Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer (2010)

An in-depth look at the rise and fall of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, including interviews with the scandalized, former politician.

Director:

Alex Gibney

Writer:

Alex Gibney

Stars:

Eliot Spitzer, Alex Gibney, Hulbert Waldroup

8 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Alex Gibney	...	Himself - Narrator (voice)
Eliot Spitzer	...	Himself - Former Governor, New York
Hulbert Waldroup	...	Himself - Painter
Lloyd Constantine	...	Himself - Former Spitzer Advisor
Peter Elkind	...	Himself - Author, Rough Justice: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer
Darren Dopp	...	Himself - Spitzer Communications Director
Zana Brazdek	...	Herself - Formerly of Emperors Club VIP
Natalia	...	Herself - Former Escort
Ashley Dupré	...	Herself - Escort (archive footage)
David Brown	...	Himself - Former Spitzer Staff Lawyer
Noreen Harrington	...	Herself - Former Executive, Stern Asset Management
Wrenn Schmidt	...	Angelina
Kenneth Langone	...	Himself - Chairman & CEO, Invemed Associates (as Ken Langone)
Hank Greenberg	...	Himself - Former Chairman and CEO AIG (as Maurice 'Hank' Greenberg)
Richard Beattie	...	Himself - Legal Counsel to the Independent Directors of AIG

Storyline

Documentary on the rise of Eliot Spitzer, first as Attorney General and then Governor of New York and his subsequent downfall due to a sex scandal. Spitzer had a hard driving, take no prisoners approach to prosecuting criminals. When he focused his efforts on Wall Street, he came up against some very powerful men. The chink in his armor was an escort whom he met regularly. When the fact that he spent time with a prostitute became public the knives came out so to speak, and Spitzer found himself isolated, resigning the Governorship. At one point, Spitzer recounts the story of a friend who gave him a t-shirt with 'Hubris is Terminal' printed on the front. A fitting epitaph somehow for his political career.

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Plot Keywords:

greed | coverup | federal bureau of investigation scandal | money | jew | 

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Taglines:

Money. Sex. Power. Betrayal.

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Genres:

Documentary

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some sexual material, nudity and language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 March 2011 (UK)

Also Known As:

Untitled Eliot Spitzer Project

Filming Locations:

New York, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$16,962, 7 November 2010, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$187,540, 23 January 2011

Company Credits

Production Co:

A&E IndieFilms, Jigsaw Productions, Wider Film Projects

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When former Eliot Spitzer escort 'Angelina' did not wish to appear on camera, the director hired actress Wrenn Schmidt to portray her.

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Connections

Features Seabiscuit (2003)

User Reviews

Surprisingly holds your attention---but i'm not sure what the point was

Film manages to maintain interest without seeming overtly like a propaganda piece which is what i honestly thought it would be going in. *honestly why else would the ex governor have even participated if it wasn't for the opportunity to rehabilitate his image went my logic--an idea i'm sure many other people have thought when wondering if they should bother checking this one out. I can't really say whether you should check it out or not---it will help if you have a tolerance for smirking, and self justification (and yet somehow Spitzer doesn't indulge in the latter--remaining completely on point that he had no one to blame but himself for his own actions...what can i say? i was hoping for someone who sees conspiracy theories everywhere.)

Can't help but wonder how this is going to hold up in the coming decade or two. Will it hold together as a film? will it hold as a narrative that years from now people whom have never heard of Spitzer will be able to watch this and have interest in it?, sadly i think it probably will to a certain extent---not so much because of Spitzer's fall from grace (that will inevitably repeat itself in another high ranking politician and this will if anything just seem like business as usual.) but because of the various people--wall streeters, and gov. officials interviewed throughout who take delight in seeing Spitzer smeared. Its all kinds of creepy to see these guys and gals taking such glee in being interviewed about Spitzer as well as defending themselves from Spitzer's previous accusations against them when he was a crusading governor/state attorney---you kind of start to wonder what kind of documentary these guys thought they were being interviewed for exactly.

I mean in what capacity did these guys rationalize themselves into being interviewed for this doc? Was it this same rationality that led to Spitzer thinking he could continue seeing these prostitutes indefinitely without any ramifications? Why do such high ranking guys of both the governmental kind and the wall street kind think they can rationalize every action they take away as if they had a perfectly logical reason for doing what they do?) If anything can be taken away from this documentary, its not that you should be careful how you conduct yourself, its not that you should be careful whose feathers you ruffle (in the metaphorical sense of course), its not even that you shouldn't have sex with prostitutes if you're a government official (you especially shouldn't have sex with prostitutes who recognize you from the news)---its that very successful high ranking people of all professions can sell themselves on anything, especially when they really shouldn't. Throughout the film the director keeps coming back to an interview with the giggling young woman who ran the prostitution ring in the first place...and she still so obviously thinks that she did nothing wrong running such a business and making a lot of money doing so. Perhaps that's even why these people are so successful in the first place. That they're such good salesmen, that they can even fool themselves into thinking they can do anything and get away with anything because they'll always be able to rationalize it away. That they're such good salesmen that even after getting caught, they can still feel like they didn't do anything wrong at all. Overconfidence kills. (also a potential question---why are all the super successful people in this movie all seem to be sociopaths as well? and what is that supposed to mean?)