Alex Gibney’s Musk documentary: A portrait of 21st-century power
At Venice, Alex Gibney discusses his nearly four-hour documentary on Elon Musk, calling him a stock-pumper whose power is unprecedented.
VENICE, Italy — Alex Gibney has spent his career dissecting powerful figures and institutions: Enron, Elizabeth Holmes, Scientology, and the U.S. military’s abuses at Bagram and Abu Ghraib. Yet none of them, he says, compares to the sheer scope of power held by his latest subject: Elon Musk.
The nearly four-hour documentary, simply titled “Musk,” is having its world premiere this week at the Venice Film Festival. It is one of the most anticipated films of the festival and the year, with Bleecker Street planning a theatrical release in October.
In an interview, Gibney explained that the idea for the film came to him in early 2023, when several people suggested he make a portrait of Musk. A close friend convinced him it would be a way to examine the nature of 21st-century power. Gibney said he initially admired Musk, but the more he dug into the facts, the more the myth of Musk as a modern-day Leonardo da Vinci began to unravel.
Gibney’s central thesis is that Musk’s power stems not from invention but from his ability to speak with confidence about a future that is rarely grounded in facts or evidence. “His genius, if there is a genius, is that he is not an inventor, he’s an investor,” Gibney said. “His genius is stock pumping.”
The film also explores Musk’s political pivot toward Donald Trump. Gibney says he discovered two key motivators: Musk follows federal government money, and his companies were facing numerous federal investigations, including a criminal probe into Tesla. Under a Kamala Harris administration, Gibney suggests, Musk could have faced prison time — a possibility Musk himself joked about on the Tucker Carlson show.
Gibney draws parallels between Musk and past subjects like Enron executives and Elizabeth Holmes, noting a kind of “noble cause corruption” — the belief that any action is justified in service of a worthy goal, such as making humanity multiplanetary or saving the environment. The key difference, he says, is that Musk’s companies employ many highly qualified engineers and leaders.
One striking challenge during production was fear. Gibney said many people close to Musk, even admirers, were terrified to speak on the record without Musk’s permission. “For such a big and powerful person, that seems awfully weak,” Gibney observed.
Despite the dark subject, Gibney promises the film is “a fun ride.”