THE INSIDER / *** 1/2
Directed by Michael Mann. Screenplay by Eric Roth and Mann, from the article "The Man Who Knew Too Much" by Marie Brenner. Starring Al Pacino, Russell Crowe, Christopher Plummer. Running time: 188 minutes. Rated AA for offensive language. Reviewed on March 5th, 2000.
By SHANNON PATRICK SULLIVAN
There are days when I'm flabbergasted by the power of big business. They have the power, the money, and the influence to seemingly do whatever they want. Governments kowtow to them, common man is overwhelmed by them. When a corporation can throw hundreds of thousands of dollars into a legal campaign, or use media connections to denigrate their opponents, how can Joe Average compete?
"The Insider" is the story of just such a battle, based on real events from the mid-Nineties. Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe), newly fired from his job as a research and development executive with tobacco giant Brown & Williamson, is asked by "60 Minutes" producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino) to assist him on a story related to the cigarette industry. Bergman soon realizes that Wigand's knowledge of evidence damaging to Big Tobacco extends well beyond the scope of his current story. He attempts to persuade Wigand to come forward with what he knows for a "60 Minutes" segment with Mike Wallace (Christopher Plummer).
This in of itself would make for a remarkable film. Wigand's inner conflict -- should he talk or shouldn't he? -- is poignant and involving. Not only does Wigand have to deal with the legal ramifications of going on "60 Minutes" (he has signed a confidentiality agreement with Brown & Williamson) but he soon finds his old bosses applying more dubious means of persuasion -- he is followed and sent threatening messages.
Or is he? In real life, none of Wigand's accusations about Brown & Williamson's tactics were substantiated. "The Insider" leans toward Wigand's side of the story, but leaves the question open. Is the man at the golf course spying on Wigand, or just watching him because Wigand is himself behaving oddly? Was a bullet left in his mailbox as a warning, or did Wigand put it there himself? Even Wigand's then-wife Leane (Diane Venora) has since accused him of the latter.
Making Wigand's conflict even more engrossing is the fact that he is married with children. Were he single, going on "60 Minutes" would be a noble and selfless act. But his entire family appears to be at risk (from economic hardship caused by the termination of Wigand's severance pay, if not from the tobacco giants themselves). Can he put the interests of the nation above his marriage? In many ways, Wigand is a tragic character -- no matter what he decides, people will be hurt, himself included. The ways in which he copes with this fact comprise some of "The Insider"'s quietest but most touching moments.
The engaging first act segues neatly into the second, where Pacino's character takes center stage. With the Wigand "60 Minutes" segment in the can, everything looks set until CBS's legal department intervenes. Lawyer Helen Caperelli (Gina Gershon) believes that because Bergman encouraged Wigand to break his confidentiality agreement, CBS could be liable for billions of dollars. To Bergman's horror, both Wallace and CBS News chief Don Hewitt (Philip Baker Hall) agree to edit the segment to remove Wigand's interview, despite the supposed autonomy of the news division within the CBS hierarchy. To make matters worse, Big Tobacco begins a smear campaign against Wigand which, if successful, will destroy his credibility, making his interview worthless even if CBS does eventually acquiesce.
Although not as compelling as Wigand's personal journey, Bergman's efforts to fight both CBS management and the anti-Wigand publicity are exciting and provide a dynamic counterpoint to the film's emotional and ethical struggles. It is in these scenes that "The Insider" plays most loosely with the facts, building up Bergman as the hero of the debacle. This is to the detriment of people like Wallace and Hewitt, who come across more like corporate lackeys. Many of the feats the movie attributes to Bergman are exaggerations or wholesale fabrications -- feeding "The Wall Street Journal" information to disprove Big Tobacco's smear campaign, for example. (In reality, Bergman had nothing to do with the "Journal's" Pulitzer Prize-winning article.)
But I find it difficult to criticize "The Insider" on this basis. This is a drama, after all, not a documentary, and without a central hero in Bergman, the film would probably be weaker. It is also important to point out that both Hall and Plummer maintain their characters' core integrity throughout. Plummer has an especially powerful scene after a newspaper editorial accuses "60 Minutes" of dishonoring "the legacy of Edward R Murrow".
Both Crowe (in an Oscar-nominated performance) and Pacino are terrific throughout "The Insider". They find just the right note of realism in their characters, not playing them as overtly heroic but sustaining our interest nonetheless. Without this, scenes like the one where Wigand, on the slippery slope toward a nervous breakdown, hallucinates about his daughters would come across as farcical, not enthralling. Both Bergman and, in particular, Wigand are ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances, and "The Insider" does well not to forget that.
Also excellent is Michael Mann's direction, which keeps up the pace while recalling that, at its heart, this is a very human story. There is a scene toward the beginning where Wigand and Bergman converse in the cramped interior of Wigand's car. It is raining, and they are parked near a lake, the car sinking slowly into the mud. It is little more than a static dialogue scene, but the setting conveys a sense of claustrophobia and isolation which makes it clear that there is already no way out for Wigand. He has to make his choice and bear the consequences, and he can escape neither.
In the end, "The Insider" shows that it is possible to beat big business, if one is willing to endure the inherent risks, and has a little help from friends in high places of their own. But we do not live in a black and white world, and no matter how noble the cause, such a struggle will have undesirable consequences for everyone it touches. The real question is whether the people involved will be transformed by these consequences, or destroyed.
Copyright © 2000 Shannon Patrick Sullivan. Archived at http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sps/movies/TheInsider.html
-- _______________________________________________________________________ / Shannon Patrick Sullivan | "We are all in the gutter, but some of us \ | | are looking at the stars." | \ shannon@morgan.ucs.mun.ca | -- Oscar Wilde /
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