Directed by Alex Gibney, narrated by Peter Coyote; the documentary based on the book of the same title by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind. I am not going into the story of Enron but it is the story of one of the greatest American business scandals of all time (to date).It’s a story of greed and how destructive it is.
One of the most telling moments of the documentary is the inside look at the Enron traders and the power crisis in California. Remember the rolling blackouts of 2001? Enron was right in the middle of that and the documentary brings it home. California Governor Davis is portrayed as a victim of Enron market manipulation but it’s not the whole story of what happened in CA in the first few months of 2001.
The documentary also tries to implicate the Bush family in some of Enron’s dealings early on in the company history. I found it to be a bit of a stretch and not needed to convince viewers that Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling and their minions and toadies were just plain greedy to a fault. So greedy, they lied to their employees, the shareholders and the nation.
There is going to be the inevitable and illogical conclusions all corporations are wicked like Enron. The truth of the matter is we are all capable of letting the lust for money and/or power control us and take us to the extremes shown in this documentrary. I recommend this for its educational value and its study of greed. Warning, there are some scenes of nudity (which I also found unnecessary).
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