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The Insider

The Insider (1999)

October. 28,1999
|
7.8
|
R
| Drama Thriller

A research chemist comes under personal and professional attack when he decides to appear in a 60 Minutes exposé on Big Tobacco.

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Reviews

Phonearl
1999/10/28

Good start, but then it gets ruined

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Ghoulumbe
1999/10/29

Better than most people think

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Doomtomylo
1999/10/30

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

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Keeley Coleman
1999/10/31

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

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Paul J. Nemecek
1999/11/01

It will come as no surprise to faithful readers of this column that I like good movies. I also like that even rarer event, the important movie. Rarest of all is that special movie that is both good and important. Michael Mann's The Insider is just such a film.Mann's best-known efforts to date are the films Heat and Last of the Mohicans. This film demands a more subtle and sophisticated guiding hand and Mann clearly rises to the challenge. The Insider is the somewhat fictionalized, but basically true, story of Jeffrey Wigand (played by Russell Crowe), a tobacco executive turned whistle blower. It is also the story of Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino), a passionate producer who becomes a whistle-blowing insider in his own right.The subject matter of the film places it in the tradition of films like Silkwood, The China Syndrome, and A Civil Action. When Wigand agrees to go on the record exposing the cover-ups and perjury by tobacco industry executives he is harassed, threatened, betrayed, and abandoned. The real story here though is how CBS was bullied into softening and burying the story. Pacino's performance as the passionate producer with integrity provides the moral center of the film.It should come as no surprise that this is a good film. In addition to Mann's capable direction, there are some excellent performances by Crowe (who viewers might remember as Bud White in LA Confidential) and Pacino. Christopher Plummer also does superior work in his less than flattering portrayal of Mike Wallace. The screenplay is adapted from a short story by one of the masters of adaptation, Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, The Horse Whisperer). Cinematographer Dante Spinotti uses color, light, and shadows to infuse the story with rich visual symbols. This is a good film by a team of gifted artists.But this is also an important film. It would be a mistake to see this film as simply a film about the tobacco industry or the co-optation of the news industry. Ultimately, it is about corporate power in its broadest sense. It was especially interesting watching this film on the weekend of the Microsoft monopoly ruling. The clear message of this film is that we all lose when the bottom line of corporate profits is our only moral compass. We live in a society desperately in need of prophetic critique and moral pronouncement. The Insider does not say all that needs to be said, but it provides a welcome start to a much-needed dialogue.

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dubwize
1999/11/02

Was this movie funded by the State Dept. or by the Pentagon? Either way watching this snail-fest of a yawn inducing story exudes typical signatures of State sponsored propaganda that anyone born before 1980 will recognise immediately. Sad to see such great acting names roped in by either money or CIA influence.Avoid like Ebola.

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slightlymad22
1999/11/03

The Insider (1999) Plot In A Paragraph: Based on a true story about a CBS 60 Minutes-episode in 1994 on malpractices in the tobacco industry, that was not aired because CBS parent company Westinghouse objected. This is a much better movie than I Remembered, but it's still long and slow at times, and I do still think it could use a bit of trimming here and there. But Mann does a good job of building suspense and frustration.Al Pacino and Russell Crowe are both superb. (I personally think Pacino should have been nominated alongside Crowe.) They are ably backed up by great supporting actors Christopher Plumber, Phillip Baker Hall and Bruce McGill.As always in a Mann movie we get strong female characters. Diane Vernora (who previously started in Heat) What was dramatised Hollywood invention and what was real I guess we won't know!! The Insider grossed $29 million at the domestic Box Office to end the year the 69th highest grossing movie of 1999.

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Danny Blankenship
1999/11/04

Finally after many years watched Michael Mann's legal drama 1999's "The Insider" and it was clearly a well done legal drama that searches for answers and blows the whistle on those in power who try to hide corruption that blends greed and power. The film recounts a chain of events that pitted a guy against the giant tobacco industry. And this film would really be in depth and drag the characters thru a fight of their lives.Al Pacino(still one of the best actors in the business)is in top form with a strong performance as veteran "60 Minutes" producer Lowell Bergman and Russell Crowe(is the man affected by it all the insider himself former tobacco executive Dr. Jeffrey Wigand). The story is pretty cut and dry when Wigand is fired by the tobacco company, he agrees to become a paid consultant for a story that Bergman and "60 Minutes" is working on about the unethical ways within the tobacco industry. This all leads to a long battle between all with a lot of legal cat and mouse games which puts everyone's reputations on the line.As expected the tobacco industry will use any legal and corporate means they can to help save a billion dollar a year habit. Still both Bergman and Wigand are fighters that are searching for answers and they want justice in the form of truth as with every little bit more evidence is uncovered.Cleraly this is a harrowing drama with legal and emotional twist and turns it has an in depth cold hard edge that keeps you glued while searching for answers and fighting for the truth with twist. "The Insider" was for sure one of Michael Mann's better made films.

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