Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (Mar 5th)

oday, I saw the best documentary ever! It was called Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.  Regardless of one's political views, it's hard not to get intrigued, angry and emotional while watching it.  Of course, being a documentary about Enron, it's impossible to remove all political bias and overtones.  But the producers kept the political grandstanding to a minimum, making it a reasonably fair piece which attacked politicians on both sides of the aisle.

My only complaint was that the movie didn't show exactly how Enron, through its complicated corporate structure and dealings, orchestrated one of the biggest scams in history.  But of course, the intrigue was probably too complicated for laymen's eyes and certainly beyond the scope of a ninety-minute film.  Still, it gave a thorough picture of the personalities involved, a general explanation of what happened, why it happened, and the political and financial institutions who willingly helped construct Enron's house of cards despite obvious impending doom.   Showcasing human's lust for greed, it may even dim your view of human nature a bit.

Coincidentally, the Oscars were tonight.  Unfortunately, Smartest got beat by a film about penguins for Best Documentary in 2005.  Still, the film piqued my interest in this subject and I'll be following closely the trial of Jeffrey Skillings and Ken Lay which started only a few weeks ago.