Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

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DVD details

Brand: MAGNOLIA HOME ENTERTAINMENT
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 110 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-01-17
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Magnolia

DVD Reviews of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

DVD Review: Enron DVD
Summary: 1 Stars

Well this did not work out the way I'd hoped. I could not use the DVD in either my brand new HD DVD player or my older one. Nor did it work in the DVD player at the political office where I wanted to show it either. It only worked on my computer. So I was not able to use it for the purpose I desired.

DVD Review: It's a few years old, but NOT out-dated
Summary: 5 Stars

Don't think that this story is "old" and without relevance. We are all still feeling the effects today, and the same kinds of things are still happening. The makers of this film are fond of saying "it's not a movie about numbers, but about people," and that is true. It's a compelling story, well told, in an artistic fashion.

I've owned this DVD since it was first released and watched it well over a dozen times. I never tire of it, and the bonus features, such as the director's commentary, make it all the more interesting and informative.

Even if you are not particularly interested in business, politics, Enron, or stocks, you will enjoy this movie because it's interesting and well-made.

DVD Review: Bias is an Obvious as the Title
Summary: 3 Stars

Although this movie does a fair job of explaining what happened with Enron like most of these types of documentaries there's a strong and obvious bias. The title says it all. It blames men for the problem. The supposed "whistleblowers" are all women. The movie relies on these women for firsthand accounts, ignoring the fact that they were right there in the action. They participated in illegal actions, not only knowing what they were doing but plainly profiting. They didn't make millions but were paid several times their normal pay. Likely they're paid to be in the movie and don't see a problem with that either. It's also well known that these men had wives who spent as much as their husbands could steal. The movie and this whole school of thought implies that if women were in charge we wouldn't have these problems. In fact, what has happened is there are two major parties, the rich man's party and the rich woman's party. It should be obvious but the rich women as much as they complain about the rich men don't really want to see their class undermined. Working men have been complaining about these types of things forever and they used to be at the center of the Democratic Party. Now they're most ignored except close to election time. For a working man a movie like this is really a big nothing because they know all this already. The real problem is the refusal of either party to really do anything other than shift a bit in favor of one rich group over another.

DVD Review: Lions for Lambs
Summary: 5 Stars

"Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" is a chilling,engrossing,and surprisingly timely documentary on how a corporation fleeced tons of hard-working Americans and made millions in the process. It starts with ordinary,talented men like the late Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling,as well as an Asian man fascinated by numbers and strippers. They started out as entrepreneurs; they weren't born with silver spoons. In retrospect,it's fascinating to see their ads depicting Enron as an innovative company bringing light to the world.

"Enron" shows the consequences of following Gordon Gecko's "Greed is good" motto. Lay, Skilling, and his associates began to consider themselves above the law. They created artificial shortages and rolling blackouts. In one chilling scene,employees laugh about leaving a grandmother in the dark while shaking her down for money. There was undisciplined speculation, business at its worst. While the movie plays up Enron's connections with the Bush family, Enron also had Democratic connections,and Democratic California governor Gray Davis let them get away with highway robbery.

When people talk about the hikes in oil prices as "Enronesque",this documentary shows why. Enron played the system... and it paid. What goes around comes around.

DVD Review: Worthy of Euripides- A True American Tradgedy.
Summary: 5 Stars

You all probably know the story: It briefly dominated the news the late 2001.

Enron, named one of "America's Most Innovative Companies" by Fortune magazine for six consecutive years, from 1996 to 2001. On the Fortune's "100 Best Companies to Work for in America" list in 2000. Reported 111 Billion in earnings that same year. Purportedly one of the ten most valuable American corporations, throughout the Nineties. Audited by Arther Andersen, the oldest and one of the most respected accounting firms in the country. Touted and endorsed by nearly all the biggest Wall Street brokers, backed by all the biggest international banks. Called the most important and cutting edge energy trading firm in the world. A halcyon of the new economy, champion of globalism, huge contributer to politicians both Democratic and Republican, but most especially the Bush family dynasty (largest single corporate contributor to George W. Bush's 2000 campaign)..

