Directed by: Michael Mann
Starring: Al Pacino, Russell Crowe, Philip Baker Hall, Christopher Plummer, Diane Venora, Michael Gambon, Debi Mazar, Stephen Tobolowsky, Lindsay Crouse
The tobacco industry settled $246 billion in lawsuits in the late 1990's thanks in large part to the testimony of whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand, a former Brown & Williamson executive interviewed on 60 Minutes. Getting the interview on the air was the result of exhaustive investigative journalism and legal maneuverings for CBS, Big Tobacco, and Wigand himself, who had to violate a corporate secrecy agreement he signed when he was fired from his position.
The Insider takes the on the tone and pace of a thriller with many moving parts. Wigand is played by Russell Crowe (in an Oscar nominated performance) as a man seething with anger over being fired for butting heads with his superiors and maybe suffering from paranoia and delusions. He is not an easy man to like, but he does a risky and courageous thing by going on 60 Minutes to lay out the lies told by the tobacco industry about the safety of its products. People by and large knew cigarettes were bad, but what the public may not have known were the steps taken by Big Tobacco to ensure its customers became addicted. Big Tobacco was forced to place warning labels on its products after the proof of their danger became incontrovertible. Despite the rise in the cost of tobacco products, people still purchase them in record numbers; the money spent being only one of the terrible costs of their use.
Pacino plays Lowell Bergman, a 60 Minutes producer who works with Mike Wallace (Plummer) to get the story and coax Wigand into going on television. Wigand has understandable qualms about becoming a whistleblower and part of his motive is surely personal. Bergman, perhaps in crusader mode, believes the story will shed light on a public health issue. CBS balks at airing the interview due to the possibility of Big Tobacco suing the network and thus threatening a proposed lucrative sale of CBS to another entity. Bergman attempts to work around Wigand's secrecy agreement, including a brilliant idea to have Wigand testify to a grand jury in one lawsuit against Big Tobacco. The thinking is once Wigand is compelled to testify, the secrets are out and thus 60 Minutes is free to air the interview without legal repercussions.
The Insider takes us through this maze of legality and morality without confusing us. It also doesn't paint Wigand as a hero, but a flawed person with a past who still possesses a tremendous amount of inside knowledge which is dangerous to Big Tobacco. We feel the tension press down on Wigand as he decides whether to meet with 60 Minutes. He clearly wants to, but he also senses people hired by Brown & Williamson may be following him and making not-so-subtle threats such as placing a bullet in his mailbox. Did Brown & Williamson ever do such a thing? The truth will never be known.
Director Mann moves things along (with liberties taken with the story as expected with any movie "based on true events") and it depicts men like Bergman and Wallace as tireless crusaders for the truth, even at the expense of corporate profits. We see Bergman's dogged determination and knack for getting around road blocks, such as leaking stories to the Wall Street Journal about how CBS caved to corporate interests over the public's need to know about the dangers of tobacco. He cares more passionately about the story than the financial interest of his employers. The Insider wisely doesn't paint CBS as greedy villains. We see what is on the line for them and in many ways, we can understand why they may pause at airing such a potentially explosive piece.
The Insider tells a gripping story and gives us a unique view of how difficult and frustrating investigative journalism can be. It takes dedication, a superhuman ability to take rejection, and some creative ways to see through the morass of bullshit to get to the other side. When I watch 60 Minutes now, I think of The Insider.
No comments:
Post a Comment