Many people come off easy in the documentary. Gray Davis, for instance, and the California legislature that created such a stupid PX system. Vinson & Elkins and Arthur Andersen are named a couple of times, but no individual is named and there is no footage of their buildings or logos. No Enron director is named. The documentary focuses on Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, and to some extent, Andy Fastow. Lea Fastow's name is never mentioned, nor is her picture shown.
The movie relies heavily on taped conversations of power traders and on emails, taped employee meetings, and taped investor conference calls. Of course, some of the statements are shocking to hear now. Part of that reason is that not everyone, and certainly few of the rank-and-file people, knew the entire picture and that what they were doing was illegal. The power traders, for instance, were following the rules of the California power exchange. If you had asked them whether they were manipulating the market, they would have said, "Of course. That's my job." The line between legal manipulation and illegal manipulation is very unclear, which probably explains why all the federal indictments for manipulating the power market during that time have languished for years.
The most interesting footage in the documentary was of Sherron Watkins testifying in front of Congress. I never picked up on this, but she had to sit at the same table as Jeff Skilling, with only Skilling's lawyer in between them. So, Watkins would say that Skilling knew about something, then two people down, Skilling would call her a liar. That kind of whistleblowing takes a lot of bravery, I think.
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