Whenever I think too much of species, how smart, noble and charitable we are I’m going to watch this movie. “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” is an example of how blind greed, ambition and lack of ethics guide American corporate culture. For every Enron there are hundreds of other companies doing the same thing (bilking consumers and indirectly causing deaths) that don’t get caught. The fact that our culture rewards people like this (at least until they are caught with their hand in the cookie jar) is a dispiriting recognition of how far we have to go to reach our potential as a species.

Based on Peter Elkind and Bethany McLean’s book of the same name the documentary catches the crooks in the act so to speak. We watch the incredible rise of Enron who had nothing to sell all they literally did was broker power over the power lines. The Enron scandal is an example of capitalism gone awry. Ironically the company’s motto in advertising was “Ask Why?” the only problem was that when there were rolling blackouts in California and elderly patients dying due to heat exhaustion no one did until Bethany McLean. Director Alex Gibney’s film clearly draws a moral line letting the audience judge for themselves the level of corruption, deceit nd callousness that existed within the company and how this attitude drove the company to record profits. It’s not surprising that President George W. Bush and his administration allowed the watchdogs to fall sleep while the scandal raged on. ---

Image & Sound:

Shot on digital high definition video and presented in anamorphic widescreen the picture quality is very good with a crisp and clear quality comparable to film. There were digital artifacts that would crop up now and again such as macroblocking and video noise but, on the whole, the image quality crisp, clear with nice natural rich colors shining through. The 5.1 format isn’t an ideal format for documentaries by their very nature but the format is nicely used here. Dialogue came across crisp and clear and there wasn’t any audible distortion that I could detect.

“We Should All Ask Why?” is an excellent documentary on the making of the documentary that details how the filmmakers overcame the challenge of creating a dry documentary engaging and entertaining film. We also have a gallery of Enron cartoons and the original “Fortune” magazine articles written by McLean as well as trailers for the film. Also included are interviews with authors McLean and Elkin and a rogues gallery presented in “Where Are They Now?” focusing on the Enron executives who masterminded this deception. Director Gibney reads the script from a video that Enron made which is pretty scary. We get to see deleted scenes including clips of Enron CEO Kenneth Lay’s day in court.

Commentary:

The commentary to me was the highlight with director Gibney giving a terrific overview of the making of the film. Additionally, Gibney discusses the extensive research and pruning process he went through when it came to deciding which interviews to include and what to edit. Gibney was acutely aware of the criticism he might face on a biased film and made sure to verify information and use proof sources in the actual film where possible.

Final Words: