Product: The Insider [VHS] (1999)
Rating: 4.0
A Very Good, But Slightly Flawed, Motion Picture
"The Insider" marks somewhat of a departure for Michael Mann, whose usual bill of fare is tightly wound, psychological crime dramas such as "Thief" and "Heat" on the big screen and shows such as "Miami Vice", "Crime Story", and the shamefully overlooked "Private Eye" on television.The movie portrays the trials and tribulations of Jeffrey Wiegand, a fired tobacco company researcher who violates a confidentiality agreement with his employer at the behest of a "60 Minutes" producer out for a story. Be warned: many of the elements of Mann's previous motion pictures are not present here. The pacing is much slower than any of his previous works, almost painfully so at times (which makes the movie almost three hours in length). Nevertheless it works well, given the plot of this motion picture. The musical score is not quite as good as those in previous Mann pictures and actually gets rather irritating at times. And the cinematography is painfully average for the most part. Additionally, the screenplay was unnecessarily embellished for dramatic effect.The acting performances are first rate all the way, with Al Pacino turning in a curiously restrained performance as "60 Minutes" producer Lowell Bergman. Russell Crowe is very good in the role of Wiegand, and his transformation from disaffectation to paranoia is dazzling, clearly worthy of the Oscar nomination he received. And Christoper Plummer turns in a very good performance as Mike Wallace.The area in which this motion picture really excels, though, is in its telling of the incredibly shortsighted and cowardly decision of CBS to back down from televising the Wiegand interview in the face of a potential lawsuit from his former employer. Mike Wallace and Don Hewitt both insisted that the portrayal of that event was inaccurate, but the facts (at least as I understand and remember them) strongly support the version portrayed in the film. The amazon.com reviewer's use of the word "revisionist" is a little too strong here.Overall, "The Insider" is an entertaining and well-done motion picture that suffers from some unnecessary artistic liberties and rather languid pacing but excels in its ability to tell the tale of a man who laid it all on the line against corporate America only to be left twisting in the wind by a gutless television news organization. CBS deserves to have its eye blackened over the incidents portrayed here. That eye was apparently already blind to its public responsibilities.