As one of the many talking heads says, the story of Enron 'is not just a story of numbers. It's a human story and a human tragedy.'
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05/20/05
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Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005)
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Reviews Counted:116
Fresh:113
Rotten:3
Average Rating:8.1/10
Consensus: A concise, entertaining documentary about the spectacular failure of Enron.
Theatrical Release:Apr 22, 2005 Limited
Box Office: $3,886,956
Synopsis: This searing examination of the Enron accounting scandal reveals the psychology of greed and corporate corruption that facilitated the company's rise to power and also its fall. When Enron went... [More]
Director: Alex Gibney
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Reviews for Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
This thorough and thoroughly depressing account of the biggest corporate bankruptcy in history, and the rip-off that accompanied it, is so infuriating and dispiriting that your blood will boil, if not properly watered down.
05/20/05
Enron swindlers gave phantom companies such names as 'Jedi' and 'Death Star'; clearly, hubris of Darth Vaderesque proportions was at work here.
05/20/05
Without presenting the human effects on a personal level, it’s too much of an instructional tool -- more a comprehensive overview than a felt exploration.
05/18/05
While Smartest Guys sometimes veers into C-Span2: The Movie territory, just then another shocking tidbit will drop to keep the fires stoked.
05/15/05
Besides its essential historical importance, the film is filled with telling, chilling, gripping details.
05/13/05
Martha Stewart is a scout leader and role model in the company of the ravenous ghouls who ran this corporation into a swamp of deceit.
05/12/05
so important it should be grouped together with movies like Fahrenheit 9/11 and Control Room.
05/12/05
Gibney leaves us with a sense that the whole thing is like organized crime. No, wait: these Enron guys were even worse than the mafia.
05/11/05
Decodes the Enron scandal, ties it in with California energy crisis.
05/09/05
...the film succeeds most clearly by emphasizing the human resonance in such a story.
05/09/05
Room does a thorough (and entertaining) job of detailing Enron's arrogant, Darwinian corporate style.
05/06/05
If you're already cynical about the ability of grassroots democracy to survive in our era of turbo-capitalism, this film will only fuel your doubts.
05/06/05
The case Gibney lays out - of how arrogance, machismo and reckless capitalism drove a company to the top and back down - is compelling, aggravating and fascinating to watch.
05/06/05
Even news junkies and former Enron employees might be startled by some of the corporate revelations that fill the screen.
05/06/05
A primer on corporate malfeasance for dummies, clarifying the statistical thicket through illustration and mindful of Deep Throat's advice during Watergate to always follow the money.
05/05/05
It's not an indictment, so much. It's more like a mirror.
05/05/05
At times comes off as a bit too smart itself, almost smug in its often jokey post-mortem of the company's excesses, but on the whole it acquits itself remarkably well.
05/02/05
The movie helps the average American understand the nature of the shell games perpetuated by Enron and how 'synergistic corruptions' can corrupt absolutely.
05/01/05
Alex Gibney's film, based on the book by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, feels rushed, slight and ultimately inconclusive.
05/01/05
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