ENRON: THE SMARTEST
GUYS IN THE ROOM
Year: 2005
USA: Magnolia Films
UK: Lionsgate Films UK
Cast: Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, Andy Fastow, Ben Glisan Jr, Sherron Watkins, Lou Pai, Lea Fastow, Richard Causey, Dan Boyle
Director: Alex Gibney
Country: USA
USA & UK: 110 mins
USA Rated: R for language and some nudity
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong language
USA Release Date: 22 April 2005 (Limited Release)
UK Release Date: 28 April 2006
US Distributor
UK Distributor
Synopsis
Directed by Alex Gibney, this is the inside story of one of history's greatest business scandals, in which top executives of America's 7th largest company walked away with over one billion dollars while investors and employees lost everything.
Based on the best-selling book The Smartest Guys in the Room by Fortune reporters Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind and featuring insider accounts and incendiary corporate audio and videotapes, Gibney reveals the almost unimaginable personal excesses of the Enron hierarchy and the utter moral vacuum that posed as corporate philosophy.
The film comes to a harrowing denouement as we hear Enron traders' own voices as they wring hundreds of millions of dollars in profits out of the California energy crisis. As a result, we come to understand how the avarice of Enron's traders and their bosses had a shocking and profound domino effect that may shape the face of our economy for years to come.