Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer Blu-ray Movie Review

Eliot Spitzer: Angel or Animal?

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater January 22, 2011

Americans—scratch that, people everywhere—love a good scandal, especially if it involves a high-powered hypocrite. We revel in the salacious details—the juicier the better—and wring our hands waiting for the media to break each new twist of the sordid plot. There is a sick satisfaction, I suppose, in observing the slow-motion train wreck of another’s life, in weighing the seamy evidence and passing judgment from afar. Perhaps it makes us feel better about ourselves, or validates our suspicions that the rich and famous and in-charge aren’t quite gliding through life as effortlessly as it seems. Maybe we’re just bored. Regardless, we’ve had plenty of high-profile downfalls to gawk over lately, many of them political, and most of them sexual. The most shocking, arguably, was the surprise 2008 demise of Eliot Spitzer, governor of New York, self-proclaimed “Sheriff of Wall Street,” and —as it turned out—connoisseur of extremely expensive call girls.

Eliot Spitzer

Who’d’ve thunkit, right? Naturally, the media—from the shadiest tabloid to the New York Times—went hog wild, leaking documents leaked to them from government insiders and devoting way too much cover space to vapid escort Ashley Dupré, who was dead-set on squeezing a singing career out of her 15-minutes of fame. Spitzer shamefully tenured his resignation shortly thereafter, and that was that. Or was it? One of the questions asked about the Spitzer debacle in this terrific new documentary by Alex Gibney—who previously directed Taxi to the Dark Side and Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room—is whether it might have actually been an elaborate political hit job, engineered by enemies Spitzer made while playing hardball as state’s attorney general. That’s not to say, of course, that Spitzer didn’t have dalliances with hookers whose hourly rates ran into the quadruple digits—he most definitely did, spending over $100k in the process—but Gibney posits that the resulting media shitstorm may have been deliberately whipped up to sabotage the career of a governor who many claimed would be the first Jewish president. Note the use of may. The director doesn’t arrive at any revelatory conclusions, but his Client-9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer is a thought-provoking investigative documentary nonetheless.

Here’s another question the film poses but leaves for the audience to decide: Should we measure the man more by his private foibles or his public achievements? As the subtitle suggests, the documentary is not only about Spitzer’s almost Shakespearean downfall, it’s also about his rise to prominence as a “Dudley Do-Right,” cracking down on white collar crime, shaking up Wall Street, and gunning for crooked CEOs with seriously inflated salaries. This was a man intent on disinfecting a corrupt system from the top down, so naturally, those at the apex weren’t exactly fond of him, especially AIG honcho “Hank” Greenberg, and New York Stock Exchange bigwigs Dick Grasso and Ken Langone. Powerful enemies, indeed, who had every reason to want their collective nemesis removed after Spitzer went after them like a self-described “f—king steamroller.” If there’s one lesson to be learned here, however, it’s that those who seem above reproach rarely are. Spitzer, who had once busted a prostitution ring in New Jersey, was privately a client of Emperor’s Club VIP, a “high-class” escort service that specialized in offering “the girlfriend experience.” (See the Steven Soderbergh film of the same name, starring porn-starlet Sasha Grey, for insight into this world of exorbitantly pricey prozzies.) The most intriguing question, one that Gibney doesn’t even have to explicitly ask, is this: What’s the bigger crime, Spitzer’s sexual misconduct on his own time and dime, or the irresponsible actions of Wall Street executives that led to the near-total collapse of the U.S. economy? Why is it that Spitzer was so savagely disgraced while others busted for the same misdeeds, like recently reelected Louisiana senator David Vitter—of the “D.C. Madam” scandal— remain politically relevant? It couldn’t be because he was so intent on exposing Wall Street’s dirty dealings, could it?

We’ll probably never know for certain, but in one interview, Spitzer’s most-called call girl, “Angelina”—who declined to appear on camera, but allowed Gibney to have an actress read transcripts of their conversation—reveals that the FBI agents who questioned her seemed conspicuously interested in Spitzer’s sexual proclivities, details that really shouldn’t have any bearing on whatever case they were mounting. (Spitzer was never actually charged with anything.) Either the agents were pervs, it seems, or they were trying to dig up as much shameful dirt as possible. Also of suspicious interest is the fact that the court papers indicting the Emperor’s Club skimped on details of other johns, but devoted several pages to the activities of so-called “Client-9,” leading journalists to quickly put the pieces together and discover that the codename stood for Spitzer. Nothing can be proved outright, but it looks like someone was gunning specifically for the governor.

