Product: The Insider [VHS] (1999)
Rating: 4.0
excellent and a half
The Insider would have worked as a plot-driven film. Jeff Weigand has his family and career destroyed when he revelas corperate dirt on big tabacco.But what makes the film so incredible is that it is in fact charactor driven, not just moved ahead by story. The cerebral, family oritented yet emotional Wiegand-Russel Crowe-is contrasted with the hip, radical 60 Minutes Producer Lowell Bergman, played by Al Pachino.Both charactors dig their heals into their positions, and watcing these two passionate but extremely bright guys in give and take is simply incredible to watch.The acting is incredible. Both men want, often, conflicting things--Wiegand some shred of privacy and protection, Bergman his story and all he needs to know to protect Wiegand.The subtance of the tobacco litigation is interesting. But the drives of both men--and how smartly this is discussed-is what makes the Insider a cut above most whistle blower movies.