Barbarians at the Gate

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Starring: James Garner
Rated: R (Restricted)
Type: DVD
Directed By: Glenn Jordan
Studio: Hbo Home Video
Release Date: 2001-09-25
Running Time: 107 minutes
When the ceo of nabisco decides to buy out the shareholders and take over the company no one is prepared for what hits the fan in this comedy about big business and big bucks. Studio: Hbo Home Video Release Date: 02/03/2004 Starring: James Garner Joanna Cassidy Run time: 107 minutes Rating: R Director: Glenn Jordan

James Garner Wheels and Deals
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Larry Gelbart wrote the hilarious screenplay adaptation of Bryan Burrough and John Helyar's book, BARBARIANS AT THE GATE, the essentially true story of F. Ross Johnson, CEO of R.J.R. Nabisco, and his 1980's attempt to buy out the shareholders of that company.

James Garner stars as the wheeling-dealing Johnson, while Jonathan Pryce is cast as Henry Kravis, master of the leveraged buyout, who is also determined to get the Nabisco stock.

Glenn Jordan directed this suspense-filled contest for "king of the hill," and keeps us guessing as to who will win right up until the film's conclusion. Also in the cast are Peter Riegert and Joanna Cassidy.

One of the funniest scenes in the movie, incidentally, occurs when Garner discovers that the company's new smokeless cigarette, which they'd spent hundreds of millions of dollars developing, is, in fact, a dud and "tastes like it should be rolled in toilet paper."

© Michael B. Druxman, author of ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD (available December 2008)

Brilliant lok at the financial excesses of the '80's
Barbarians At The Gate focuses more on the personalities and egos that drove the stunning LBO of RJRNabisco. James Garner plays a role you rarely see him in, along with a terrific complement of seasoned actors illustrating the ego clashes and senseless competitiveness that typified the LBO scene of the times. Well paced, with a mix of a dramatic percussion-driven soundtrack with an almost light-hearted unique whistling soundtrack at telling moments, this movie holds your attention from the very beginning. The movie manages to lay out the whole event and cleverly illustrates the insanity without laying on thick judgementalism. You're hard-pressed to find whose greed and whose ego is bigger. A telling scene is where the Chairman of RJR agrees to pay KKR $45 million simply to wait another hour for the board to decide. The book goes into a great deal more history and detail, but the movie captures the mood and atmosphere of the time much better.

So dissapointing....but if you must have low expectations
This was my thought process.
1)I love Barbarians at the Gate(the book), I love it so much that I'm going to buy the movie.
2)Wow this movie sucks. I must be maturing because for the first time in my life I can safely say that "the book is so much better than the movie."
3)Whatever I'm just going to watch it all the way through, maybe it'll get good.
4)Damn I'm out 10 bucks, it never got close to good.

Its dirt cheap, and if you must buy it and see how bad it really is. Just make sure your expectations are for something on par with what a highschool film class could put together.

Barbarians and Buffoons rattling at the gates
Good film : Garner gives a remarkably convincing performance.
Screenplay is well structured and pungently critical of the corporate strategies displayed by all those drawn into the levered buyout game and gamble.

An Entertaining Tool Applicable To Business.
This movie, based on a true story, chronicles the sale of RJR Nabisco during an era when Mergers and Acquisitions were at an all time high. James Garner, in a brilliant performance, plays F. Ross Johnson, the CEO of RJR Nabisco who wants to take Nabisco private and be its majority owner.

The movie does a nice job explaining the financial aspects of a LBO(Leveraged Buyout) on such a basic level that anyone can understand. Throughout the film the storyline flows quickly, although at times certain scenes were a little canned and the satire a bit corny.

The backdrop of the movie is loaded with back and forth backstabbing, blatant greed, under the table dealing, and Jonathan Pryce's depiction of Henry Kravis, a Wall Street mover and shaker and corporate raider is outstanding.

Of course by no means this work supersedes the book, but nevertheless you may find the effort quite entertaining.

Over all, I really enjoyed this movie.