The Insider (1999) USA
The Insider Image Cover
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Director:Michael Mann
Studio:Walt Disney Video
Producer:Michael Mann, Avi Kleinberger, Gusmano Cesaretti, Kathleen M. Shea, Pieter Jan Brugge
Writer:Marie Brenner, Eric Roth
Rating:4.5
Rated:R
Date Added:2007-03-06
Purchased On:2007-06-03
ASIN:B00003CWRX
UPC:0717951007391
Price:$14.99
Awards:Nominated for 7 Oscars. Another 21 wins & 34 nominations
Genre:True Story
Release:2000-11-04
IMDb:0140352
Duration:157
Picture Format:Widescreen
Aspect Ratio:2.35:1
Sound:AC-3
Languages:English, Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:Spanish, French, Hungarian, Polish, Dutch, Slovenian, Croatian, Greek, Bulgarian
Features:Making-Of Featurette (7 min.)
Michael Mann  ...  (Director)
Marie Brenner, Eric Roth  ...  (Writer)
 
Al Pacino  ...  Lowell Bergman
Gina Gershon  ...  Helen Caperelli
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
Michael Gambon  ...  Thomas Sandefur
Rip Torn  ...  John Scanlon
Lynne Thigpen  ...  Mrs. Williams
Hallie Kate Eisenberg  ...  Barbara Wigand
Comments: Warning: Exposing the Truth May Be Hazardous

Summary: As revisionist history, Michael Mann's intelligent docudrama The Insider is a simmering brew of altered facts and dramatic license. In a broader perspective, however, the film (cowritten with Forrest Gump Oscar-winner Eric Roth) is effectively accurate as an engrossing study of ethics in the corruptible industries of tobacco and broadcast journalism. On one side, there is Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe), the former tobacco scientist who violated contractual agreements to expose Brown & Williamson's inclusion of addictive ingredients in cigarettes, casting himself into a vortex of moral dilemma. On the other side is 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino), whose struggle to report Wigand's story puts him at odds with veteran correspondent Mike Wallace (Christopher Plummer) and senior executives at CBS News.
As the urgency of the story increases, so does the film's palpable sense of paranoia, inviting favorable comparison to All the President's Men. While Pacino downplays the theatrical excess that plagued him in previous roles, Crow is superb as a man who retains his tortured integrity at great personal cost. The Insider is two movies--a cover-up thriller and a drama about journalistic ethics--that combine to embrace the noble values personified by Wigand and Bergman. Even if the details aren't always precise (as Mike Wallace and others protested prior to the film's release), the film adheres to a higher truth that was so blatantly violated by tobacco executives seen in an oft-repeated video clip, lying under oath in the service of greed. --Jeff Shannon