Product: The Insider [VHS] (1999)
Rating: 4.0
A great movie, if a bit overrated.
The InsiderScore: 84/100Whatever your personal opinions are about The Insider, you must admit that it is a well-made movie. If you dislike it, you can't exactly say that the effort wasn't a large amount for all the cast and crew. Because it was, and you can tell just by watching every minute of this long but rewarding crowd-pleaser starring New Zealand's Russell Crowe, in a performance that got him nominated for an Oscar. The film also earned 6 other nominations, and didn't win one of them, since there was too much competition. A shame, because this is such an intelligent and observing movie that you can't help but be intrigued.This film tells the true story of Jeffrey Wigand (Crowe), a former tobacco executive, who decided to appear on the CBS-TV News show "60 Minutes." As matter of conscience partially prodded by producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino), he revealed that, the tobacco industry was not only aware that cigarettes are addictive & harmful, but deliberately worked on increasing that addictiveness. Unfortunately, both protagonists of this story learn the hard way that simply telling the truth is not enough as they struggle against both Big Tobacco's attempts to silence them and the CBS TV Network's own cowardly complict preference of putting money as a higher priority over the truth.It's amazing how well this did with the critics, since it didn't get much attention at the box office or at home-video rental stores. But people, intelligently, liked Michael Mann's thrilling and dramatic film that, if sometimes a little boring for some audiences, manages to deliver first-rate performances from the cast and be memorable and vivid in your mind. The Insider's script is a majorly clever one, it literally blew socks off global viewers for it's pure sense of intelligence, the film was written by Michael Mann (we can't get enough of him) and Eric Roth (his promising co-writer).In short: The Insider is a must-see in all aspects.