Response to Enron movie

in 2005, four years after Enron Executives were facing trials and thousands of jobs were lost, Alex Gibney's documentary, Enron: The Smartest People in the Room was released. The film is not that of the fall of a colossal company, but a complex mixture of America's psychology. Each executive of Enron has their own role in this film of American drama involving greed, money, gambling, adrenaline and the unobstructed need for the fulfillment of their dreams. Like other American dreams, these idealistic notions were those that skewed and destroyed them in the end. Around an interesting mix of music that ranged from saucy blues to metal, Gibney centers the film around the two key players in the scandal, president Ken Lay and CEO Jeffrey Skilling.

The film makes several analogies to the idealism of the company being a kind of wonderland, with "cheshire cat smile[s]," as one of the interviewees described Andrew Fastow. The film, through aesthetics and subjects accentuated an upside down face to the company whose high expectations with gambling on the economy, and failure to admit their own downfall became lethal. The upside down shots and faces in the movie comment on the alternative motive to every face. The documentary does not preach the apocalypse, but harps upon the power and evil within humans that, if applied, can not only destroy societies, people and the government, but can destroy the self. On a larger level Gibley encourages the audience to look at themselves and their actions for what they are, things can be too good.