From Oscar- and Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side, The Inventor), The Crime of the Century is a searing indictment of big pharma and the political operatives and government regulations that enable over-production, reckless distribution and abuse of synthetic opiates.
With the help of whistleblowers, newly leaked documents, exclusive interviews, sobering testimony from victims of opioid addiction, and access to behind-the-scenes investigations, Gibney's exposé posits that drug companies are in fact largely responsible for manufacturing the very crisis they profit from, to the tune of billions of dollars – and thousands of lives.
Produced in association with The Washington Post, The Crime of the Century won Best Political Documentary at the 2021 Critics' Choice Documentary Awards, where it was also up for Best Documentary Feature and Best Narration for Gibney. The two-part HBO documentary has a 95% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with FilmWeek saying, "Only Alex Gibney can get his arms around the behemoth that is the opioid crisis in America... It will open your eyes and make you angry."