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| Rogue Trader [1999] | ![Rogue Trader [1999]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51GY8S0QJXL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: James Dearden
Actors: Ewan Mcgregor, Anna Friel, Yves Beneyton, Betsy Brantley, Caroline Langrishe
Studio: Pathe Distribution
Category: DVD
List Price: £12.99
Buy New: £2.98
You Save: £10.01 (77%)
New (10) from £2.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 4697
Format: Full Screen, Pal
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Running Time: 97 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5060002838884
ASIN: B00004TIYT
Theatrical Release Date: December 2, 1999
Release Date: July 24, 2000
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 Corporate Complacency August 14, 2008
As an entertaining film this one is as good as any; whether it is re-watchable is doubtful but nonetheless it is good entertainment. Ewan McGregor does the film justice but it was difficult to believe in Anna Friel's part as Lisa. It is, of course, a docudrama in style.
There is more than one theme weaving its way through this story the main one being the complacency of institutional management closely followed by incompetence of those whose responsibility is to ensure the efficiency of the organisation's operations so it is an expose of the fissures of monolithic management structures. It is the same tale as the story of the 'Million Dollar Bubble' that occurred in the US a few years ago.
The culpability for this disaster and its criminal aspect lay with Leeson's immediate supervisor and the prevailing corporate cultural attitudes and certainly not with Leeson who was used as the 'sacrificial lamb' to placate our sense of justice.
In addition to being a good story it is also a model of human vulnerabilities and in this respect it is well deserving of 5*.
I enjoyed watching the film and recommend it as worthy entertainment and may it be said, educational too.
 A quickfire tale of a banking earthquake February 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Nick Leeson is probably the most infamous bank employee of modern times and Ewan McGregor does a good job in this dramatisation of how one poorly supervised operative could bankrupt a centuries old financial institution from thousands of miles away (in Singapore).
There are myriads of ordinary people who get into personal debt and then spiral in order to make it up. Leeson though didn't personally profit from his large scale fraud and deception. Instead he was able to exploit faults in the audit system of his employers while appearing to make them money from the futures markets - until his activities were eventually uncovered in February 1995.
The film is told from Leeson's point of view (as it's based on his book of the same name which he wrote while doing time in a Singapore jail).
Has the banking system changed to prevent such catastrophes? Ironically, Societe Generale is mentioned in this film as well...
 More excuse than expose, but slick enough December 14, 2007
Rogue Trader is a surprisingly slick and enjoyable number just as long as you can overlook its very distant relation to truth about the downfall of Barings Bank in the wake of massive losses and fraud perpetrated by one of its Singapore traders. There's at least two generations who grew up never realizing that producer David Frost used to a vicious satirist, and this is the movie equivalent of one of his interviews, going along with his subjects' account of events no matter how outrageous the excuses become: here he seems to have blown several million pounds providing a celluloid alibi for a dodgy dealer. Thus Ewan McGregor's Nick Leeson becomes a loveable cockney who only got into this mess to save a bullied colleague's job and to save managements' bonuses without disappointing his wife or the memory of his dear old mum. You keep on expecting him to break out into a chorus of Chim Chiminey or start dancing with animated penguins (he's certainly got the blazer for it). Still, with recent events in France the film has aquired a new topicality.
Not much money went into the DVD - just a fullframe transfer and trailer.
Glossy but with no real substance July 6, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
A cunning scoundrel in exotic Singapore single-handedly brings down Barings Bank, established two centuries ago and one of England's foremost financial institutions. Another wildly improbable sting flick? Not at all - the story is based on actual events and the film sticks pretty close to the facts. Nick Leeson, brilliant and ambitious young trader, superstar of the Singapore stock market, incurs staggering losses. Unwilling to jeopardize his prospects for advancement, he tries to cover his tracks by pulling non-existent rabbits out of imaginary hats. The literally gut-wrenching stress is illustrated by Leeson's frequent bouts of vomiting (while in prison, he underwent surgery to remove a tumor along with part of his colon and large intestine, and chemotherapy after being released). The film's flaw is that it glosses over the bank's role in the disaster. Barings turned a neophyte loose in an foreign arena with total control of the operation and minimal supervision. Putting the same individual in charge of both the front office and back office bypasses the appropriate checks and balances, and is tantamount to having the fox guard the hen-house. The official report of the Bank of England concluded that Barings' failure to segregate Leeson's duties was "reprehensible," and those with "direct executive responsibility for establishing effective controls must bear much of the blame." Yet little mention is made of this in the film. And the mechanizations of the stock market are downright incomprehensible at times. Nevertheless, this is an interesting story and Ewan McGregor turns in another outstanding performance.
 Don't bother... June 12, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed the book so thought I'd give the film a whirl. I wish I hadn't bothered. This film is low-budget, it could have been made by the same people that make the fire safety videos at work. The poor sets, sound and camera work spoiled it for me, which is a shame because it's a great story. Still, nice to see Captain Darling make an appearance.
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