Barbarians at the Gate (film)
Barbarians at the Gate is a 1993 television movie based upon the 1989 book by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar, about the leveraged buyout (LBO) of RJR Nabisco.
| Barbarians at the Gate | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover | |
| Genre | Biography Comedy Drama |
| Based on | Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco by Bryan Burrough John Helyar |
| Screenplay by | Larry Gelbart |
| Directed by | Glenn Jordan |
| Starring | James Garner Jonathan Pryce |
| Theme music composer | Richard Gibbs |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | Thomas M. Hammel |
| Producers | Ray Stark Marykay Powell (co-producer) Jeffrey Downer (associate producer) |
| Cinematography | Thomas Del Ruth Nicholas D. Knowland |
| Editor | Patrick Kennedy |
| Running time | 107 minutes |
| Production companies | Columbia Pictures Television HBO Pictures Rastar Pictures |
| Distributor | Warner Bros. Television Distribution |
| Release | |
| Original network | HBO |
| Picture format | Color |
| Audio format | Stereo |
| Original release |
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The film was directed by Glenn Jordan and written by Larry Gelbart. It stars James Garner as F. Ross Johnson, the CEO of RJR Nabisco, and Jonathan Pryce as Henry Kravis, his chief rival for the company. It also features Peter Riegert, Joanna Cassidy and Fred Dalton Thompson.
The film won both the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie and the Golden Globe for Best Television Movie while James Garner won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Miniseries or Movie. FOX also aired the film later in the same year.
Plot
Self-made multimillionaire F. Ross Johnson, CEO of RJR Nabisco, decides to take the tobacco and food conglomerate company private in 1988 after receiving advance news of the likely market failure of the company's smokeless cigarette called Premier, the development of which had been intended to finally boost the company's stock price.[1]
The free-spending Johnson's bid for the company is opposed by two of the pioneers of the leveraged buyout, Henry Kravis and his cousin. Kravis feels betrayed when, after Johnson initially discusses doing the LBO with Kravis, he takes the potentially enormous deal to another firm, the Shearson Lehman Hutton division of American Express.
Other bidders emerge, including Ted Forstmann and his company, Forstmann Little, after Kravis and Johnson are unable to reconcile their differences. The bidding goes to unprecedented heights, and when executive Charles Hugel becomes aware of how much Johnson stands to profit in a transaction that will put thousands of Nabisco employees out of work, he quips, "Now I know what the 'F' in F. Ross Johnson stands for." The greed is so evident, Kravis's final bid is declared the winner, even though Johnson's was higher.
The title of the book and movie comes from a statement by Forstmann in which he calls that Kravis' money "phoney junk bond crap" and how he and his brother are "real people with real money," and that to stop raiders like Kravis: "We need to push the barbarians back from the city gates."
Cast
- James Garner as F. Ross Johnson
- Jonathan Pryce as Henry Kravis
- Peter Riegert as Peter Cohen
- Joanna Cassidy as Linda Robinson
- Fred Dalton Thompson as Jim Robinson
- Leilani Sarelle as Laurie Johnson
- Matt Clark as Edward A. Horrigan, Jr.
- Jeffrey DeMunn as H. John Greeniaus
- David Rasche as Ted Forstmann
- Tom Aldredge as Charles Hugel
- Graham Beckel as Don Kelly
- Peter Dvorsky as George R. Roberts
- Mark Harelik as Peter Atkins
- Joseph Kell as Nick Forstmann
- Rita Wilson as Carolyne Roehm-Kravis
References
- "Those Good Old Takeover Days". The New York Times. March 18, 1993.