The Movie
I'll be honest: I'm from New Jersey, and I don't think I knew who the governor of New York was in the early months of 2008. Soon enough I'd be, shall we say, enlightened.
In what would become a three-ring media circus in these parts and beyond, the most powerful man in The Empire State resigned after being exposed as a customer of a high-end prostitution club, and the whole sordid affair is laid bare in the documentary Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer. As the title suggests, we are given a history lesson on Spitzer's career before the scandal, his eight years as attorney general during which he was known as "The Sheriff of Wall Street," catching crooks and fundamentally changing for the better the way that America did business. (Man, there are some scumbags on Wall Street.)
But shortly before he would transition to the governorship, a job he'd only wind up holding for about a year, he began frequenting expensive "escorts," a mistake eventually seized upon by the many enemies he'd made. Friends, haters, co-workers, articulate observers and working girls are all interviewed for the occasion of Client 9 (as Spitzer was anonymously referred to in court documents), along with Spitzer himself, who comes off as mostly honest, somewhat repentant, although he does sometimes retreat into an evasive "lawyer mode."
There's a definite spin at work, although the dots aren't hard to connect, hinting at a credible right-wing conspiracy. (Man, there are some scumbags in Washington.) The political agenda was made more daunting through the dubious efforts of a sloppy, self-serving or outright vindictive press. Biased or not, this movie gives the most thorough recounting of the intertwined events that I've seen so far.
The Picture
The high-bitrate video boasts warm hues and excellent detail, flaunting the varied weaves of the suits and ties (and hairpieces) on parade. There is some video streaking in the scenes of motion, although so much of the movie is just a series of very interesting people talking to the camera. Older clips edited into the narrative from the TV news and elsewhere show a significant but not jarring shift in overall appearance within the 1.78:1 frame.
The Sound
The pristine presentation format of DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is not guarantee of a stellar motion picture soundtrack, rather it maintains the original quality without compromise. The movie is almost non-stop dialogue, much of it recorded by the crew, although there is a slight drop in quality when we shift to old news footage. As happens in documentaries, the interviewer--not given a microphone himself--will sometimes ask a question and we can't properly hear him. The mostly-front-channel soundfield opens up a bit when the moody music kicks in, but ultimately this is an undistinguished track.
The Extras
The disc features a fine complement of bonus materials, starting with an audio commentary by writer/director Alex Gibney, who provides his own 15-minute on-camera interview (in HD) as well, to bring a still-broader perspective. There are also extended interviews rounded up for six of the key participants, once again including Spitzer. These run about 33-and-a-half minutes all together, in SD.
The five deleted scenes add up to another 17 minutes, also in SD. And the approximately four-minute promo, "HDNet: A Look at Client 9" doesn't really offer much new insight by this point, but at least it's in HD, no surprise there. The disc also offers BD-Live access to some online trailers for other Magnolia movies.
Final Thoughts
Artfully assembled, packed with some memorable players and seasoned with just a few lurid details, Client 9 is a riveting tale of power, pride, sex, corruption, justice and revenge, so shocking that it could only be true. And this respectable Blu-ray is a fine way to watch it, bonus evidence and all.
Product Details
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