I would like to say that my day starts like everyone else’s. You know, you wake up in the morning at the alarm clock’s warning – you take the 8:15 into the city. Not. I’m a trauma surgeon who was on call the before the World Premier of the Informant! I spent the majority of the night with a lady who fell off of a horse and broke several ribs. There was also the lady who had fallen down the stairs and had multiple extremity fractures and a head injury. This last patient was on a blood thinner and it was a long night with a very sick patient and her family.
From 5 am – 7 am, I prepared for a lecture at 8 am to a group of paramedics. They wanted to chat about critical care. After the lecture, I sprinted home, took a shower, packed and drove to the airport. The best thing about living in a small city is that it takes no time to get to the airport. A little over three hours later, I was in NYC. There is nothing like flying into New York. Manhattan is simply beautiful to see from the air.
This is my third or fourth trip to New York since 9/11. In 2003, you could feel that the city had changed. The cabbies were nice. New York cabbies were really, truly nice. Everyone was nice. Well, by 2009, New York was back to its old self. I felt none of the warmth that I felt just two or three years ago. Although the cabbie didn’t cuss me, he was short in a New York kind of way. He left my wife and me to watch some infomercial on the monitor that was staring us in the face.
By 5 pm, my stunning wife and I were siting in the Warwick Hotel bar with my best friend from high school and his wife. Kurt Eichenwald is a remarkable man. We have been friends since third grade. We were in each other’s weddings. We have been through a ton of crap together. Almost 25 years ago, Kurt was writing for a Washington paper (not the Post) and making almost nothing. From there he was hired by the New York Times. I can’t remember what he was writing about when he first started. I think his office was in the basement near the furnace. Over a period of years, he wrote and wrote. His talent led him to the Business Section of The Times. He turned up dozens of corporate wrongs over the next 20 years. Some landing Kurt and his article on the front page. He became a widely read and respected reporter for the Times. He was reporting on things that I didn’t understand. Then again, it could be that I wasn’t really paying than much attention to what he was talking about. Just like when I was talking about medicine, he probably was zoning out also. His first, Serpent on the Rock, my personal favorite, about Prudential Brache selling these “safe” securities to little old women in Florida. We all know how that ends. The old women lost their shirts, houses, and savings. Prudential lost tons of money and no one went to jail. Kurt received a huge break from a most unlikely source. Some guy was reading Kurt’s book on a plane. He finished the book then walked up to First Class. He handed the book to Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes. Wallace read the book and did a big 60 Minutes expose’. Kurt was featured in the story. Kurt’s second book, The Informant (there was no ! in the original title) was about Archer Daniels Midland fixing prices of lycine. The book at its heart was about greed of major multinational companies. The book has a cool twist. The main character, the informant, was a truly brilliant guy who was crazy. I’m talking really crazy, like he needs to placed on meds kinda crazy. Mark Whitacre, while giving the FBI, great insider information, was secretly embezzling millions of dollars from ADM and their clients. Mark lied about tons of things. He lied to his bosses at ADM, to the FBI and to his wife. Yet, the information that he gave to the FBI was 100% accurate.
Instead of the documentary format, Kurt uses a novel format to tell this incredibly complex story. It is masterfully written. The Informant becomes a NY Times bestseller. Over the next six or eight years, the book becomes a movie. This is why we are in a bar in the Warwick Hotel. This is the premier of the Informant! Over the next hour, we talk about the movie and the premier. We laugh. We are old friends. We laugh a lot. We talk about our families and life. Kurt is nervous. It is clear. He is worried about everything as if he were a Warner Brothers executive.
Now, it is now time to go. Kurt and his wife leave in a Lexus Limo. My wife and I walk less than half a block to the Ziegfeld Theater. My wife looks wonderful as her feet slide around in her new heels. (Women and their shoes continue to amaze me.) We are ushered to our assigned seats in the balcony of this beautiful old theater. It is 6:30 pm. Over the next 30 minutes the theater fills with all sorts of people – some in well-tailored suits and dresses others in baggy jeans and a tee shirts. 7 pm, the start time for the movie, comes and goes. About 7:15 I see Kurt and his wife talking with others who were associated with the movie. He was about 100 – 150 yards away from where we were sitting. Around 7:30 or so, the last of the important people arrives… the director, Steven Soderbergh and Matt Damon. Everyone in the audience seems to know that he has arrived. There is a crowd that surrounds him. Another 10 minutes pass as Damon makes his way to his seat and shakes hands with those who are seated around him. He is about 100 yards away. The lights dim and an announcer begins. He thanks everyone for coming. He introduces about 10 – 15 people who were associated with the film including my friend, Kurt Eichenwald. Of course, Matt Damon gets a big ovation.
The Informant! was made as a comedy. When you think about the book, which was definitely NOT a comedy, the main character is so flawed, so off the wall that it had to be made as a comedy. Matt Damon proves once again that he is truly an actor at the top of his game. The movie is told through Damon’s character, Mark Whitacre. There is a running voice-over. Whitacre’s random thoughts are really bizarre and funny and usually not related to what he was doing. The supporting cast is solid. Of note, the Smothers Brothers are in the movie. You are going to have to look carefully to find them. Good movie. Worth the price of admission, if I do say so myself.
Update: NPR (Terry Gross) interviews Soderbergh and Damon. Salon.com’s review which I think is very accurate.
I had a great time. A really great time. There is nothing like watching a movie in a packed theater with real movie stars only 100 – 150 yards away from you. 
Tags: General, Movies by ecthompson
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*I saw the movie, The Book of Eli, last night. 
