American Hustle, loosely based on the Abscam scandal, is superbly acted and written. However it’s difficult to feel sympathy for the characters since they’re mostly corrupt and sleazy. Dunno about you but I’m gettin bored with murky films about compromised people. Several reviewers have referred to it as a comedy. It didn’t even seen like black comedy to me, much less comedy, but rather a tangled tale of people getting enmeshed deeper and deeper in their own lies and bullshit. Robert De Niro is chilling in an uncredited role as the aging mobster boss from Miami who made it clear, don’t even think of crossing me.
Six House members and one Senator went to prison for taking bribes in the FBI Abscam sting. There was one hero, and he didn’t see himself as such.
Senator Larry Pressler (R-SD) refused to take the bribe, saying at the time, “Wait a minute, what you are suggesting may be illegal.” He immediately reported the incident to the FBI. When Senator Pressler was told Walter Cronkite referred to him on the evening news as a “hero” he stated, “I do not consider myself a hero… what have we come to if turning down a bribe is ‘heroic’?”
Indeed. How about we start having movies about people like Pressler and not about the corrupt?