The Insider (1999)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Michael Mann

Writers (WGA):

Marie Brenner (article)
Eric Roth (written by) ...

Release Date:

5 November 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

Warning: Exposing the Truth May Be Hazardous

Plot:

A research chemist comes under personal and professional attack when he decides to appear in a "60 Minutes" expose on Big Tobacco.

Plot Keywords:

Tobacco | Big Tobacco | Producer | Interview | Tobacco Industry

Awards:

Nominated for 7 Oscars. Another 21 wins & 34 nominations

Cast

Al Pacino	...	Lowell Bergman
Russell Crowe	...	Jeffrey Wigand
Christopher Plummer	...	Mike Wallace
Diane Venora	...	Liane Wigand
Philip Baker Hall	...	Don Hewitt
Lindsay Crouse	...	Sharon Tiller
Debi Mazar	...	Debbie De Luca
Stephen Tobolowsky	...	Eric Kluster
Colm Feore	...	Richard Scruggs
Bruce McGill	...	Ron Motley
Gina Gershon	...	Helen Caperelli
Michael Gambon	...	Thomas Sandefur
Rip Torn	...	John Scanlon
Lynne Thigpen	...	Mrs. Williams
Hallie Kate Eisenberg	...	Barbara Wigand

Also Known As:

60 Minutes (USA) (pre-release title)
Man of the People (USA) (working title)
The Untitled Tobacco Project (USA) (working title)
Untitled Michael Mann Film (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for language.

Runtime:

157 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Japanese | Arabic

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #36775) | Iceland:L | Malaysia:U | Canada:14A (Ontario) (video rating: 2004) | South Korea:12 | Brazil:14 | Argentina:Atp | Australia:M | Canada:14A (Alberta) | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (British Columbia/Manitoba) | Chile:TE | Czech Republic:12 | Finland:K-10 | France:U | Germany:6 (bw) | Hong Kong:IIB | Mexico:B | New Zealand:M | Norway:11 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | Spain:T | Sweden:7 | UK:15 | Greece:K-17 | Philippines:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Abaco Island, Bahamas

Company:

Blue Lion Entertainment

Trivia:

A third instance of a character smoking in the film occurs while Wigand is giving his deposition. Bergman converses briefly with a photographer about what might be going on inside the courtroom. The photographer, whose back is to the camera, takes a drag from a cigarette.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: On two separate occasions Bergman gets in a cab in New York and both times it is the same cab, the numbers on the roof and door are the same. The odds of this happening are slight, since there are 11,787 yellow cabs in New York.

Quotes:

Lowell Bergman: Are you a businessman? Or are you a news man?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Friday Night with Jonathan Ross: (#11.6)" (2006)

Soundtrack:

Hot Shots

Stinging indictment

Before I start, I should declare my bias up front; I have never understood the appeal of smoking. Granted, I didn't grow up during the time when it was made to look cool in the movies, but I don't think it looks glamorous or stylish or any of that. I can understand how some people will drink too much in that many alcoholic beverages actually taste good(I hope no one sees this as an endorsement of alcoholism, because it isn't), but cigarettes don't even taste good; it's just smoke. I've always liked this routine I once heard where a comedian talked about smokers and their attitudes:

"Smoking doesn't affect me, I can still exercise," they say. Then you walk up a flight of stairs with them, and all of a sudden they turn into Darth Vader(heavy breathing). Meanwhile, there's Yoda on the railing going, "Stunt your growth, it will."

All that is to say I was predisposed to liking THE INSIDER before I even saw it, since it goes after the tobacco industry(anybody who thinks legalized drugs would improve things should consider how the tobacco industry has handled its own legalized drug). But if that was all it did, it wouldn't be a complete movie. Instead, THE INSIDER, and Michael Mann, also make this an indictment of the news industry, which is more concerned with industry than news, and a complex character study of two men.

Admittedly, there are a few facts fudged here. The most surprising thing is an omission; I'm not entirely clear on this, but wasn't one of the CBS executives related to someone at Brown & Williamson? Also, while it's not true the movie gives credit to Lowell Bergman(Al Pacino) for manipulating a Wall Street Journal story(he merely gives them the other side of the story they were about to print), it doesn't give the paper enough credit for its own investigation(as Bergman in the movie points out, the Journal is not exactly known for going after big corporations).

Still, this is a powerful movie. One thing, as I said before, which makes it powerful is how it also goes after CBS, and in particular CBS News, for caving in to the possibility of a lawsuit(not a lawsuit, just the possibility of one). And while Mike Wallace has criticized the film(though he has retracted that somewhat), the fact of the matter is if he had made a stink about it, CBS might not have caved in so easily. And yet the film doesn't portray him as a bad guy, just someone who doesn't know if he has the fight left in him.

And as a character study, of course, it's riveting. Some people think this film is a departure for Mann from his usual crime dramas. But Mann has also made films about flawed heroes(MANHUNTER, THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS), which Jeffrey Wigand certainly is, and like the characters in Mann's more famous films(THIEF, HEAT), Wigand is a man good at his job, but not good at expressing his feelings, and backed into a stand he didn't know he was going to have to take. Russell Crowe has not always played characters with simmering intensity(think of PROOF, THE SUM OF US, or THE QUICK AND THE DEAD), but as L.A. CONFIDENTIAL showed, he's masterful at playing them, and shows it again here. He walks like a man defeated at the beginning, when he's fired, and you can feel the longing he has just for things to be normal again. But you can also see the intelligence and the man who refuses to be pushed around by anybody, whether it be the tobacco company or Bergman. Pacino is also quite good as Bergman, playing not a hero, but someone who also is pushed into a stand he didn't think he'd have to take.

Oh yeah, and as usual for a Mann film, this looks incredible. Just as ALL THE PRESIDENTS MEN(which this is being compared to) director Alan J. Pakula and cameraman Gordon Willis was able to visualize the creepiness of Watergate, here Mann and his cameraman, Dante Spinotti, emphasize how there's no black and white here by showing the gray areas visually. All in all, this is a great film.