Product: The Insider [VHS] (1999)
Rating: 5.0
An intimate story of two stubborn and unlikely heroes
This film has been described as a David v Goliath story about the exposee of big tobacco, which it certainly is, but what made this picture such an emotional experience was that beneath the surface, was an intimate story of personal struggle among two men, Jeffrey Wigand(Crowe) and Lowell Bergman(Pacino).Jeffrey Wigand, the proud, reluctant family man, who went about in blowing the whistle on his former employers, Brown & Williamson, was not protrayed as the typical crusader out to do good for the right cause. He was shown with all of the flaws of human frailties present that contributed to the realism of the movie. The motivation for him to particiapte in an exposee of Brown & Williamson was strictly to preserve his pride as a man of integrity and most of all, to protect his manhood and prevent castration from the powers that be. His reasons for going public were not noble and were not for the right reasons. It was the way the film gave him a full arc in which he began to shape into a real hero doing what he did for the right reasons, made it a movie with great depth and brutal honesty.Aside from those qualities, another admirable quiality about this film were the photography and visual compositions. The visual style this movie carried was just absolutely amazing. And it wasn't obstrusive to the story or overly-stylized. Every composition and color scheme were there to add to the atmosphere and storytelling. Michael Mann's minimalist compositions reminded me of Michelangelo Antonioni's work that gave this film the detached feeling and presence it required in revealing the anti-social personality and confusion of Jeffrey Wigand. Director MAnn and Dante Spinotti is definitely up there with other frequent dynamic duo Director/DP teams like Steven Spielberg with Janusz Kaminski, Coen Bros. with Roger Deakins, Anthony Minghella with John Seale, Wong Kar Wai with Christopher Doyle, and so on.