Product: The Insider [VHS] (1999)
Rating: 1.0
Typical Hollywood Pus-Job
I watched this movie as part of my research for a paper on "whistle-blowing" that I did for a graduate class last fall. I must say that the film is very unobjective and far too long. Propaganda is an apt description. For starters, the film goes overboard in trying to portray Wiegand as a victim. It starts with him being fired from his job, but it never really explains why he was fired! The film's makers make a big point of demonizing tobacco companies, calling them "bozos who never lose" and rich enough "to spend you to death." But later in the movie, the companies are apparently reduced to placing "bullets" in Wiegand's mailbox and sending him threatening e-mails. Incidentally, an FBI agent later claimed in an affadavit that he suspected Wiegand of fabricating the threatening message. There is also the case of Wiegand claiming that coumarin was rat poison and his company was adding it to cigarettes. I confirmed that coumarin was not carcinogenic. In fact, I talked with a purchasing specialist with Brown & Williamson and he told me that coumarin was basically vanilla flavoring! I could go on and on with items of interest that I uncovered during my research and other peculiar items from the movie but my point is to say that this film is absurd. Russell Crowe, who plays the "hero" Jeffrey Wiegand, was on the cover of GQ magazine long before this movie's release with a cigarette in his hand! Avoid 'The Insider.'