Review of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005) by Rob L — 11 Dec 2011

A brilliant documentary that charts the perplexing scandal that rocked corporate America, although not nearly enough. Remember that all this happened a decade or more ago now so the abject failure of deregulated markets should have been obvious as well as the total inability of people to grasp the true worth of things.

The villains are so entrancing that, should this have been a re-creation, the actors would surely be up for oscars - I hope they don't spoil it by making a movie starring George Clooney or such and such. The now deceased Kenneth Lay is actually less objectionable than his two main partners in crime - Andy Fastow and Jeff Skilling - and the most chilling aspect of it all is the way Enron traders gloried in the meltdown of the Californian electricity system. Questions also need to be answered by still active banks in the US and as for the Republican party hierarchy - George Bush Snr. 's attendance at Lay's funeral along with 1,200 others is perhaps the most remarkable fact of all to have emerged since this movie was filmed. Essential viewing.