What "All The President's Men" was to newspaper journalism, this movie is to TV journalism.

Rating: 10/10 (7 November 1999)

This film is unavoidably being compared to director Alan J. Pakula's "All The President's Men" and for good reason, because Michael Mann's new film is every bit as good. (Anybody is the TV news biz -like me- knows that newspaper and TV news are very different animals.) "The Insider" is a very mature film. It takes its sweet time letting the events unfold. However Mann and his team use very cinematic trick in the book to hold our attention and the editing is impeccable. But first and foremost the film features 2 virtuoso performances: one by a master we've grown accustomed to and one by a guy who may have joined his league. Of course I'm talking about Al Pacino and Russell Crowe. Pacino adds another mammoth blast in his Hall of Fame collection of home run performances. His portrayal of 60 Minutes producer gives him a lot of room to use all his skills as an actor and he never ever looks like an actor acting. He vents anger and frustration better than any actor I've ever seen and he is given the chance to do so here. Now on to the "new" guy. Anybody who has seen Russell Crowe before (especially in his Oscar-worthy effort in "L.A. Confidential") is not surprised that he can more than hold his own against Pacino, but then again acting is not a sporting event and there is room for a lot of winners in a movie like this. Crowe's role as "the guy" who blows the whistle on the tobacco industry is a fascinating study of a man imploding. Not since Pacino's work in "The Godfather II" have I've seen it done so well. Like every other thing Mann has done the supporting actors are great too, but the standout here is Christopher Plummer's Mike Wallace who has to reluctantly sell out to the corporate bottom line. The story about a guy who wants to go public about a major public health crime but is abandoned by a major network is complex and difficult stuff, but Mann and co-scripter Eric Roth do a magnificent job at keeping it clear and interesting. It is riveting and important entertainment. Like the phrase "TV journalism", "important entertainment" may seem like a contradiction of terms, but not with this movie which is one the best films of the year.