Sometimes you realize that when people are used to something it’s difficult for them to face the truth. In The Insider that something is nicotine. And it’s not about someone who is addicted to nicotine, but about the companies who, as research on the effects of smoking progressed, remained quiet, simply because they were accustomed to their income. Such a company has become an entity which will maintain itself even though each individual person working their knows what it can do with your health. The Insider is about a whistleblower who dared to tell the truth, despite the great risks attached to it.
Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino) has been a long time producer of CBS program “60 Minutes” in which specific news items are discussed extensively. He is good at his job and several times has managed to arrange interviews with people who other news organizations couldn’t. At the same time Dr. Jeffrey Wigand (Rusell Crowe) has been fired by Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company. He signed a non disclosure agreement (NDA), not allowing to say anything about his work because if he do he loses the money he is still receiving from them and will have to appear in court.
When Bergman, however, receives some technical tobacco-related documents he is looking for someone who can make them comprehensible and is directed by an acquaintance within the FDA to Wigand. He decides to help Bergman purely as a consultant and informs him that he has signed an NDA, so can’t share too much. With his good sense for news Bergman feels that there is more to Wigands story and he starts taking his time to get to know him and possibly interview him for 60 Minutes. The creation of that news item will impact all parties concerned.
Director Michael Mann takes his time to tell this story and makes it a suspenseful film where politics, lawsuits and informing the public about the inner workings of tobacco companies all play a major role. He knows how to balance the big story with the personal stories of Bergman and Wigand, who don´t always agree, but who both have the same goal in mind. The film is based on a true story and the news at that time was an important step towards the introduction of stricter tobacco rules. The film managed to get seven Oscar nominations (including best leading role for Russell Crowe, best director and best film), but it failed to get any. It is a film that beautifully shows the dynamics of getting a news story and what all this can bring about even to those companies that assume that the money they have gives them enough power to keep some stories becoming news by means of legal cases.
OMG I love this film, it’s perhaps my fave Michael Mann film though Heat and Collateral are excellent as well. This is the role I wish Russell Crowe had won Best Actor Oscar for. I feel like when he got it for Gladiator it was a consolation prize. Don’t get me wrong I think he deserved it, but his portrayal of Wigand here is superior IMHO.
Yeah, I think he should have won. Don’t know if I’d pick this one as my favourite Mann movie, would need to rewatch some of his others, but this is very good.
I have to admit – when I saw this at the cinema, I thought it was awful. Too long, too slow, too boring. Crowe was excellent, I could see that, but the film didn’t do it for me. I really must rewatch this and give it another shot.
I vaguely remember seeing it and not liking it much either, but I wasn’t sure I really had seen it, so happy I did give it a second chance and it is excellent. Don’t mind the slow pacing at all and didn’t find it boring as the politics of the situation are well executed.