Even without the constant George W. Bush bashing, you can’t help but feel that this film has a major agenda – and that is to persuade us that corporate America is, at its core, corrupt.  But Gibney’s hatred of Bush is truly tangible.  With scant more “evidence” than the fact that then-Governor Bush knew Lay (he called him “Kenny Boy”), the film hammers away at a point about Bush “helping to secure funding” for a subsidiary called Enron International – as if networking is illegal or immoral.  In fact, Michael Moore style, we’re never told what “helping” actually means, so we have nothing to judge this “information” on.

Naturally, Gibney conveniently neglects to mention Enron’s financial contributions to former President Clinton and his cronies.  He also bypasses the minor little point that Enron’s rise to power – not to mention the majority of its abuses – occurred during all eight years of the Clinton administration.  All irrelevant facts, I’m sure.  But Bush having a nickname for Ken Lay, now that’s crucial information, right there!  Send him straight to prison!

Without anything more to use as slander, the film leaves Bush alone until the end of the film.  It returns with a vengeance, however, to imply that the entire deregulation of electricity and its subsequent crisis was, if not wholly engineered by the Bush administration, at least condoned by it – all in order to place “their” candidate into the California governor’s seat.  Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but was it President Bush or President Clinton who had big buddies in Hollywood?  Because I’m quite sure that if George W. had actually been controlling this gig, he would have picked someone just a little, say, Republican? … American? … educated? … for the job.  But poor Governor Gray Davis.  He was so innocent, and a mere pawn in the hands of Big Bad Bush and Big Business.  Please save us, Big Government!

That many of my esteemed film-critic colleagues are raving about this film, thus assuming that everything they see onscreen is truth, is definitely troubling, but not surprising.  However, my lawyer background has me asking far too many questions – especially after watching “Farenheit 911” immediately followed by “Farenhype 911,” which was positively enlightening.  Who would believe that you could fabricate so many facts and twist so many statements?  At least that guy didn’t get an Oscar nomination, but one just may be down the road for this film.  What a scary thought.

When it comes to Enron, there was a lot of wrongdoing going on, and I’d definitely love to know the facts.  Somehow, however, I just can’t believe these are they.

AUDIENCE:  Adults only

OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT:

• Drugs/Alcohol Content:   Various scenes with people drinking throughout film, including several in a bar and several extended shots of a strip club.
• Language/Profanity:  Approximately 25 obscenities and profanities, including a dozen uses of “f-”.
• Sexual Content/Nudity:  Several extended shots of strip clubs with topless women (full frontal nudity) wearing g-strings dancing and gyrating on laps of patrons; voiceover describes Enron executive’s regular visits to strip clubs then later, recounts that he divorced his wife and married a stripper who was pregnant with his illegitimate child.
• Violence:  Men engage in extreme off-road motorcycle biking with verbal voiceover about injuries, some of which are serious.