directed by michael mann . screenplay by eric roth and mann , from the article " the man who knew too much " by marie brenner . starring al pacino , russell crowe , christopher plummer . running time : 188 minutes . rated aa for offensive language . reviewed on march 5th , 2000 . there are days when i'm flabbergasted by the power of big business . they have the power , the money , and the influence to seemingly do whatever they want . governments kowtow to them , common man is overwhelmed by them . when a corporation can throw hundreds of thousands of dollars into a legal campaign , or use media connections to denigrate their opponents , how can joe average compete ? " the insider " is the story of just such a battle , based on real events from the mid-nineties . jeffrey wigand ( russell crowe ) , newly fired from his job as a research and development executive with tobacco giant brown & williamson , is asked by " 60 minutes " producer lowell bergman ( al pacino ) to assist him on a story related to the cigarette industry . bergman soon realizes that wigand's knowledge of evidence damaging to big tobacco extends well beyond the scope of his current story . he attempts to persuade wigand to come forward with what he knows for a " 60 minutes " segment with mike wallace ( christopher plummer ) . this in of itself would make for a remarkable film . wigand's inner conflict -- should he talk or shouldn't he ? -- is poignant and involving . not only does wigand have to deal with the legal ramifications of going on " 60 minutes " ( he has signed a confidentiality agreement with brown & williamson ) but he soon finds his old bosses applying more dubious means of persuasion -- he is followed and sent threatening messages . or is he ? in real life , none of wigand's accusations about brown & williamson's tactics were substantiated . " the insider " leans toward wigand's side of the story , but leaves the question open . is the man at the golf course spying on wigand , or just watching him because wigand is himself behaving oddly ? was a bullet left in his mailbox as a warning , or did wigand put it there himself ? even wigand's then-wife leane ( diane venora ) has since accused him of the latter . making wigand's conflict even more engrossing is the fact that he is married with children . were he single , going on " 60 minutes " would be a noble and selfless act . but his entire family appears to be at risk ( from economic hardship caused by the termination of wigand's severance pay , if not from the tobacco giants themselves ) . can he put the interests of the nation above his marriage ? in many ways , wigand is a tragic character -- no matter what he decides , people will be hurt , himself included . the ways in which he copes with this fact comprise some of " the insider " 's quietest but most touching moments . the engaging first act segues neatly into the second , where pacino's character takes center stage . with the wigand " 60 minutes " segment in the can , everything looks set until cbs's legal department intervenes . lawyer helen caperelli ( gina gershon ) believes that because bergman encouraged wigand to break his confidentiality agreement , cbs could be liable for billions of dollars . to bergman's horror , both wallace and cbs news chief don hewitt ( philip baker hall ) agree to edit the segment to remove wigand's interview , despite the supposed autonomy of the news division within the cbs hierarchy . to make matters worse , big tobacco begins a smear campaign against wigand which , if successful , will destroy his credibility , making his interview worthless even if cbs does eventually acquiesce . although not as compelling as wigand's personal journey , bergman's efforts to fight both cbs management and the anti-wigand publicity are exciting and provide a dynamic counterpoint to the film's emotional and ethical struggles . it is in these scenes that " the insider " plays most loosely with the facts , building up bergman as the hero of the debacle . this is to the detriment of people like wallace and hewitt , who come across more like corporate lackeys . many of the feats the movie attributes to bergman are exaggerations or wholesale fabrications -- feeding " the wall street journal " information to disprove big tobacco's smear campaign , for example . ( in reality , bergman had nothing to do with the " journal's " pulitzer prize-winning article . ) but i find it difficult to criticize " the insider " on this basis . this is a drama , after all , not a documentary , and without a central hero in bergman , the film would probably be weaker . it is also important to point out that both hall and plummer maintain their characters' core integrity throughout . plummer has an especially powerful scene after a newspaper editorial accuses " 60 minutes " of dishonoring " the legacy of edward r murrow " . both crowe ( in an oscar-nominated performance ) and pacino are terrific throughout " the insider " . they find just the right note of realism in their characters , not playing them as overtly heroic but sustaining our interest nonetheless . without this , scenes like the one where wigand , on the slippery slope toward a nervous breakdown , hallucinates about his daughters would come across as farcical , not enthralling . both bergman and , in particular , wigand are ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances , and " the insider " does well not to forget that . also excellent is michael mann's direction , which keeps up the pace while recalling that , at its heart , this is a very human story . there is a scene toward the beginning where wigand and bergman converse in the cramped interior of wigand's car . it is raining , and they are parked near a lake , the car sinking slowly into the mud . it is little more than a static dialogue scene , but the setting conveys a sense of claustrophobia and isolation which makes it clear that there is already no way out for wigand . he has to make his choice and bear the consequences , and he can escape neither . in the end , " the insider " shows that it is possible to beat big business , if one is willing to endure the inherent risks , and has a little help from friends in high places of their own . but we do not live in a black and white world , and no matter how noble the cause , such a struggle will have undesirable consequences for everyone it touches . the real question is whether the people involved will be transformed by these consequences , or destroyed . copyright © 2000 shannon patrick sullivan . archived at <a href= " http : //www . physics . mun . ca/~sps/movies/theinsider . html " >http : //www . physics . mun . ca/~sps/movies/theinsider . html</a> 
