A great story, masterfully told

Rating: 10/10 (1 March 2003)

Forget the poetic liberties taken with the actual events (e.g., Dr. Wigand's daughter has spina bifida, not asthma), the petty putdowns and complaints about casting choices, makeup, pace of the movie, etc., and side plots such as section on the Unabomber stakeout towards the end. This film is a riveting tale of corruption in corporate America, of valuing money and personal advantage above traditional, basic fundamental human values such as respecting human life and telling the truth. Two courageous but imperfect men, and their allies, prevail in the face of an army of greedy, dishonest, egoistic, cynical people surrounding them. As such, this film does a masterful job in telling this story, in a powerful fashion that no documentary (well, perhaps if Ken Burns produced it, and Stephen Ambrose was still around to be interviewed, not having succumbed to smoking induced lung cancer) could have conveyed. It's a heroic, well-crafted morality tale, and well deserves its comparison to "All the President's Men." In fact, I think cinematically it is much better.