Look, it’s all very complicated and I don’t possess an MBA. What Cruver does provide, in voice-over and through his relationships with such characters as the composite Enron corporate insider Mr. Blue (Brian Dennehy… For what the Lay and Skilling characters don’t say in the movie, there’s a fictionalized exec to fulfill that purpose named Mr. Blue, played by Brian Dennehy. Would you like to receive desktop browser notifications about breaking news and other major stories? For what the Lay and Skilling characters don’t say in the movie, there’s a fictionalized exec to fulfill that purpose named Mr. Blue, played by Brian Dennehy. The extravagant company culture is shown through scenes of extreme office parties, over-the-top expense accounts, and sexy female employees. But their dialogue is based almost primarily on the available public record. "We're the bad guy. The coffee-cup analogy – offered by an Enron executive early in the movie – is meant to encapsulate the entire risk-taking world of Enron. When the company …
"Greenwald said working on the film rekindled his anger. Better to do that, one assumes, then to put words in their mouths and risk lawsuits. "And don't think it's just this company. Dennehy plays “Mr. "Enron's downfall is depicted through the eyes of Cruver, an eager young MBA grad, in the CBS TV movie "The Crooked E: The Unshredded Truth About Enron" airing 9 p.m. EST Sunday.The film is based on Cruver's 2002 book, "Anatomy of Greed" (Carroll & Graf Publishers, New York), which detailed his brief tenure as part of a startup Enron division that — ironically — tried to limit companies' risk from the potential bankruptcies of their clients.Played partly for farce, partly for tragedy, the film nimbly relates a saga of avarice and hubris that seems implausible even from an insider's vantage point. The film's highlight is a speech delivered by an Enron higher-up named Mr. Blue (a composite character, played by Brian Dennehy). Get the latest breaking news delivered straight to your inbox.Copyright © 2020 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. After the collapse, one employee shamefacedly pulls down her blouse to show the tattooed "E" on her left breast--the Scarlet Letter of a new millennium.
Will viewers respond similarly to "The Crooked E"?Be in the know. (In a detour from the book, which briefly mentions Cruver's wife, the movie depicts his home life as threatened by his newly adopted Enron mores. This euphemism called deregulation allowed these people to run roughshod in any way they wanted," said Greenwald.Government investigations so far have led to guilty pleas of three Enron officials and the indictment of Fastow, who pleaded innocent in November to charges including fraud and conspiracy.Although public outrage over the Enron debacle was fanned by other corporate misconduct also affecting stocks, retirement funds and jobs, attention has been shouldered aside by the prospect of war and other issues. Cooking the books, inflating the earnings, hiding the debt, buying off the watchdogs. The company continues in limited operation. Supposedly overseeing the financial circus are in-house Arthur Andersen auditors, who are played for laughs in "The Crooked E."One scene has them intently staring at a computer terminal — they're scrutinizing golf swings. The film offers the perspective of Cruver, played by Christian Kane, depicted as a brilliant but naïve young salesman who was seduced by the company's "get rich quick" mantra. We've received your submission.HOW do you dramatize a complex story like the Enron scandal for a TV movie? He doesn't excuse himself or other Enron executives. And in the end, he gets off the best and simplest explanation of what happened: “It was the globalization of stupidity,” he tells Cruver, “that was the real Enron way.” 'Ellen DeGeneres Show' DJ tWitch breaks silence on toxic-set allegationsA mad rush for the exits as New York City goes down the tubesChicago locals fight off protesters, shut down BLM rallyPrince Harry and Meghan Markle secretly buy family home in Santa Barbara5-year-old North Carolina boy allegedly shot dead by neighbor'Ellen DeGeneres Show' DJ tWitch breaks silence on toxic-set allegationsInside Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s new California estateInside Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s new California estateAngelina Jolie concerned ‘something untoward’ is afoot in Brad Pitt divorceAngelina Jolie concerned ‘something untoward’ is afoot in Brad Pitt divorceJay Manuel’s satirical ‘America’s Next Top Model’ novel angers Tyra BanksJay Manuel’s satirical ‘America’s Next Top Model’ novel angers Tyra Banks There are brief allusions to chairman Kenneth Lay's and Enron's association with President Bush.A reference to Enron's "virtual assets" gives Cruver pause, but he quickly jumps into the brutish competition that demands results, however achieved, and rewards them in absurd measure.Managers are paid upfront bonuses on a deal's projected 10-year profits — which the managers themselves have calculated. In CBS’s upcoming made-for-TV dramatization of the events leading up to one of the largest bankruptcies in U.S. history, keeping it simple means boiling Enron’s very complicated business activities down to a metaphor involving the making and selling of paper coffee cups to a newly created coffee-shop chain that suddenly loses steam and goes under.
Here's Lay exhorting employees to buy slumping Enron stock, then putting in his sell order; there's Skilling, questioned publicly by a skeptical shareholder, snidely replying, "Thanks for the advice, (expletive).