Watching “Casino Jack and the United States of Money” made me sick to my stomach.
That’s not because Alex Gibney’s documentary about Jack Abramoff is so bad, but because it’s so good in depicting — in sickening detail — what one person in the film calls “the selling of America.”
Gibney’s well-researched and well-presented film details the rise and fall of Republican mover and shaker Abramoff, uber-lobbylist and uber-sleaze, who is now in the slammer on scandal-related charges.
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Abramoff’s complicated dealings involved Indian casinos, Chinese sweatshops, a mob hit in Florida and more.
“He could sweet-talk a dog off a meat truck,” one talking head says.
Abramoff isn’t the only bad guy in the spotlight. His buddy Tom DeLay, the disgraced former GOP Senate majority leader and “Dancing With the Stars” contestant, is just one of the “public servants” depicted as exchanging favors for cash.
As one interviewee opines: “It’s all about the money.”
It will be interesting to see Hollywood’s spin on Abramoff in “Casino Jack,” starring Kevin Spacey and due out in October.