The hardest working man in documentary - Alex Gibney - is back with his latest film, CASINO JACK AND THE UNITED STATES OF MONEY. Scheduled for release by Magnolia this spring, CASINO JACK tells the story of "the king of lobbyists" and the illegal money that changes hands between special interests (foreign and domestic) and politicians.
Entertainment Weekly's Owen Glieberman says that this film establishes Gibney as "the gold standard for documentary muckraking":
"I don’t know about you, but the moment I hear the word “lobbyist,” my brain glazes over. Casino Jack woke my brain, and my outrage, right up. It starts off as a fascinating portrait of the college-campus Republicans who came up in the 1980s — men like the Abramoff and the clean-cut, fire-breathing Ralph Reed (is it just me, or has Reed always been an eerie dead ringer for Burt Ward on Batman?), who saw themselves as radicals out to remake America. And here’s the thing, they did. After becoming an Orthodox Jew, the glad-handing, backroom-savvy Abramoff underwent a different sort of conversion: He became the Karl Rove — the amoral visionary — of underground government cash. Building on the lobbyist revolution of the Reagan era, he erected an entire system in which eager dupes — Malaysian dictators, sweatshop owners on the American commonwealth of the Mariana Islands, Indian casinos — would funnel millions upon millions of dollars to Abramoff and his Republican cronies, in what was in effect a protection racket."
Marshall Fine wrote that he was dazzled:
"Gibney’s film does a clear job of tying it all together, providing details and even charts to pull together the massive spiderweb of influence-peddling that was Abramoff’s stock in trade. It’s a sad, shocking commentary on a Washington culture that continues to play out, whether in the health-insurance debate or the struggle to stem global warming."
Writing behind Variety's paywall, Robert Koehler found himself overwhelmed:
"Where CASINO JACK soon becomes dizzying in its quest to uncover and explain the entire Abramoff saga is in a chain of sequences detailing his business in sweatshop exploitation, with Indian casinos, pharmaceutical companies and mob-connected Russian tycoons. It's too much to take in during a single sitting, but the stunning reality is disturbing: that a skilled lobbyist can simultaneously bilk his clients while seducing them and politicians with sweetheart, quid pro quo deals."
Cinematical's Scott Weinberg says it's a good thing that there are filmmakers like Gibney out there:
"Gibney is a smart filmmaker: he is well-aware that even though these are important stories, they're potentially dry and long-winded ones, too. To keep his CASINO JACK chugging along in entertaining fashion, he digs out pertinent clips from films like PATTON and MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, and the soundtrack is equally adept at keeping all the financial jargon from becoming too dreary. Plus most of the anecdotes (and there are many) are as juicy and compelling as they are plain-old horrifying.
Employing tons of recent interviews with colleagues and competitors of the presently-incarcerated Abramoff, the film could come off (to some, I suppose) as a left-wing hatchet job -- but it's pretty hard to argue with the most important facts: Abramoff and his chums swindled multiple millions from everyone they could, and they got away with it for a hell of a lot longer than they should have been able to. So while CASINO JACK is a colorful but unflinching smack at Jack, it also speaks to something a lot larger than just one gang of crooks: maybe we need to keep a much closer eye on those D.C. lobbyists -- and toss the rotten ones out before they can infect the rest."
Sharon Waxman profiles the film at The Wrap:
"What’s stunning in the timeline of Abramoff’s reign of greed is how quickly he went from being a staunch, anti-regulatory right-wing ideologue to being a money-grubbing operator who would make Boss Tammany blush.
But all this happens, of course, in the context of the collapse of Wall Street, under the weightless weight of deregulation. The price we are all paying for that far exceeds any client overcharging committed by Abramoff.
But that’s not really the point.
To filmmaker Alex Gibney, Abramoff set the mold for the control that lobbyists now exert over Washington. Lobbyists have long existed in force, but Abramoff asserted his influence to a degree that hadn’t been seen before. He found new ways of funneling money – through non profits and fake grass roots organizations – that allowed far greater control of politicians by moneyed special interests."
Alex Gibney has a point with this film, but greed/monetary need has it's place also.
Posted by: Jerry Wright | May 18, 2010 at 09:07 PM