JEFFREY EPSTEIN: FILTHY RICH
US, 2020, 210 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Lisa Bryant.
There were a number of documentaries made about Jeffrey Epstein, financier, who was jailed in 2019 for sex trafficking.
This one is a portrait, with the title’s emphasis on his being rich and his filthy moral behaviour. Others have taken up the issue of whether he committed suicide in jail or not. There was some conspiracy theory atmosphere at the time of his death.
Some American commentators have criticised this documentary for not providing anything that wasn’t already known, even and Epstein’s Wikipedia entry. However, for those not familiar with the case, especially those outside the United States, this provides basic information.
At the core of the film are the testimonies of quite a number of the victims, going back over their initial experiences, some of them girls still at school, recruited by other girls, ostensibly asked to massage Epstein, then his moving on to more explicit sexual behaviour, even rape. On reflection, it is alarming that he manipulated so many young women, without a moment of remorse, exploiting them, especially since they were exploitable, being so young, not having experience to make decisions, caught up in this world and remaining in it until they were desperate. The film was very strong on naming and showing photos and footage of places and persons, highlighting dates.
These interviews are scattered throughout the film, very frank in their expressions, an opportunity for audiences to see the young women in close-up, their body language, their emotions.
In the meantime, there are also interviews from a number of journalists who pursued the Epstein case, especially in Florida when he was arrested in 2008, a deal done with the authorities for a short prison time (with his getting out of prison daily allegedly on work detail, and then continually breaking his parole after he was released, friends in high places). The attorneys and private detectives for the victims are also extensively interviewed. There is great credit to the chief of police in West Palm Beach who was thwarted, called in the FBI, found himself after a decade vindicated in his action and behaviour.
This documentary shows the people involved in the deal, especially the district attorney, Alexander Acosta, who eventually became Donald Trump’s Secretay for Labour, was criticised in the Senate enquiries, eventually resigned his post.
And, throughout, audiences will be able to join in the various threads of Epstein’s own life, his poor background, some college studies, teaching, his lying about his CV, working on Wall Street, financial connections, building up his own fortune. There is a focus on his relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of media mogul in the UK, Robert Maxwell, a great number of photos, testimonies from the exploited women, connections with Prince Andrew, and her continued denial of any of the charges. (Prince Andrew does not emerge well from this documentary, photos from the early 2000s, his denials, the BBC interview for which he was mocked.)
The word sociopath is used about Jeffrey Epstein throughout the film, charming, manipulative, but always for his own ends. He is an extreme narcissist, a narcissism of depravity. The audience is shown his various properties, lavish property properties in New Mexico, Ohio, Paris, and his own island in the Virgin Islands.
The film also shows the efforts of the attorneys with a group of women, determining to give evidence to the FBI (as two sisters, the Farmer sisters, had done to the FBI in the late 1990s). Epstein was arrested at the airport, not having anticipated it. There are scenes shown outside the court, the women arriving, their solidarity, sketches from the courtroom hearing, the judge giving them the opportunity to stand before the accused. They are shocked at his death but there is some satisfaction in having been able to speak in the court.
There are also interviews with Epstein’s lawyers, especially a great number with the celebrities lawyer, Alan Dershowitz who denies all accusations.
Various celebrities, politics, finance, the media, are shown with Epstein, including Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Woody Allen…
NB, released at the same time:
WHO KILLED JEFFREY EPSTEIN?
US, 2020, 150 minutes, Colour.
Two documentaries about billionaire sex-offender, Jeffrey Epstein, appeared in 2020. The first was on Netflix, Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich. The second is this one, highlighting the death of Epstein in the New York prison, the suspicious circumstances attending it, the possibility that it was murder and various conspiracy theories.
Quite a number of testimonies are given in both documentaries by a number of the same people. However, there is a larger selection in Filthy Rich, including quite a number of the young women who went to Epstein’s estate, allegedly for massage, became involved in his sexual activities, many of them brought in by Epstein’s companion, Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of the British newspaper Baron, Robert Maxwell. (She has denied all charges – and has disappeared.).
The first film supplies more information than the second.
While Who Killed Jeffrey Epstein does trace Epstein’s origins, poverty, education, emerging conman -and narcissist, his career in business and out=manoeuvring partners, there is more background from Filthy Rich.
When the film focuses on the prison, his physical condition, the strange coincidence of the guards falling asleep, means for killing himself in his cell, there seems to be some basis for conspiracy theories. However, former prisoner and now guard, Bill Merswell, is of the opinion that it was a suicide. However, the main commentators in this film, a legal analyst who is in favour of the conspiracy to murder, a journalist who covered the events from the 2000s to his death, a journalist in criminal lawyer Prof, give the various angles.
48 hours before his death, Epstein changed his will to make it legally difficult for any kind of redress from his estate to be given to the women victims. Another point is that he could have been prepared to give up names and information of well-placed people and celebrities for bargaining and that he was killed…
Epstein’s life and career was certainly unsavoury, to say the least, but, his associations with celebrities like Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Prince Andrew (who does not come out very well from either film), Harvey Weinstein, means that it is a story in the public eye and, perhaps and unfortunately, symptomatic of society, sexuality and exploitation.
