Product: The Insider [VHS] (1999)
Rating: 5.0
Docudrama of the highest caliber
Based on a true story about a 1994 "60 Minutes" episode on criminal intrigue in the tobacco industry, an episode that was first killed because CBS was reluctant to step into the ring with opponents who had the will and perhaps the means to break the network financially. The story was revived and eventually aired on "60 Minutes" as a description of how pressure from big business had been applied to keep the original story off the air.We'll wait a long time for another docudrama of this caliber. Explosive conflicts between genuine superpowers, pretty much based on fact, just kept rolling out. First there was the one between Brown & Williamson tobacco company and its former scientist Jeffrey Wigand (played by Russel Crowe in the movie). In real life, Wigand was appalled by the knowledge that tobacco executives knew very well that nicotine was a strong addictive. He was incensed that seven of them flatly denied that fact in sworn testimony before Congress. Not only that, but Wigand knew that tobacco was being laced with additives that made it even more addictive. Anyone who has quit smoking knows just how addictive nicotine truly is, and how long the withdrawal period is.Wigand somehow released incriminating evidence which reached writer Marie Brenner. Her article in Vanity Fair magazine, "The Man Who Knew Too Much", was picked up on the radar at "60 Minutes". Not surprisingly, it did not escape notice by the powers at Brown & Williamson, who intensified the heat they were already applying to Wigand.After B&W learned that "60 Minutes" was flirting with the story, the second major conflict began festering as B&W and "60 Minutes" flexed their muscles in dead earnest. When veteran producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino) cranked up his tooth drill and began getting right down into live nerves, the resulting battle - threats of multi-billion-dollar lawsuits and personal attacks on everybody in sight -- would intensify until Bergman was ultimately driven into retirement and Mike Wallace (Christopher Plummer) was face-to-face with the major ethical and pragmatic dilemma of his long television career. Wallace would prove to grit his teeth and do the right and courageous, if dangerous, thing.Still another conflict involved Brown & Williamson's lawyers and the Mississippi Attorney General's office, with Wigand in the middle. Whether or not it came about exactly as presented doesn't matter; the screen version had foundation in fact and was truly frightening movie drama. The conflict escalated into out-and-out war, the outcome of which was infinitely gratifying.The minefield B&W laid before Jeffrey Wigand, and ultimately before Mike Wallace and CBS, was intimidating in the extreme. Only a person who has been the target of a large and powerful law firm representing a money-is-no-object client can truly appreciate the horrible weapons in their arsenal, and how skilled and ruthless they are at deploying them. Director Michael Mann did a fine job of illustrating that the minefield would have been seen as impenetrable by most sane mortals.CBS caved in and ordered the story canceled. But Lowell Bergman was a grizzled veteran of journalistic warfare. By leaking information and planting innuendoes in critical places he blew the shackles off the story. It was Bergman's charisma, too, that kept Wigand's will from flagging. The Wall Street Journal ran with the story (winning a Pulitzer Prize) and the lid was blown off. His job done, a dispirited Lowell Bergman left CBS and "60 Minutes." The confrontation between big tobacco and a lone scientist with a conscience was the first shot in a war that ended with a quarter-trillion-dollar settlement of a suit brought by most of the 50 states.Al Pacino has an outstanding role as Bergman and plays it magnificently - positively great casting. Russell Crowe is perfect as a reluctant combatant, but one driven to right a terrible wrong. He draws a real line in the sand with this performance and backs it up in The Gladiator.Two and a half hours of fine, fine entertainment. Not one second of dead air space, either. This is another movie that those who appreciate the cream of the crop will want to watch many times. (Read Amazon's words above about why this video costs so much. You might want to wait.)