Directed by:
Michael MannCinematography:
Dante SpinottiCast:
Al Pacino, Russell Crowe, Christopher Plummer, Diane Venora, Philip Baker Hall, Lindsay Crouse, Debi Mazar, Stephen Tobolowsky, Colm Feore, Bruce McGill (more)Plots(1)
Al Pacino gives a powerful performance as veteran 60 MINUTES producer Lowell Bergman and Russell Crowe co-stars as the ultimate insider, former tobacco executive Dr. Jeffrey Wigand. When Wigand is fired by his employer -- one of the largest tobacco companies in America -- he agrees to become a paid consultant for a story Bergman is working on regarding alleged unethical practices within the tobacco industry. But what begins as a temporary alliance leads to a lengthy battle for both men to save their reputations, and much, much more. As they soon find out, Corporate America will use all legal means at its disposal to save a billion-dollar-a-year habit. And as the corporate giants soon find out, Bergman and Wigand are honorable men, driven to smoke out the evidence. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (7)
The reliable Al Pacino is probably the only memorable thing in this film. I wasn't very interested in the theme from the tobacco industry, and Russell Crowe deserved his Oscar nomination only by his significant physical transformation, his performance here is rather bland. The result is a not very exciting, slightly tedious and emotionally bland film.
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Michael Mann is known for tackling big stories, though his films can be hit or miss for me. The Insider definitely has an intriguing premise, but it’s weighed down by a slow pace and some overly long explanations. At times, it felt unnecessarily drawn out, and I found myself getting pretty bored in parts.
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This picture doesn’t focus so much on the issue of smoking cigarettes, but more on the strange power of the tobacco corporations. Money can buy almost everything. Trust. Silence. Faith. But can it buy opinions? Honor? Can the price of a person’s lifestyle be quantified? In this brilliant thriller we hear lots of fascinating facts and details that really happened and that deserve some contemplation. Mann’s directing means that everything is realistic and the acting performances of Al Pacino and Russell Crowe are more than convincing. Both the camerawork and the music are simply captivating. The Insider is one of those “one in a hundred" movies.
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How far can we go in proving the truth? And what are we willing to lose in the fight for it, knowing that we have stronger enemies against us? Michael Mann is almost unrecognizable and therefore unsuccessful this time. I expected a blockbuster from him on this topic, but instead got a journalistic drama with a murderous running time, an atmospheric soundtrack, and unsurprisingly convincing performances by Russell Crowe and the perfect Al Pacino. Perhaps if it had truly surprised me at least once, it could have been better.
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Brilliantly staged, acted and scored, as is customary with the visionary Mann, with a strong underlying theme that wants to speak to the audience globally through the fateful story of an individual. But despite this, this is Mann's most American film, interspersed with clichés and subplots to such an extent that the two-hour intimate narrative becomes, somewhat unnecessarily, a 150-minute Hollywood spectacle for an unintentionally narrowed target audience. If you fully appreciate technical mastery and the chosen thematic context, you’ll be able to watch Insider in one go without much difficulty... But not everyone will manage. 80%
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