Product: The Insider [VHS] (1999)
Rating: 4.0
Corruption both big business and journalistic explored
This is one of those films Warners considered their bread and butter in the thirties and forties, the banner to be taken up by Fox in the late forties and early fifties - a realistic look at corruption and the forces of good that attempt to expose it. The material is historical but the filmmakers use the tried and true film formula (most notably by ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN)for bringing it to the screen. It earned seven Oscar noms including Best Film, Direction, Screenplay and Actor (Russell Crowe)but failed to pick up a statue. It is unrelentingly depressing but riveting none the less. Al Pacino delivers one of his best performances and deserved an equal Best Actor nod with Crowe. Christopher Plummer delivers a delicous parody of Mike Wallace. We KNEW the tobabcco industry was corrupt but we didn't know SIXTY MINUTES and the network were - it's surprising the filmmakers were not sued but then if the material they had was factual, a law suit would have only brought the network more shame. At the end of a film like this when good has triumphed but been trampled in the process and even those you trust turn out to be villains, one is left with a most depressing message about the human race and modern civilization - therefore, the cathartic value of such a film is deprived of its raison d'etre - it gets kudos for realism and truth but not for art.