Al Pacino, Russell Crowe at their best

Rating: Null/10 (21 April 2002)

Another great movie by my favorite director Michael Mann.
THE INSIDER was a superb film. Even though it was 157 minutes, it still kept my interest throughout. I just have to say that Al Pacino and Russell Crowe were excellent and it most certaintly deserved the seven Academy Award nominations it was given.
Pacino stars as Lowell Bergman, producer of CBS's 60 minutes, who in order to finish a story on the use of tobacco and its effect on the public, must be provided information by an "inside" source. That source is a former tobacco executive, Doctor Jeffrey Wigand(Crowe). Wigand was fired by a large tobacco company and agrees to help Bergman in that the company is using unethical stimulants to make their cigarettes. Dante Spinotti is Mann's director of photography in just about all his movies and he is great. The cinematography of this film was outstanding. I especially liked how they zoomed in on the characters faces when something dramatic in the story occured. You could really see the effect of what was happening on the characters' faces. Once again, Michael Mann used colored lighting, just as he did in the film HEAT and some parts in MANHUNTER. Its usually a dark blue.
Pacino and Crowe were just simply magnificent in their roles and this is a movie that I would watch again and again. Definetly an A for a grade. Highly recommended.