Eliot Spitzer's Rise And Fall Into Hypocrisy
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Eliot Spitzer (Creative Commons)
Sex scandals are by no means alien to the political world.
After John Edwards, Bill Clinton, and countless others, Americans have practically become numb to these indignities. What could be more shocking than a blowjob in the oval office? The answer is a senator soliciting sex in a public men’s restroom.
So why would Oscar winner Alex Gibney choose to write and direct a documentary about such a common story to which Americans have built such immunity? And furthermore why would we listen?
Despite the trite tale of a crooked politician, in “Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer,” Gibney manages to chronicle the infamous New York politician’s ascent and demise in a way that engages the viewer by painting Spitzer as a victim of his own vices, and prey to the corporate bullies of Wall Street.
Known as the Sheriff of Wall Street, the former New York attorney general and governor of New York dedicated his early political career to rooting out crooked CEOs and striking fear in the hearts of fraudulent stock traders.
As Steven Colbert put it, Spitzer could have “punch[ed] a toddler” and still gained public support. Fortunately, for children under the age of five, abuse wasn’t Spitzer’s choice crime.
Throughout the film, Gibney compares the Greek god, Icarus, to Spitzer, whose wax wings melted when he was linked to a prostitution ring; thereby abruptly ending his political career.
Through this comparison of Spitzer’s downfall to the classic narrative of Greek mythology, Gibney creates a tragic tale out of what normally would be seen as a man with some serious character flaws.
Blinded by hubris and the inability to see his own shortcomings, Spitzer is painted in the documentary as a target, as opposed to the hypocrite that he is.
Through intimate interviews with Spitzer himself, Gibney’s direction shows up-close shots of the politician, which causes the audience to empathize with Spitzer’s story.
The film does an excellent job of playing into the sympathy of the audience, and by the end a few members may even find themselves feeling sorry for the former governor.
After all, by using his salary, formerly known as New York tax dollars to pay for hookers, sorry…escorts, he’s stimulating the economy.
Despite the hypocrisy of the documentary, it does put an interesting twist on a story that’s splashed in the news every other day, and it will definitely keep its oversexed audience interested for the majority of its near two-hour run time.
