Londons Falling

Relevant Today

Rating: 4/5
Comments:
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room / B000C3L2IO

Although the Enron scandal is several years old at this point, so much of this documentary is well worth seeing and understanding - perhaps even more so in light of recent government and judicial decisions to grant more and more 'rights' to corporations - rights that, historically, have been (and should be - in my opinion) reserved for individuals alone. It's frustrating to watch "Enron" and realize just how systemic the abuse went - from the government agencies that signed off on Enron's ludicrous system of marking "future" profits as current earnings, to the investment bankers that openly fired and harassed employees that refused to swallow Enron's lines about how great their stock was, to politicians that refused to stem the abuses and instead allowed countless individuals to suffer and in some cases (such as the California blackouts) to actually die, rather than serve as a check on the system. Indeed, I would rate "Enron" a must-see documentary for anyone - especially for anyone who believes that Enron was some sort of isolated case that can't or won't occur again.

Indeed, I'm not sure that even the documentary makers understand that - for I don't know what to make of the 'moral' at the end that Enron's story could happen to any major corporation. I'm sympathetic to the need to make documentaries relevant outside the immediate subject matter, but way to undersell the point! I think the language here could and should have been much stronger - the tragedy of Enron is not, in my opinion, that one company behaved badly, but rather that our government - whose purpose it is to protect its citizens - happily signed off on letting a corporation behave badly in order to plunder the retirement accounts of individual citizens. Therefore, the 'moral' of the Enron story is not, in my opinion, that corporations must police themselves more strictly, but that citizens need to demand, with their votes, that our government not continue to coddle and protect corporations over individuals.

A final criticism for "Enron", though: why are we seeing so many documentaries lately with no subtitles for the hearing impaired? I can hardly imagine that lack of funds was an issue - what, couldn't they have cut out the unnecessary and titillating shots of strippers for 5 minutes and stuck to plain ol' boring interviews during that segment and used that cash for some subtitles? Really, now, it's time to join the modern era and realize that deaf people like to watch documentaries too.

~ Ana Mardoll

Good, but surprising

Rating: 4/5
Comments:
Good portrayal of a big business going bad as the corruption grew bigger and bigger.

Surprisingly (maybe i missed it), I don't remember Rebecca Mark even being mentioned once throughout the entire program.

Great + important = watch

Rating: 4/5
Comments:
This is a great film/documentary...
Pros:
-Informative and educating about today's issues...
-Well-made

Cons:
-Children (the most crucial members of society, who should be watching this more than anyone) won't be able to watch it, because of the inclusion of a bafflingly unnecessary, long, drawn-out stripper scene, with full-nudity. (it's like actually going to a strip club, except you're watching a documentary). I was so disappointed, because I advocate showing these kinds of documentaries in schools (and at home).