An important film.

Rating: 10/10 (23 March 2012)

In telling the story of Jeffrey Wigand and Lowell Bergman's struggle to get the truth out, director Michael Mann was presented with two distinct goals. For one, he took on the duty of telling this important, human story to the audience. Also though, he had the difficult task of taking this story and turning it into an engaging, thrilling piece of film. There's a scene where a character discusses with Bergman how this story is something that matters, something has a national impact. For 60 Minutes, it could just be a piece of "Sunday night entertainment...something to put on between commercials", a story to grip the audience while they're eating their dinner. In creating The Insider it could have been the exact same thing, and part of it has to be that. Mann is given the difficult task of not only creating a piece of entertainment, a film to bring in audiences and keep them engaged for the 157 minute running time, but in taking on this particular story he also has to keep the integrity of it in tact, to make the audience aware and educated on the importance of Wigand's journey. In creating the film Mann found himself in a similar position to Bergman himself, and he pulled it off magnificently.
Here Mann tells a story that really matters, something that resonates within the foundation of the American public, pulling apart a lie told against the foundation of our legal structure and shaking up the tobacco industry which had been man-handling people like Wigand and the American public for decades. This is a story that has to make a difference in the world, beyond just being a piece of entertainment. Michael Mann was the perfect director to take the wheel here because he, working from a script co-written by Eric Roth, knows just how to create a distinctively cinematic thriller but also has the intelligence to do justice to the real life people involved. Mann pieces together a precise, incredibly exciting thriller that's never dull for a moment but he also doesn't overly exaggerate events to the point where he betrays the people he is capturing on screen. He creates a film that is very cinematic, with his excellent staging and use of hand-held cameras, but is also very true. This truth then adds an even higher sense of tension to standard thriller scenes like the moment with Wigand at the driving range or searching for someone in his backyard.
There is a scene where a lawyer, played by Colm Feore, that Wigand is working with talks to him about what Wigand is going through. He compares it to his experience in combat, noting the difference in the fact that combat lasts only a few seconds whereas Wigand's struggle lasts day after day, month after month and sinks into his entire life, leaving an impact on his family and his financial future. Watching Crowe's face in this moment, you can truly see the level of that impact on him. He is a good man in an unjust system, and Crowe takes us thoroughly into his anguished mind here. The extensive running time of the film gives ample opportunity for the audience to feel those walls slowly closing in on him. Nothing feels rushed or too undeveloped, but instead Mann and Crowe bring us on a slow descent with this character and watching him finally explode is a shattering moment.
It's no secret to say that Al Pacino's work has taken quite the decline since his tremendous emergence in the '70s. Still, despite disappointing on most occasions he manages to every so often give a performance that is worthy of his legacy and remind the world what a powerful talent he truly is. His work as Lowell Bergman is one of the best examples of just that, portraying the former radical journalist who know works for the giant corporate network of CBS. Bergman is a man who constantly fights for what he believes in, fighting to tell the important stories and using the broader audience that CBS allows without giving in to the restrictions that come with working in such a large corporation. Taking on Wigand's testimony, Bergman is told for the first time that he's going to have to betray his word to a source and this doesn't sit well with him. There's an interesting parallel here again between what Bergman goes through and what Mann must face as well, working in the film industry. He is told to put his beliefs on hold, to sacrifice his word because CBS is too afraid of the consequences and in his riotous, dismayed reaction you have to wonder if Mann himself has ever given similar speeches when being told that he can't do something.
Ultimately, Bergman and Wigand share a lot of things in common as human beings. They come from incredibly different worlds, Bergman being groomed on the streets and knowing the ins and outs of the industry, whereas Wigand is just a doctor from Louisville, Kentucky who is thrown in over his head with all of these large men with larger wallets. Despite their backgrounds though, they are both men who have their pride and their integrity and they are fighting for what they believe is right. They see these men of Big Tobacco lying on national television, lying in a court of law, and they know that it isn't right. They fight to get their story out, to expose the truth and force these men to face the consequences and it's a story that Michael Mann knows was important to get out to the film-viewing public. He does it with great stride, creating a film that is not only human and important, but also a fully engaging and tense thriller. I'm a large fan of Mann's work as a director throughout his career, but there is no doubt in my mind that this is his true masterpiece.