Just evaporated, imploded seamlessly in upon itself in late 2001.

Other events later in that year naturally distracted us all from what would have otherwise been the singular most important story of that year.. Much to the relief of many in Washington, and on Wall Street.

So it seems that the significance of what happened never really set into the public consciousness.

This film will recollect your mind, and help you understand. I say every American needs to meditate on this story, most especially as it now seems that it may not be the odd aberration that most of our political and financial elites then claimed.

I was living in Monterey, California during the time. During the oh so odd rolling blackouts that killed so many traffic lights, air conditioners, and life support apparatuses.. along with some of the poor people that depended on them.. It was the same summer it seemed that half the state was on fire. Warm Corona in the fridge, Apocalypse in the air..

Ah, Good Times..

This film unsparingly reveals who was really behind that catastrophe. Here - amongst many other astounding things - you'll hear tapes of the Enron energy traders (like their colleagues in other energy companies) as they deliberately manipulate the power grid, shutting down power plants at peak demand, thereby driving up electricity prices and blacking out large parts of the state, all the while watching the havoc they make.. and laughing about it. All as their company, along with the pensions funds of tens of thousands of ordinary employees, was collapsing around them.

Enron: True Champions of Deregulation. Pihranas in the kiddie pool. Nihilists, with with no thought of the people they were harming, their only thought on the billions they made off the public's soaring utility bills. All as they were going bankrupt. True black comedy.

The thing is that that this story, all the irresponsible greed and corruption, is supposed to have been localized. It was "only" Enron, World Com, and Tyco that were led by the bad apples. Remember President Bush assuring us? And Congress rushing to pass all those new, tough accounting laws?

Get this film, pop some corn, snuggle up on the couch, and push play.

Watch this, think about about it, and wonder. Do you believe them? Do you still trust them?

As a great American orator once put it "Fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again."

Yeah, right. Ain't that the truth.

Description of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

Based on the best-selling book of the same name by Fortune reporters Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind a multidimensional study of one of the biggest business scandals in American history. The chronicle takes a look at one of the greatest corporate disasters in history in which top executives from the 7th largest company in this country walked away with over one billion dollars leaving investors and employees with nothing. The film features insider accounts and rare corporate audio and video tapes that reveal colossal personal excesses of the Enron hierarchy and the utter moral vacuum that posed as corporate philosophy. The human drama that unfolds within Enron's walls resembles a Greek tragedy and produces a domino effect that could shape the face of our economy and ethical code for years to come.DVD Features: Available Audio Tracks: English (Unknown Format) Commentary by: writer-director Alex Gibney (Unknown Format) Deleted scenes "The Making of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" featuring research footage and exclusive interviews with writer-director Alex Gibney and investigative journalist Bethany McLean Enron company skits Enron commercial Where are they now?: updates on the executives traders and whistleblowers A gallery of Enron cartoons The original Fortune magazine articles System Requirements:Running Time 110 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre:?DOCUMENTARIES/MISC. Rating:?R UPC:?876964000017 Manufacturer No:?10001

One of the greatest scandals in American corporate history is chronicled in the riveting documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. Based on the bestselling book by Fortune magazine reporters Bethany McLean and Peter Elkin, and directed by Alex Gibney (who also produced The Trials of Henry Kissinger), the film is an epic morality tale, drawing upon a wealth of insider interviews and archival material to show how Enron, once the nation's seventh largest corporate entity, essentially faked its bookkeeping to report profits that never existed. The corrupt and closely-guarded mismanagement by Enron executives (including Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, later placed on criminal trial) is revealed through such heinous concepts as "Hypothetical Future Value" (a way of reaping fortunes based on false profit projections) and the use of offshore "shell" companies to hide the massive losses that eventually toppled the company (along with the venerable Arthur Anderson accounting firm) and left 20,000 employees jobless. As a maddening portrait of hubris and white-collar crime, Enron transcends political and corporate boundaries by showing how smart and powerful men grew blinded by greed and brought ruin upon themselves, along with thousands of otherwise innocent victims. For better and worse, it's a perfect double-feature with eye-opening 2004 documentary The Corporation. --Jeff Shannon

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