Every day after work, I used to jog past the Smithsonian Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. It’s not the norm for a private individual’s name to be on a Smithonsian building, but this guy, whoever he was, donated tens of millions of dollars in Asian art, which is housed in a handsome building.
Now that I have seen Alex Gibney’s latest documentary The Crime of the Century, I know that the Sackler name will forever be associated with the worst practices in the pharmaceutical industry, and that the Saclker family arguably killed thousands upon thousands of people who became addicted to opioids – something the Sacklers pioneered and then marketed under false pretenses as Oxycontin until they and Purdue Pharma were filthy rich and an epidemic gripped the nation.
By now, most of us have seen so many reports on the opioid crisis, so many news stories and documentaries and we may well be desensitized, if not bored, with it all. But Gibney, whose docs always have strong points of view and have essentially become advocacy pieces, has a new take on the subject matter. The doc is aptly titled, because it really plays as a crime thriller more than anything else. That, to me, makes it more watchable than anything else I’ve ever seen.
Split into 2 two-hour episodes, the “criminals” in this crime story are not dealers or addicts – they are the sales reps who conspire with doctors to sell as many pills as possible.They are doctors who opened “pill mills” handing out scripts like lollipops to anyone who came through their doors. They are billionaires.
Which takes us back to the Sacklers, Gibney relies a lot on a couple of authors who know their history cold- and it’s important to see how three Sackler brothers, psychiatrists who were horrified with shock therapy and other barbaric practices in the first half of the 20th century, and sought to find a better way to treat the symptoms of mental illness.
But it is notable that Arthur Sackler’s bio spends so much time and what a pioneering marketer he was of prescription drugs. At some point, obscene amounts of money were just more important than patients’ health. And far more important than the truth.
Some will say that Gibney has missed an opportunity to delve more into the victims’ plight at the lowest levels of the food chain (he actually does give some tragic personal details of a few families) but that is not the movie he wanted to make.
Instead he gives us revealing interviews with former foot soldiers whose duty was to sell, sell, sell. We also see the law enforcement side of things – how the cops took down so many bad guys, but nobody could really hold the billionaires accountable, except by fining them amounts of money that is simply lunch money to people that rich.
And, of course, no story of greed and insider shenanigans would be complete without politicians like Senator Marsha Blackburn complicit in the problem.
Gibney has taken on Scientology, Silicon Valley and Wikileaks, to name a few. Taking on Big Pharma ends up being another behemoth he goes after with fury and facts. When you see the junior Sackler, Richard, giving his previously unseen 2015 deposition with a smirk on his face and condescending replies, you’ll want to throw something at the screen. But don’t. It’s no use.
The Crime of the Century Part 1 premieres on HBO Max, May 10th. Part 2 premieres May 11th
4 out of 4 stars | Reviewed by Kyle Osborne
