intelligent, truthful portrayal of whistle-blowers

Rating: Null/10 (1 March 2000)

What a good and true movie The Insider is. I was impressed, knocked-out, by the sensitive portrayal of the whistle-blower as Everyman. Jeffrey Wigand is frequently shown in profile, tangentially; his story is the sum of his actions, who he is, subsumed by what he does. The same thing happens, more or less, to Lowell Bergman, who becomes an ancillary whistle-blower. The film shows us that whistle-blowers are all alike. They are. I know. I'm married to a whistle-blower. It wasn't Big Tobacco in my husband's case. It was Big Science, Big University (Princeton) in tandem with the Department of Energy. The data were fraudulent and the rest of the story was pretty much as depicted in The Insider. Unfortunately, he couldn't get the New York Times to help and he didn't find a Lowell Bergman at Sixty Minutes. He did find an ear in Congress and the budget for the research was cut. That's a small victory for which he's paid a high price -- like Wigand and Bergman --he found himself out of a job and a career. When so many movies are quick to tack on happy endings to the mindless posturings of physical courage. It's good to find a different one that is not afraid to contemplate the necessity -- and sadness -- of moral courage. Bravo to the director and producer for their insight and courage.