Over the course of the film, Gibney nets interviews with most of the key figures in Spitzer’s demise, from aides and associates to call girls, pimps, enemies, and of course, Spitzer himself, who presumably wants to set the record straight. Greenberg, Grasso, and Langone all play hard-to-pin- down, but they each seem immensely pleased that Spitzer got his shame-faced comeuppance. Republican freakazoid Robert Stone, a self-professed swinger with a tattoo of Richard Nixon’s face on his back, provides some colorful commentary—if I had to pick a single color it would be orange; the guy is artificially tanned to a crisp—and bubbly airhead Cecil Suwal, the 23-year-old “madam” of the Emperor’s Club, titters idiotically about upscale prostitution. What was Spitzer thinking to put his future, his reputation, and his political career in the hands of this vapid college drop-out? What drove him to the escort service to begin with? We never find out. Spitzer fields Gibney’s questions with the carefully worded responses of a pro politician, meaning, that is, he beats perpetually around the proverbial bush. While he seems contrite—he owns up to his actions, placing the blame squarely on himself—he declines to divulge his own inner demons. You’ll get no weepy confessionals or tear-jerking pleas for forgiveness here, but Gibney doesn’t seem interested in that kind of audience pandering anyway. Rather, he constructs a thoughtful and thoroughly researched exploration of how a public disgrace can be engineered for political or economic ends. The details may not be as juicy as the tabloid trash you read on newsstands, but it’s certainly a lot more meaty.

Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Like most documentaries nowadays, Client-9 was shot on high definition video cameras and makes the digital-to-digital transition to Blu-ray easily, with a 1080p/AVC encode that's crisp, realistically color balanced, and largely free of any compression-related quirks. Essentially, the whole film is constructed from "talking head" interviews, stock footage from various media outlets—some upscaled from standard definition—and stills from newspapers and magazines. The transfers handles all of these sources well; close-ups of the interviewees reveal strong facial detail, news footage looks as good as its ever going to, and the static material—sometimes given the "Ken Burns" effect—is sharp and clean. Likewise, colors are dense, supported by sufficiently deep black levels, and skin tones are warm and consistent. Aside from some moiré-ish shimmer on the tight pattern of one call girl's dress, I didn't spot any encode issues worth mentioning. A solid, visually pleasing presentation all around.

Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Client-9 features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track, but a stereo mix would've easily sufficed, as I can't remember hearing anything of note in the rear channels. Everything is confined up front, but given that the film is almost entirely interview-driven, this is to be expected. Where it counts—crystal clear vocal reproduction—this track makes no missteps. Interviewees' voices come across with a presence that's both clean and substantial, and there are no instances of muffling, drop-outs, hisses, or any other recording quirks. Various pop/rock/rap tunes are used to underscore the points the documentary is trying to make—director Alex Gibney, on his commentary, talks about using music as a kind of Greek chorus— and all of the songs sound fine, with plenty of punch and range. Just don't expect any crazy, all-immersive rear channel involvement. English SDH and Spanish subtitles are available in easy-to-read white lettering.

Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Alex Gibney: Gibney delivers a quietly insightful commentary track that has its slow spots but is definitely worth a listen if you're interested in revisiting the material.
• Interview with Writer/Director Alex Gibney (1080i, 14:54): Here, Gibney explains his impetus for creating the film and basically gives an overview of what he's trying to accomplish in Client-9.
• Extended Interviews (SD, 33:25): Includes additional interviews with Eliot Spitzer, Hulbert Waldroup, Joe Bruno, Roger Stone, Darren Dopp, Cecil Suwal, and "Angelina."
• Deleted Scenes (SD, 16:42): There are five brief deleted sequences here, including a look inside New York Confidential, another upscale escort service, and the story of the fall of AIG.
• HDNet: A Look at Client-9 (1080i, 4:21): A typical HDNet promo, with a general overview and an interview with director Alex Gibney.
• Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 2:03)
• Also From Magnolia Home Entertainment (1080p, 9:02): A series of trailers for upcoming Magnolia releases.

Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Client-9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer asks more questions than it answers, challenging us to consider the unsettling possibility that a public downfall isn't always as simple as it looks, and that there may, in fact, be forces at work to exploit a politician's private weaknesses in order to achieve a certain outcome, in this case, removing a governor who was intent on exposing economic corruption. The unspoken assertion here is that had Spitzer remained in office, there's a possibility that his ongoing efforts to shake up Wall Street may have helped avert the 2008 recession. Unfounded? That's for you to decide. Recommended!