THE INSIDER RATING: 6.5 /10 --> So-so
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Al Pacino reteams with director Michael Mann after their 1995 kickass film HEAT, to tell the real-life story of the behind the scenes goings-on of one particular episode of the CBS news magazine show "60 Minutes". Ironically, this film seems to go on as long as three episodes of that show.
PLOT: Cigarette company Vice-President gets fired after he disagrees with company policy on how to produce their cigarettes. When his firm begins tossing veiled threats towards him, the man gets angry and thinks seriously about exposing his industry's lies about nicotine addiction to a worldwide audience on TV's "60 Minutes". This movie documents the entire events of this true-life historical case.
CRITIQUE: Interesting story...great actors...well-developed characters...unique style...do not an overall great film make. This film suffers from something that a lot of major films from big name directors have been suffering with over the past year or so: it runs too long and is not engrossing enough to warrant our attention for that lengthy amount of time. It's too bad because the story told here is definitely one that has all the elements of an engaging drama set in place, but when spread across a canvas so vast, it seems to lose any emotional power or deeper resonance. Another thing which I've only recently noticed in Michael Mann's last two films is his lack of female character involvement. It's strange because he seems to have plenty of women in his films, but along with questionable casting calls, they do little but stand around and appear on screen.
The main actors in this film are all in their top form, with Christopher Plummer finally getting a decent role from which he could orchestrate his talent. Pacino is perfect as the idealistic producer who realizes early on that all he's truly got in his corner is "his word" and he doesn't intent on losing it. Give the man an Oscar just for keeping his acting decibel level on an even keel! (Hoo-hah!) And then there's Russell Crowe pulling off another powerful performance as the pudgy whistle-blower, whose real-life counterpart apparently commended Crowe of his portrayal (Click here to see picture of real-life counterparts). Having said all that, the story told in the film was really just another behind the scenes movie about an industry and a specific "story gone bad", but nothing more dramatically effective than that. I'm not sure if people are equating this film's greatness with the grandeur of its actual ramifications (which eventually led to a court ruling of approximately $250BILLION against the tobacco companies), but I thought the drama in the film was simple and interesting, but nothing more. I would suggest you see it if you love any of the main actors, or if the story line is of particular interest to you, otherwise, you could wait for video and fully appreciate the reason why fast-forward buttons were created. C'mon Michael...how 'bout cutting out some of those lingering slo-mos for God's sakes!!
Little Known Facts about this film and its stars: Actor Al Pacino has dated all kinds of actresses. Besides his current girlfriend, Mrs. Griswold herself, Beverly D'Angelo, he has reportedly maintained relationships with Kathleen Quinlan, Diane Keaton, Debra Winger, Penelope Ann Miller and Tuesday Weld. His dad was an insurance agent named Salvatore Pacino and his mom, Rose Pacino, died when Al was just 22. He's also been known to have turned down some big roles including KRAMER VS KRAMER, BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY, APOCALYPSE NOW, PRETTY WOMAN, CRIMSON TIDE (The Gene Hackman part) and STAR WARS?? (Apparently, he was offered the role of Han Solo, which eventually went to an unknown actor named Harrison Ford). Actor Russell Crowe was born in New Zealand but grew up in Australia. Not surprisingly, he has been smoking since he was 10 and acting since he was six. Actor Christopher Plummer's full name is Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer. He was born in Toronto, Canada and is probably best remembered as the loveable anal-retentive father of those nutty Von Trapp kids from 1965's THE SOUND OF MUSIC, Captain Von Trapp. For anyone who still doesn't know, director Michael Mann began his career as a writer on the popular "Starsky and Hutch" TV series. His greatest TV success came when he created and produced the even more popular "Miami Vice" series. His feature film directorial debut was the 1981 James Caan film THIEF. The man who plays the Sheikh Fadlallah is in this movie is Cliff Curtis, the same actor who played the excellent role of drug dealer Cy Coates in Martin Scorsese's BRINGING OUT THE DEAD (6.5/10). The real tobacco whistle-blower Jeffrey Wigand says this movie took some liberties with his story, but is essentially accurate. In one scene, the former Brown & Williamson executive is portrayed as hitting golf balls at a driving range while a burly man watches him. "Did that happen? No." Wigand said. But Wigand said the movie accurately portrays the kinds of threats he and his family faced after publicly addressing health and smoking issues in 1995. "Its fidelity to the actual facts is acceptable," Wigand said. Wigand is in Nebraska giving speeches on his experiences. He said he is donating his speaking fees to his nonprofit organization, Smoke-Free Kids, based in Charleston, S.C. This film is based on the Vanity Fair article written by Marie Brenner entitled "The Man Who Knew Too Much".
Review Date: November 4, 1999 Director: Michael Mann Writers: Michael Mann and Eric Roth Producers: Michael Mann and Pieter Jan Brugge Actors: Al Pacino as Lowell Bergman Russell Crowe as Jeffrey Wigand Christopher Plummer as Mike Wallace Genre: Drama Year of Release: 1999 --------------------------------------- JoBlo's Movie Emporium http://www.joblo.com --------------------------------------- (c) 1999 Berge Garabedian
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