This HBO original comedy, adapted by Larry Gelbart (Tootsie) from the book by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar, concerns one of the most compelling tales of corporate buyout madness in the go-go 1980s. James Garner plays F. Ross Johnson, CEO of RJR Nabisco. Following failed and expensive efforts to sell a smokeless cigarette to the public, Johnson decides that he's had enough of navigating around the wrath of the company's stockholders. Drawing up plans to buy RJR Nabisco outright, he soon finds himself outmatched (though still determined) in a race for the prize with takeover king Henry Kravis (Jonathan Pryce). The ensuing battle is both bitterly funny and full of acid-tinged insights into the '80s greed that changed corporate America forever. Besides Gelbart's great script and Glenn Jordan's competent direction, the star of this exciting film is Garner, who is absolutely wonderful as the gracious Johnson. --Tom Keogh
2.
The ultimate Wall Street feeding frenzy of the go-go '80s is humorously rendered in this dramatization of the infamous leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco.
F. Ross Johnson heads a group that makes a $17.6 billion bid to buy his own company, Nabisco. He personally stands to earn millions of dollars if the deal goes through. Henry Kravis, of the investment firm Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co., gets wind of the bid and makes a counter offer of $20 billion. The resulting charade of appalling greed and high-finance shenanigans was at the expense of workers and taxpayers. It is an amazing and sad commentary on American big business and the trendy corporate takeovers that defined the 1980s.
3.
In the 80's Wall Street had fun at your expense. Now it's time for you to have the last laugh.
The 80's… It was a time when everybody was making the big bucks, but F. Ross Johnson, CEO of R.J.R. Nabisco has every intention of making a fortune. When Johnson (James Garner) decides to buy out the Nabisco shareholders and take over his company, no one is prepared for what hits the fan. Johnson is introduced to the master of the leveraged buyout, Henry Kravis (Johnathan Pryce) but, afraid of losing the company to this sharp dealer, he decides to make his move with Peter Cohen (Peter Riegert). Kravis, however, is not to be outdone, and begins an aggressive campaign of his own. What follows is a down-to-the-wire battle to see who's really king of the Wall Street jungle. They may look like polite, well-dressed businessmen, but listen hard and you can hear the pounding of Barbarians At The Gate.
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