Chichester Cinema at New Park
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Since their fall from grace, Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling have refused to speak to the media. But the company archives contain a number of revealing phone conversations and video tapes. With expert commentary from among others, journalist Bethany McLean and whistle-blower Sherron Watkins, director Alex Gibney explains how Enron's defrauding of investors, employees and the entire state of California was not so much the product of a few bad apples as the ultimate result of a deregulated free-market system. Far from checking that the system worked, accountants Arthur Anderson, banks like JP Morgan and Chase, countless lawyers and brokers all took their share and looked the other way. The result is many shattered lives and a new governor of California. An object lesson for the major news media who thought Enron's frauds 'too complicated' for their audiences to follow.
USA · 2005 · Alex Gibney · 110min
