Movie review: Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005)

• October 24, 2006
• James Skemp
• dvd / movie, review

I've been trying to get a pretty good range of movies through Netflix. While it wasn't high on my list of movies that I wanted to see, it was a documentary, and therefore a good genre to put into the mix every once in a while. While I'm giving the movie three stars, I thought it was worthwhile to watch, but don't think I'd sit through another viewing.

First off, the movie was packed full of information. By this I mean that the movie is less than two hours long, but it seemed much longer. Not because it was, per se, boring, but because it was so full of information. On the one hand, that's bad, yet on the other hand, it means they can cover a lot of ground.

The one thing I didn't like is that some of the earlier content assumed a little too much. I didn't follow Enron, but was instead looking for more information about just how it's impacted the world. Since the movie was released in 2005, I was expecting a bit more of that.

On the bright side, it did give me a pretty good understanding of how things came about and how they ended up as they did.

As far as what this has taught me, I'm not sure it's really taught me that much. Enron was able to get away with so much because they deceived so many people, and because they had the help of so many people along the way, that could have put an end to things earlier.

In a previous article, I discussed Gray Davis, and his recall, and was against him. At this point, I'm not sure whether I was deceived or not. But, as things stand, I think California still has a good Governor ...

Overall, I'm convinced that Enron could happen again, and is probably happening right now. As far as what we can do about it ... I'm not sure. Perhaps there is a selfish gene that drives us all - perhaps it's only our nature.

Rated: R
1 hr 50 min
2005

Want to see what else I've watched through Netflix? Check out the list, and my attempt to track Netflix shipping for Madison WI.