“The Insider”

Starring: Al Pacino, Russell Crowe, Christopher Plummer, Gina Gershon

158 Minutes
Rated R
A Michael Mann Film
Released Nov. 5, 1999

[APRIL 21, 2000]  Some movies open timidly and ease you into the plot.  “The Insider” opens like a Mac truck and for the next 2½ hours cruises at top speed toward its final destination.  This movie is not a thriller but rather a “compeller.”

 

In the opening scene, a blindfolded man is being driven through what appears to be a Middle-Eastern country, complete with dark-skinned, gun-totting men wearing turbans; anti-American graffiti; and veiled women.  As the car weaves its way precariously through pressing crowds, it becomes apparent from the pictures of Ayatollah Khoumeni that this is Iran.  The car stops; the occupants unload into a run-down building.  Another Ayatollah is escorted into the room, and as soon as the blindfold begins to speak you recognize the piercing, raspy voice of Al Pacino. Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino – “Donnie Brasco,” “The Devil’s Advocate,”), a producer for the CBS television show “60 Minutes,” announces that he was there to arrange an interview to introduce the world to the face of Hesbola.

Meanwhile, in another part of the world, top research scientist Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe – “La Confidential”) arrives home early after being fired from his job with the #3 tobacco company, Brown and Williamson.  He was ousted, you later learn, because he disagreed with company policy regarding processing techniques which had the potential for escalating the public health risk of smoking.

 

Bergman returns from Iran, and while arranging his next story – a piece on the deadly risk of fire caused by people who fall asleep while smoking – calls upon Wigand (on the recommendation of a friend) to provide some scientific basis and interpretation of documents for the story.  Bergman and Wigand finally meet, and at that meeting the newsman’s finely tuned sense of smell detects a story that had to be told.  The rest of the film is about the story which exposed the public health risk of smoking and ultimately brought the top seven tobacco companies to their knees (providing for the $216 billion dollar tobacco settlement to 26 states).

 

Co-written by Eric Roth (“Horse Whisperer,” “Forest Gump”), “The Insider” never has a dull moment or a flat line. The petal is to the metal from start to finish as the whole world seems to come apart and you are left wondering if it will ever make sense again. 

This movie seems to be written specifically for Al Pacino’s in-your-face, spit-flying, shouting-at-the-top-of-his-lungs style.  Christopher Plummer convincingly plays “60 Minutes” host Mike Wallace, and Russell Crowe confidently carries off his part as the volatile research scientist-turned-informant.

This film has no sympathy for the tobacco industry, prosecutes big business’s philosophy of profits-over-people and makes an impassioned plea for the value of truth and honor.

 

 

I was bolted to my seat from beginning to end.  I remarked out loud numerous times about the cleverness of the lines, and the extreme irony of the plot.  Be warned: this movie scores its R rating because of harsh, crude language (it did not seem to be added just to spice up the movie) and parents should be mindful of the fact that the “good guys” in this movie use obscene language to forcibly gain an audience and make their points.

This is the second-best movie I have reviewed this year (my first choice would still be “Sixth Sense”).  I recommend it highly, and award it 4 stars (out of 5) for its fine efforts.

[midge]

 

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