“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.”
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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).
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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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