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THE INSIDER Send This Review to a Friend
Put "The Insider" down as one of the year's best, a thoroughly gripping high-stakes drama blasting a tobacco industry cover-up and a television network's putting the bottom line ahead of journalistic integrity with the complicity of the TV journalists themselves. Since the TV portion of the story involves none other than CBS and the program "60 Minutes," the movie is dynamite. It is also juicy, with real people being unflinchingly portrayed. Christopher Plummer gives a shrewd, unforgettable performance as Mike Wallace, Russell Crowe is award-caliber outstanding as tobacco whistle-blower Jeffrey S. Wigand, and Al Pacino is vigorously persuasive as "60 Minutes" producer Lowell Bergman, who leads the fight for integrity in this version of the conflict.
Films dealing with hot topics and actual individuals involved usually don't surface until many years after the events. In this exception, director Michael Mann powers his film with the kind of conspiratorial tension that recalls Alan Pakula's "All the President's Men" and the saga of Deep Throat. The action is riveting from the start.
The battle is well-known. Dr. Wigand worked as a top scientific researcher for the Brown & Williamson tobacco company until his conscience would no longer let him go along with what he charged was dishonesty in claiming cigarettes were not addictive. The film traces how producer Bergman gradually persuades the reluctant Wigand to blow the whistle with an exclusive interview for "60 Mintues" despite the company pressure on him to adhere to his confidentiality agreement. But a legal threat against CBS leads to canceling the interview, leaving Wigand in the lurch after he'd gone out on the limb to the detriment of his family and professional life. Eventually the interview was broadcast, but not before the initial knuckling under by "60 Minutes" to corporate pressure became embarrassing.
The film does an exemplary job of working in the issues and legal ramifications and dangers without being pedantic, thanks to the astute, extremely well-constructed screenplay co-written by Eric Roth and Mann, based on Marie Brenner's "Vanity Fair" article "The Man Who Knew Too Much." Crowe's subtle but indelible performance succeeds because he is able to show the inner conflict and pain suffered as his life is turned topsy-turvy by his reluctantly arrived at decision to risk going public. Convincing supporting performances, including Philip Baker Hall as "60 Minutes" honcho Don Hewitt, a wealth of detail and eerie scenes that capture the pressure Wigand feels, keep the story crackling.
As for the behind the scenes "60 Minute" ruckus, I can't be sure how accurate the dialogue is and how much is invented, but it sure works dramatically and the supposed paragons of journalistic independence are made to look feeble in the face of corporate pressure, whether or not the corporate interests in avoiding a lawsuit were justified. Others can argue the legalities and the principles, but this is high drama and exciting film-going.
Generally Mann serves his material very well, including by the use of some effective low-key music and even by turning off the sound at one juncture to stress the tension. But why he would interject some ludicrously overdone epiphany music that suggests ascending to heaven at key moments of standing on principle is beyond me. The drama achieves sufficient impact on its own.
As for the film's over-all expertise, here's a situation in which principle, conflict and entertainment values are smartly rolled into one appealing package. Heroism is saluted, sacred cows get their comeuppance and audiences can be royally entertained at the same time. Now that's good filmmaking. A Touchstone Pictures release.
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