Barbarians at the Gate (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Barbarians at the Gate

Directed by	Glenn Jordan
Produced by	Ray Stark
Written by	Larry Gelbart Based on book by Bryan Burrough John Helyar
Starring	James Garner Jonathan Pryce
Distributed by	Home Box Office
Release date(s)	1993 (USA)
Running time	107 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Barbarians at the Gate is a made-for-TV 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 stars James Garner as F. Ross Johnson, the CEO of R.J.R. Nabisco with plans to buy out the rest of the Nabisco shareholders. In the film, Johnson decides to take his company private after receiving advance news of the likely market failure of the company's smokeless cigarette called Premier.

Johnson's bid for the company is opposed by two of the pioneers of the leveraged buyout, Henry Kravis (who is played by Jonathan Pryce), and his cousin George R. Roberts. Kravis feels betrayed when, after Johnson initially discusses doing the LBO with Kravis, he actually takes the potentially enormous deal to another firm, American Express' former Shearson Lehman Hutton division. Ted Forstmann and his Forstmann Little buyout firm also play a prominent role.

After Kravis and Johnson are unable to reconcile their differences, a bidding war ensues, which Kravis ultimately wins. The unfortunate side effect of the greatly increased buyout price is the creation of an initially unforeseen and distinctly troubling level of debt for the company.

[edit] Cast

Tom Aldredge as Charlie Hugel
Graham Beckel as Don Kelly
Joanna Cassidy as Linda Robinson
Matt Clark as Ed Horrigan
Jeffrey DeMunn as John Greeniaus
Peter Dvorsky as George R. Roberts
James Garner as F. Ross Johnson
Mark Harelik as Peter Atkins
Joseph Kell as Nick Forstmann
Jonathan Pryce as Henry Kravis
David Rasche as Ted Forstmann
Peter Riegert as Peter Cohen
Leilani Sarelle as Laurie Johnson
Fred Dalton Thompson as Jim Robinson
Rita Wilson as Carolyne Roehm-Kravis

[edit] References

This article does not cite any references or sources. (January 2008)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.