The Insider
#4 Best Film of 1999
Starring: Al Pacino, Russell Crowe, Christopher Plummer, Diane Venora, and Philip Baker Hall.
Directed by: Michael Mann. Written by Eric Roth and Micahel Mann, based on the Vanity Fair article, "The Man Who Knew Too Much," by Marie Brenner.
The Insider is a true story about Jeffrey Wigand (Russel Crowe) who is fired by Brown & Williamson and then monitored, harassed, and threatened by them when he attempts to break his code of silence stated in his constricting severance deal. The script cleverly weaves the Wigand story in with that of Lowell Bergman, a journalist for 60 Minutes, and his fight with the administration of CBS to air Jeffrey Wigand's interview with Mike Wallace.
Masterfully written by Michael Mann and Eric Roth, The Insider is by all means intellectual and artistic. The characters are smart. What they say and do is well thought out and smart. And the cinematography is smart, superb, highly artistic, and freshly unique. In fact, I could not help but notice that nearly each shot could hang in an art gallery.
Also regarding the cinematography: As a viewer, we receive an up-close and personal view of the lives of these characters. (Any closer and we would be able to see the pores on their faces.) This filming technique creates a definite claustrophobic and paranoid mood. We need to feel Jeff's pain and paranoia and the filming achieves this perfectly by showing vast views from behind the characters head or body. In fact, the opening scene places us with a character as he tries looking out from a woven cloth blindfold.
Other scenes relating to this technique are:
1) When Jeffrey Wigand is walking toward the revolving door of Brown & Williamson after being fired, it feels as if we are the ones leading him out because the shot is taken from directly behind his head.
2) When Jeffrey is talking his daughter through a severe asthmatic attack, we are placed behind her ear so that we hear the wheezing, and sense her struggle for air.
3) When Jeffrey and Lowell are talking about Jeff's pact of secrecy in the car, we see through the torrents of rain running down the windows a tugboat fighting the upstream current of the river off in the distance and understand that Jeff is alone and fighting against stronger currents like that tugboat.
4) When Jeffrey is being pressured to sign the second severance package, we are made to feel as if we are sitting with the Brown & Williamson lawyers.
Al Pacino is perfect as Lowell Bergmen. Russel Crowe is equally impressive as Jeffrey Wigand, giving his character a great depth of humaneness. Christopher Plummer is so superb as Mike Wallace that one wonders if Plummer was born to play this role.
The Insider is a film about corporate politics, personal ethics, big-money, the power of influence/persuasion behind any corporation or establishment, and about "normal people under extreme pressure." Moreover, it's about abusing power; about the corporate giant using money to cover up wrongdoing or to conceal secrets; about "insiders" within these corporations who stand up for what is right and good; and, about their friends, associates, and wives who either support them or betray them on the front lines.
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