Musk documentary teaser is finally out now ahead of premier at the Venice Film Festival.
According to First Post, the first trailer of a new documentary, exploring divided views on Elon Musk, was dropped on Monday, September 7, days before its premier at the festival.
Directed by Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney, will examine the Tesla and SpaceX chief's rise, his expanding influence across technology and politics, and the controversies that have followed him.
The nearly four-hour documentary premieres at the Venice Film Festival on September 8 before screening at the Toronto International Film Festival later this month.
The first teaser offers a glimpse of the film's approach, setting descriptions of Musk as a visionary against far more critical assessments of his personality and influence.
‘Man who has lost his mind’
The teaser opens with footage of a rocket launching into space, accompanied by a series of contrasting descriptions of Musk.
He is referred to as “possibly the greatest living inventor” and “the real-life Iron Man”, before the tone shifts to descriptions including “chaotic, random, capricious” and “manifestly cruel and selfish.”
The trailer eventually describes Musk as “Earth's most unchecked man” before calling him “a man who has lost his mind” and even a “fascist.”
The rocket's journey ends in an explosion before the title Musk appears.
Alex Gibney calls ‘Musk’ a tale of power
Gibney said, “In Musk, I chose to re-tell a familiar biographical tale but to forgo the master. Instead, I explored it from different angles that showed the master shot to be an illusion, and revealed a more disturbing truth. Musk reframes the story of the tech titan as the 21st century reincarnation of the confidence man. By subverting Musk’s favorite tropes of video gaming and simulations, the film conveys the dangers of becoming like the Game Master in Ready Player One.”
“It’s a tale of power and its abuse, but shot from a low angle – the angle of Toto, from the wonderful Wizard of Oz. Instead of being mesmerized by the floating visage of the wizard, Toto saw the shuffling feet at the bottom of the curtain which, once tugged away, revealed levers and gears operated by an ordinary man desperate to project his power," he added.
One of the notable aspects of Musk is that the SpaceX boss himself did not participate in its making. Gibney began working on the documentary in 2023.
Musk responded to news of the project at the time by dismissing it as a “hit piece”. Gibney responded publicly by questioning how Musk could know what the documentary would contain before seeing it.
Netizens react to ‘Musk’ teaser
The teaser of new documentary about the world’s richest person sparked reactions. While some users questioned about the labels given to the Tesla owner in the trailer while other asked about the funding.
A user asked, “He is the greatest living inventor? what has he invented exactly to earn that title?”
“He has never invented anything lol, he pays people that invent things,” anther noted.
The third one gushed, “I've always held that he is just like Steve Jobs. Never really did anything of note, just paid other very smart people to do things.”
One of the users claimed, “He paid for this,” as another asked, “Hmmmmmm.... I wonder who funded this?”
Musk will be released in the US theaters by Bleecker Street on October 16.
