Casino Jack: United States of Money [DVD] [2010] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

Though not as engrossing as Gibney's Enron doc, Casino Jack lays out the facts and lets Abramoff's almost surreal greed speak for itself. Some call this one-sided, but considering the well-documented facts, emails, and other endlessly incriminating evidence that Abramoff and pals handed the world on a platter, Gibney seems kind here.

There are so many politicians who were taking dirty money from Jack, and giving it to him as well. This film could have been a C-Spannish ten hours. Instead it just sticks to the basics of Abramoff and his Tom DeLay connections. That DeLay can sit in interviews for this film and smile while essentially saying he did little that was wrong is almost unbelievable, and the hard evidence presented throughout of his endlessly criminal behavior makes it more so. His and Abramoff's and so many other politicians' support of evil sweatshops and sex abuse in Saipan is shown clearly here, and it's ugly stuff.

Scanlon and Reed still have zero shame, apparently, though Kidan shows some in interviews. That DeLay still has no remorse for what he helped do to all those families only shows how much further Gibney could and should have taken this film. Wussup, Tommy the (laughably crappy) Dancer? So only your brand of merkun family counts? Kill and rape the rest?

Frankly, DeLay deserves his own film, and one a lot tougher than Casino Jack. As much as I enjoyed CJ, after a while it felt too breezy. But then again, who could stomach an honestly hard-eyed look at the long litany of serious crimes these criminals committed in the name of God and Country(TM)? These men are truly evil, and the way they laughingly supported sex crimes in Saipan, among so many other Satanic acts in the name of their God (certainly not mine or any decent, honest person's), all while grinning on hundreds of deluxe golf courses, is the very height of repugnant amorality. Their many crimes, including the cheating of Indian tribes for almost $100 million, are brutal, but it's their abuse of women and children in Saipan that still make me feel sick to my stomach. How can these guys sleep at night...let alone call themselves "religious"?!

And ain't it interesting how McCain's investigation side-stepped dozens of politicians who were part of all these crimes? Jack was no doubt paid off yet again for his silence. Gotta give Abramoff credit: he got it from all sides all the way down the line. When it comes to sliming, Jack Abramoff is a mile-high snail. Gibney also barely touches on Wall Street's role in all this, a real oversight. The sickening bailouts are easily traceable back to Jack's payola and its role in promoting deregulation and the myriad bogus derivatives that have brought us to the edge of total ruin (and now that the new laughable rules for Wall Street have changed almost nothing, expect another collapse and soon. Somewhere, Abraham-off will probably get his cut...).

An interesting sidenote here is that the soundtrack to Casino Jack has more truly great and entirely apropos tunes than I may have ever heard in a doc. Huge hits that would normally cost a million to license are here by the dozen. Gibney must have sold each group on being part of an expose of some of the biggest American crooks of our time, and they kindly gave him the rights for free. Check out the perfectly matched songs here, and their quality, from old Chess blues classics to Dylan, Metallica, Talking Heads and other rarely-licensed groups, and then listen for a collection that diverse on any other film, even a $200 million studio epic; you won't find one from the past few decades. Who knows? Maybe Abramoff lobbied the bands!

As for Casino Jack being "unfairly one-sided", it would be hard to make a "fair" documentary about Abramoff and DeLay; where are the good things to show about them? These men were at the heart of turning our federal government into a nearly 100% pay-for-play world, and we are suffering more every year for the criminal behavior they made normal in D.C. If we were serious about the War On Terror, these guys would be in jail forever---or frankly, executed for treason--- along with all their cronies. Few terrorists of any nation have done more to hurt the USA than Jack Abramoff and Tom DeLay, and this film only scratches the surface of how badly they've cheated Americans of all political and religious beliefs.

Yet why shouldn't they, except for trying to be decent people (as if they care about that)? They've paid almost no penalty. Jack gets 4 years in some country club prison and keeps his $100,000,000+ dirty money; Bob Ney is the only Congress critter who gets in any trouble at all, and then not much; no one involved does more than a few years in the can; and the scummiest of the scum, DeLay, dances away scot-free while his redistricting and other criminal acts will screw America for years to come. So why shouldn't everyone break the law? Like Goldman Sachs, they can steal a trillion and pay less than a billion in fines. That's a phenomenal 10,000% ROI! We're almost begging these shysters to take whatever they want. Will they ever be stopped, or do we have to watch everything crumble first?

Clearly the latter.

*Hugely disillusioned sigh*

The dvd of Casino Jack has some good extras, including deleted scenes, extended interviews (Kidan's comments about Scanlon are scary to say the least), Gibney and "friends" at a premiere answering questions (the presence of Ney, Kidan and Volz is bizarre; what, now you've seen the light? Too little too late, boys), a full-length commentary from Gibney, a nice little Schoolhouse Rock parody, and a very brief overview of Citizens United and why McCain-Feingold was a joke. It also points out that YOU AND I need to step up and write our representatives MANY angry letters if we ever expect any change whatsoever.

So get writing!...!...!!!!!!!!

Gibney takes a good shot at the truth here, but he needs to go the final step and make a film showing all the connections between our government and organized crime around the world, in the form of banks, arms dealers/defense contractors, casinos, prostitution, agribiz, corporate welfare, and so much else. It's time. If we don't stop this soon, there'll be nothing left to steal.

This DVD is a must for anyone who votes in this country. It gives an inside look at what is going on with our elected officials; and until MONEY is taken out of the voting process; then our country will only be for the very wealthy and those who pay the politicians. This is a very good documentary.

CASINO JACK AND THE UNITED STATES OF MONEY! This documentary will crack you up as long as you don't realize the joke is on you, if you're a United States citizen whose elected representatives answer to lobbyists instead of you. Like a big pile of horse manure draws all the flies on the farm, when it comes to wheeler-dealer Jack Abramoff's mound of money laying before Congress and other Washington, D.C. power brokers, get out of the way or risk being squashed by the stampede of the squalid.

Not that CASINO JACK plays the sociopathic behavior of individuals such as Abramoff, Tom DeLay and Ralph Reed for straight out laughs. Rather, its tone often gets almost as bleak as another work of its director Alex Gibney, TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE (Academy Award for Best Documentary a couple of years back). But unlike that grim gem, CASINO JACK's recount of incidents such as Abramoff lobbying partner Michael Scanlon fooling a lifeguard into fronting a money-laundering storefront is, in the sickest way, funny.

If you view CASINO JACK on D.V.D., make sure you watch the bonus selection where director Gibney talks about Jack Abramoff. It complements the feature, rounding out what made a man who could bench press 500 pounds at the height of his athletic youth into someone so beaten when the law catches up he goes down without a fight, pleading guilty to fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to bribe public officials.

See CASINO JACK AND THE UNITED STATES OF MONEY.