The Film that only Oscar forgot

Rating: 10/10 (28 June 2000)

How this movie, the best film of 1999, got a grand total of 0 oscars will remain a mystery for a long time.
First, the movie takes a story about an overweight whistle blower with family issues and melds it with tobacco & the world of deception, cancer, medical hu-do, and lawyers. It does this and is watchable and interesting.
Second, the acting is superb. Crowe went all out preparing and doing the role and Pacino portrays his aspect very well.
Three, Mann is the Jack of all trades. He makes a short story/article into a nicely flowing and very long movie. The tough subject matter (above) is intriging full of suspense (despite the fact that we know the general ending from the true history). He then produces a good ad campaign (the poster is a classic pun of a cigarrete package. Finally, as director the entire package comes together.
Despite the nominations and despite the performances, the film did not find a huge audience and it was the only one of the 1999 best-picture nominees not to gain massive revenue from its nomination.
Possible reasons for this are that the film is really long (155 minutes) and the subject matter is complex. Given this, long attention spans and an interested audience are needed. Also, Mann may still have the TV type stigma from his Miami Vice Days (although he has since been connected to many other quality movies). Maybe it was the writing, as it was on a true event stigma (and therefore less work because an outline is theoretically established). Perhaps, Crowe (being a relatively unknown) hurt awards. Another possibility is maybe people thought Mann hollywoodized history (like Hurricane and U-571); although I cannot see it.
In the end, it did not separate itself from American Beauty as Best picture. While the two had differing audiences and vastly different material, both films were great stories with nice writing and good acting.
Either way, The Insider is a great movie that should not be missed. It is long, but every minute is important to the story. It did not win a single oscar, but it was good enough to win all that it was nominated for.