Enron the smartest guys in the room soundtrack

Enron the smartest guys in the room soundtrack trial#

But it seems unable to muster the same clarity on this matter as on the airtight case it makes for EnronвЂ™s California electricity blitzkrieg. The film repeatedly raises the вЂ‹ вЂњbad appleвЂќ thesis and then bats it down, usually with sarcasm. Let me brush away yet another tear of bitterВ laughter.Д«ut do these prosecutions in any way support the assertion by the president and others that these were the proverbial bad apples, rather than an example of the way things are supposed to be, only super-sized? This is the most useful and enduring question aboutВ Enron. To put that in perspective: Lay bleats that his net worth was reduced to less than $ 20 million, with liquidity under aВ million.

Enron the smartest guys in the room soundtrack trial#

The frat boys at Enron did do something illegal enough to warrant warrants and, eventually, convictions (although Ken LayвЂ™s trial does not start until 2006), and even cost them some of their own millions. The film then animates the вЂ‹ вЂYвЂ™ so that it slides left to join the вЂ‹ вЂM,вЂ™ creating the answer: вЂ‹ вЂњMY ass.вЂќ Remember, these are the guys who named phantom partnerships after Star WarsВ characters. YassвЂќ appears in aВ close-up at the bottom of aВ document. Yass?вЂќ The name of an illusory participant in one Enron scheme, вЂ‹ вЂњM. But there is aВ glittering impact in the accumulation of images and audio bursts packed into the movieвЂ™s short twoВ hours.ДЄnd there are some deceptions aВ book cannot unravel as vividly as aВ film, such as the answer to narrator Peter CoyoteвЂ™s question, вЂ‹ вЂњWho is M. Would you understand more about the Enron swindle if you read the book it was based on? Obviously, there is more factual detail in hundreds of pages. Gibney clearly thinks he has to fight for the viewerвЂ™s attention in order to explain EnronвЂ™s mind-numbing scams, and he sucessfully accomplishes that daunting task. AВ sometimes too-literal soundtrack aggressively punctuates the story. The authors appear in the movie, along with many more witnesses, victims, perpetrators and bystanders, some of whom appear in breathtakingly arrogant inside-Enron videos and audioВ recordings.ДЄt its most unadorned, this would be aВ talking-heads story, but Gibney has dressed it in all the techniques of the moment, using everything from the animated type of вЂ‹ вЂњmotion graphicsвЂќ to the hyperkinetic editing of car commercials. Alex GibneyвЂ™s Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room is based on the eponymous book by Peter Elkind and Bethany McLean, the Fortune reporter who first alerted the lethargic financial press to the peculiar nature of EnronвЂ™s business model back in 2001.