Course: Contemporary Issues in Management through Movies

Movie: Barbarians at the gate

‘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.

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.

Summary of the Movie

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.

The free-spending Johnson's bid for the company is opposed by two of the leveraged buyout
pioneers, 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.

Dr. Shalini Rahul Tiwari stiwari@imt.edu

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

Dr. Shalini Rahul Tiwari stiwari@imt.edu

  Rita Wilson as Carolyne Roehm-Kravis

(Source: Information extracted from Internet)

Dr. Shalini Rahul Tiwari stiwari@imt.edu