Client 9

Writer-director Alex Gibney's 2010 documentary, Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer outlines the circumstances resulting in the forced resignation of an exceptional New York State Governor in 2008 after one year in office.

It's a natural topic for Gibney, who's covered Casino Jack Abramoff, Enron, Jimi Hendrix, sumo wrestling and the dead Afghan driver of the 2007 Oscar-winning Taxi to the Dark Side. Gibney thrives on controversial characters (next up, reportedly, is Julien Assange) and is the right man to ask how far Spitzer fell or whether he was pushed?

Was the pugnacious politico and successful graft-tackling NY Attorney-General (for eight years) a modern anti-hero, a classic case of hubris before the fall, or the target of his enemies? Spitzer himself compares his case to that of Icarus during his interviews with Gibney's team.

During its first half, with Spitzer sat calmly on a sofa and former colleagues praising his work, the documentary feels like an apologia that could have been commissioned. Spitzer clearly had been a ruthlessly effective campaigning "Sheriff of Wall Street" who'd tackled issues of dishonesty and corruption, such as overpaid CEOs and hedge fund abuses, that later re-magnified and led to system-shaking massive government bailouts.

In the second hour, when Spitzer's initial work as Governor in Albany is covered, Gibney illustrates the man's foolhardiness in simultaneously using prostitutes, declaring war on old-time Republican politicos, and trying to change by fiat and force a state's traditionally corrupt system of non-governance. The Democrat who'd won a record high percentage of voters and was identified as the future "first Jewish US president" was probably the victim of a conspiracy by the heads of AIG, New York State's Republican caucus, and other foes.

Many of them agreed to be interviewed and state their abhorrence of Spitzer, and they provide fascinating facets of the diabolical NY political, economic and social systems. It is a parade of nastiness, in which Spitzer's own belligerent style (behind a facade of intelligent charm) fitted so well.

Most of the names are key footnotes in modern US history: Blodget and Grubman (fraudulent stock analysts), Hulbert and Brener (escort agency pimps), Greenberg (AIG), Grasso (NYSE), Eddie Stern (Canary Fund), Langone (Home Depot boss and Republican big-shot), Joe Bruno (NY Senator, "the turd in Eliot's punchbowl"), Roger Stone (political operative sporting a Nixon tattoo on his back), and a vindictive NY radio host. Other characters are only noted in passing, as potential juicy acting cameos in a dramatisation of the events, from the Republican federal attorney-general (Michael Garcia) to the FBI agent (Katzman) who collected the data that blackened Spitzer's reputation.

By comparison, the bright young women who ran the escort agencies are delightfully open and well-balanced interviewees. They happily admit that they were profiting from Wall Street's bonanza of bonuses in a city that Gibney's narrative says is built on greed. Understandably, Spitzer's wife and three daughters did not participate in what might be a rehab exercise for Spitzer. By the end of the film, though, it's clear he committed the fatal crime for a well-meaning politician: he made too many enemies in the NY jungle. A rich-born member of "the lucky-sperm club", he lost his sense of perspective politically and personally, like so many other leaders with the folie de grandeur.