Review of The Insider (1999) by Haston L — 07 Feb 2013

Directed by Michael Mann (The Keep (1983), The Last of the Mohicans (1992) and Heat (1995)), he and Eric Roth adapted this from the article "The Man Who Knew Too Much" by Marie Brenner, which depicted a real David and Goliath tale against the little man and the big tobacco giants.

It does take it's sweet time to get going, but once it does. it becomes quite gripping and it shows all the corruption at the top of big business. When Dr. Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe) is fired from his job at Brown & Williamson Tobacco, he is approached by CBS News producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino) to help clarify information regarding tobacco company Philip Morris, Wigand refuses because of a confidentiality agreement.

Smelling a rat, Bergman asks for Wigand to go on the record and expose what really goes on behind the scenes at the big tobacco companies, and to be interviewed for CBS's 60 Minutes by Mike Wallace (Christopher Plummer).

Wigand is relucatant, and he and his family gets death threats, but the tobacco companies aren't happy, but Bergman won't give in. Once it gets to the interview and the chicanery to try and have it stopped, it perks up and becomes quite gripping, but it's quite a build up.

But Mann's eye for visuals and good camerawork is always worth a look, but with a bit shaved off, it would have won Oscars.