascinating as it is shocking. Documentary filmmaking is an art, and Alex Gibney proves this by making true engaging art out of a story full of business and economics. This is a great film that tells a sickening story.