One of the best movies of the last decade of 20th century

Rating: 9/10 (4 September 2014)

True story nominated for 7 Academy Awards regarding the famous tobacco industry scandal which was disclosed in one of the episodes of popular show "60 Minutes" is almost a documentary when you consider production as a whole, the amount of data collected and respect for the facts by the film crew behind this project. Michael Mann, known for classics such as "Heat" and "The Last of the Mohicans", has collected immense amount of testimonies, news reports and transcripts of "60 Minutes" regarding the case, and with some help from Eric Roth of Forest Gump and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button fame wrote a screenplay for "The Insider." With its length that stretches far beyond two hours and everything said so far, it is true that this is not a movie for every type of audience. But, to think even for a moment that this movie is slow and boring would be an enormous mistake. Somewhat controversial and omnipresent topic about the power of corporation, business and money over information and truth is masterfully crafted into an intense flick.
Al Pacino and Russel Crowe are absolutely sensational in their main roles. Pacino is completely at home playing a witty, persistent and passionate journalist Lowell Bergman, while Crowe, being 33 at the time, simply dominates in his Oscar nominated role of Jeffrey Wigand, an erratic chemist in his early 50's whose life is getting more and more out of hand during the whole movie. With great support from, we can say, an ensemble cast of supporting actors of whom even the ones who are least known to wider audiences are doing an excellent job, and with the two Academy Awards winners we mentioned above, the movie nails its main goal and represents the two main themes extremely well.
On the one hand, we have a great representation of often disregarded importance of investigative journalism in a world of capitalism. Numerous and serious obstacles faced even by an adept journalist of great reputation when dealing with a delicate story are masterfully presented as well. On the other hand, we have a thorough, realistic and detailed story of a scientist who has to abandon his ideals of improving the environment, and life of a man in general, in order to provide for his family. The magic of the whole thing is the fact that the movie does an outstanding job of showing the audience why, after a hard an unfair defeat while trying to get the truth out in the open, in the moments of despair, we don't have the right to stop, and we mustn't give up.
All of this is crowned with Michael Mann's directing. He has an incredible eye for detail and the ability to hold a viewer's attention even in those seemingly slow and boring parts of the movie by making a hypnotizing atmosphere just by accenting some sound effect, like rustling of leafs on a light wind, for example.
91/100