Barbarians at the Gate (film)
| Barbarians at the Gate | |
|---|---|
DVD cover
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| Genre | Biography Comedy Drama |
| Based on |
Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco by Bryan Burrough John Helyar |
| Directed by | Glenn Jordan |
| Starring |
James Garner Jonathan Pryce |
| Theme music composer | Richard Gibbs |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Thomas M. Hammel |
| Producer(s) |
Ray Stark Marykay Powell (co-producer) Jeffrey Downer (associate producer) |
| Cinematography |
Thomas Del Ruth Nicholas D. Knowland |
| Editor(s) | Patrick Kennedy |
| Running time | 107 minutes |
| Production company(s) |
Columbia Pictures Television HBO Rastar Pictures |
| Distributor | HBO |
| Release | |
| Original network | HBO |
| Original release | March 20, 1993 |
Barbarians at the Gate is a television movie based upon the book by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar, about the leveraged buyout (LBO) of RJR Nabisco.
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.
Self-made multimillionaire F. Ross Johnson decides to take the tobacco and food conglomerate RJR Nabisco 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.
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 was so evident, Kravis's final bid is declared the winner, even though Johnson's was higher.
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