Product Details

• Actors: Warren Buffett, The Motley Fools, Lisa D. Gildehaus
• Directors: Lisa D. Gildehaus
• Format: Color, Director's Cut, Dolby, Letterboxed, NTSC
• Number of tapes: 1
• VHS Release Date: November 1, 2000
• Run Time: 62 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 097105763X
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #245,533 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Boring and Useless, April 4, 2004

By 

thewahlmighty (Hanoi) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Warren Buffett - Oracle of Omaha [VHS] (VHS Tape)

If you are a big fan of Warren Buffett, you might be interested in buying this video. After all, it claims to show you what an annual meeting is like as well as offer insights into the minds behind Berkshire Hathaway. I strongly recommend, however, that you do not buy this documentary. Here's why:

The blip about the movie that you might have read in its Amazon description is correct--Peter Lynch and Roger Lowenstein are, as it says, interviewed. The questions though are superficial, and the amount of air-time given to them both is together less than five minutes easy. So what constitutes the main substance of the documentary? Just people--mostly random stockholders--sharing their thoughts on Mr Buffett. Everything from what they think about money to what price they bought Berkshire stock at is discussed, mostly in a boring sequence that repeats itself throughout.

Viewers will not learn anything about Buffett from this piece, moreover, that they could not easily (and cheaply) discover from one or two articles about "the Oracle". And this is the biggest gripe I have against it. Where the producers should have done a little bit of research on the man himself, then present that information to us, they instead chose to simply pick up a camera and ask others what they thought.

The end result is a movie that I--an avid Buffett fan--found to be unbearably boring, completely useless, and thus, a huge rip-off. I would have rather seen a home video of a single annual meeting, where what Buffet and Munger said on stage was the focus, than this over-priced video any day.

I wish I could suggest a good documentary on Warren Buffet, either as a man, a Ceo, or an investor, but I cannot. So the only advice I can give you is to pick up Roger Lowenstein's book _Making of an American Capitalist_. It will take more time, and demand more from you, than sitting through a short documentary--but the extra effort you have to expend will definitely be worth it.

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Hero worship, not documentary, September 2, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Warren Buffett - Oracle of Omaha [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Although I have learned a lot from reading Mr. Buffett's annual reports, this video was useless. A puff piece, it is mostly filled with people who have nothing to say except how Mr. Buffett is a hero to them. Even the interviews with Peter Lynch and Roger Lowenstien have no depth, which is a shame; they could have been really interesting. Mr. Buffett himself is intelligent as always, but nothing here hasn't already been said in a dozen places before.

A real disappointment.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sneak preview to the Woodstock for Capitalists, February 22, 2004

By 

Joe Cool "thedancingcrab" (Bronx, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Warren Buffett - Oracle of Omaha [VHS] (VHS Tape)

If you're looking for Warren Buffett to discuss his theory on stock picking you won't get it here. When he does say something he's vague as usual. For example, Buffett, as always, says he chooses businesses that have excellent managers,(which is obvious, you wouldn't want an imbecile running you business); but what are the qualities that make a excellent manager? Instead Buffett's investment theory is "fleshed out" by Peter Lynch and Motley Fool. Thus, you only get a speculation on what Buffett thinks. You also get bits and pieces of his background from his children, Lowenstein and Kilpatrick. What makes this video interesting is the shareholders' meeting and interviews. BRK (it's not really clear if they own the A or B stock) investors all appear to hold normal jobs and live simply yet, they are, I assume, millionaires because of Warren Buffett. (In 1990 BRK.A was selling at about $7000/share, in 2000 it was worth $40,000/share and today it went up to the unheard of $100,000/share. How high can it go?). This is a Warren Buffett cult: you see middle-age and elderly people trampling each other for good seats and for a chance to speak to Buffett. (Especially telling is that one shareholder stopped going to the meeting a few years back because he thought that an attendance of 500 was too chaotic. When he returned in 2000, attendance grew to 11000 strong). This video would be more worthwhile if Warren Buffett gave a very candid and thorough explanation on how to pick stocks. Until then we can only infer on how it is done.