Product: The Insider [VHS] (1999)
Rating: 5.0
Important story, great cast and direction
This film brings together a really important story that is worth telling, some first rate actors and great direction. Al Pacino and Russell Crowe bring to the screen the true life moral dilemmas that faced Wigand and Bergman as they faced the enormous pressures of both corporate tobacco and CBS.Pacino and Crowe give excellent performances and they are a good duo, due to their opposite natures. These are men who probably would never have met in life if it had not been for the dilemma that drew them together. Pacino, as Bergman, is a scruffy little guy for whom Crowe's leisure life on the golf course is repellent. Crowe, who gained a lot of weight for the role, plays a Kentucky scientist, who has been living the good life on the payroll of a large tobacco company. He's on his second wife, we later learn, a beautiful Southern belle, and they enjoy a huge home with pool, and an altogether very comfortable lifestyle.When Wigand's conscience gets the best of him and he can no longer go along with the dangerous practices that the company is perpetrating, he is fired. It's an interesting irony that his own daughter suffers from acute asthma -- a respiratory disease. The problem is that he needs his medical insurance for her and the rest of the family, and this is threatened as he opts to tell what he knows to 60 minutes.We see Wigand as he suffers excrutiating choices as the tobacco company threatens not only to cut his severance package, but it seems that his very life and those of his family are being threatened. It's a credit to the director that the story is told just right---there's a steady buildup of tension as the price this man is forced to pay in order to do what he thinks is right escalates. At one point his wife decides that the pressure is too much for her to bear, so she leaves, taking the kids with her.Russell Crowe is brilliant in his portrayal of this man. I soon forgot it was Crowe and thorougly got into the mind of Wigand. Pacino is also compelling as the street smart, big mouth New Yorker, who we see develops a real sense of caring for Wigand. Yes, Wigand is a "commodity" -- Bergman (Pacino) needs him for his show, but he also comes to have a genuine affection for him. I thought the scene on the lawn with the two of them, sort of awkwardly standing outside the party, after Wigand has given his testimony, was brilliant. They don't come out and hug or say anything obvious...both are reserved in their own way....but the way they stand, sort of awkwardly and the looks they give each other are really moving.Christopher Plummer is also very effective as Mike Wallace. It must have been a challenge to portray such a well-known face and he did a very good job.I also want to mention the music. There were interludes of strange haunting vocals, that didn't seem to have anything logical to do with the story, but they were really effective in demonstrating the enormous pain and strain that the men were facing.As Bergman says to Crowe...something like "thanks for being a hero...they are dying breed." And Wigand returns the complement. It's really heartening to see such a display of heroism in our modern time.There's a small added feature on the DVD which gives a few shots of the real Wigand and Bergman. Wigand looks a lot like the way Crowe portrayed him....chunky and round-faced, but a lot more cheerful. He's sporting a bright orange and red tie and looks very jolly. Of course his troubles are behind him. Bergman is shown, too, not quite a cute as Pacino, but it was still good to see him. He's working for NPR, which got a terrible slam by the Mike Wallace character....hmmm.