I came away from this movie disturbed by the things that went on at Enron. It broke my idea of companies following "the rules" of business. It paints a disturbing picture of corporate culture in the US and the lengths to which people will go to hang on to what they have (or to get even more). Its subjects make for interesting watching since the audience gets a view of greed, power and corruption.
The movie gives shocking figures on the amount of money that was being taken, and hints at the human costs of Enron's fraud and deceit. In a particularly revolting moment, it plays audio of brokers laughing gleefully about the way in which California's Enron-created artificial power shortage is allowing them to raise prices absurdly high. The brokers mention "Granny Mae" and laugh about how much fun it is to bilk her and all the Californians out of their money.
Although the movie is good, it misses many opportunities by attempting to cover too much ground. It introduces the main figures in the Enron world, it shows a large number of different unethical and illegal practices and recounts many of the more notable bad incidents from Enron's history. It even attempts some examination the dark side of human nature along the way.
I came away feeling that the focus of the movie was not well defined. Was the movie focusing on one company and its scandalous practices? Was it trying to explain why the business world went along? Was it examining the dark side of human nature? Was it trying to create an emotional response in the audience by making them sympathetic to or hateful of anyone in the cast of characters? All these questions are examined in some ways by the movie, but none are given enough emotional or intellectual depth to derive any satisfactory answers or satisfaction.
The movie raises many questions. It's worth seeing. Just don't expect the questions raised to be completely thought through or answered.
The movie gives shocking figures on the amount of money that was being taken, and hints at the human costs of Enron's fraud and deceit. In a particularly revolting moment, it plays audio of brokers laughing gleefully about the way in which California's Enron-created artificial power shortage is allowing them to raise prices absurdly high. The brokers mention "Granny Mae" and laugh about how much fun it is to bilk her and all the Californians out of their money.
Although the movie is good, it misses many opportunities by attempting to cover too much ground. It introduces the main figures in the Enron world, it shows a large number of different unethical and illegal practices and recounts many of the more notable bad incidents from Enron's history. It even attempts some examination the dark side of human nature along the way.
I came away feeling that the focus of the movie was not well defined. Was the movie focusing on one company and its scandalous practices? Was it trying to explain why the business world went along? Was it examining the dark side of human nature? Was it trying to create an emotional response in the audience by making them sympathetic to or hateful of anyone in the cast of characters? All these questions are examined in some ways by the movie, but none are given enough emotional or intellectual depth to derive any satisfactory answers or satisfaction.
The movie raises many questions. It's worth seeing. Just don't expect the questions raised to be completely thought through or answered.