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# ‘Enron’ as riveting as it is infuriating
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/enron-as-riveting-as-it-is-infuriating/
- Published: 2005-04-22T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T06:43:46.000Z
- Author: Dan Dunn
- Tags: Business, Santa Monica, #archive-import

Perhaps what’s more disheartening than the events that unfold in this riveting account of one of the worst business scandals in history is the knowledge that the majority of average Americans — the people hardest hit by corporate crime — probably won’t bother to see director Alex Gibney’s documentary, opting instead for drivel like “The Amityville Horror” remake or “Guess Who.”

And if that sounds like an angry indictment of our “ignorance is bliss” culture, well, it most certainly is. For as “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” makes perfectly clear, it is widespread apathy teamed with blind faith in a “free market” economy and the power brokers who control it that made it possible for morally bankrupt rich boys gone wild like Enron’s terrible troika of Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling and Andrew Fastow to financially destroy tens of thousands of hard-working people, alter the political landscape and cripple the economy of the nation’s largest state (California), and still pocket hundreds of millions of dollars before bailing from the sinking ship.

“Enron” the movie is not a polemic, but rather a measured, in-depth examination of a human tragedy. Using archival footage — much of it very “insider” — interviews with people at the center of the action (though, not surprisingly, none of Enron’s indicted execs participate), and pop cultural touchstones such as a clip from “The Simpsons,” Gibney deftly mixes humor, historical background and informed analysis to explore several themes about American culture, among them the cruelty of our economic system, and the unfair advantages it affords the ruling class. As recounted here, the events that lead to the downfall of what was once America’s seventh largest company and a darling of Wall Street are so surreal, it’s almost hard to believe it actually happened. But happen it did, and as this impressive documentary repeatedly warns, will do so again and again unless and until the Little Guys start paying a hell of a lot more attention. (Not yet rated. Running time: 110 minutes)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 22, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/042205.pdf?ref=smdp.com)