The Insider **** (1999, Al Pacino, Russell Crowe and Christopher Plummer) – Classic Movie Review 12,225

The 1999 film The Insider stars Al Pacino, Russell Crowe and Christopher Plummer, and is a superb, stylish real-life thriller given plenty of full-throttle treatment by director Michael Mann, who also made Heat with Pacino.

Russell Crowe gives his best display of acting so far as Jeffrey Wigand, the sacked tobacco-company research-scientist who risks his marriage, his career and even his life by blowing the whistle on his own company who increased the risk of cancer by raising nicotine levels in their products.

Al Pacino is astounding as Lowell Bergman, the CBS TV news programme producer of 60 Minutes who gets the story; and Christopher Plummer is outstanding as Mike Wallace, the cynical old TV frontman who does the interview with Wigand that exposes the tobacco companies.

The Insider is long and riveting; it is great to have a mainstream movie that is about something, for a change.

Also in the excellent cast are Michael Gambon, Diane Venora, Philip Baker Hall, Lindsay Crouse, Debi Mazar, Stephen Tobowlosky, Colm Feore, Bruce McGill, Gina Gershon, Rip Torn, Lynne Thigpen, Hallie Kate Eisenberg, Michael Paul Chan, Linda Hart, Robert Harper, Nestor Serrano, Pete Hamill, Wings Hauser, Cliff Curtis, Renee Olstead and Michael Moore.

The screenplay by Michael Mann and Eric Roth is based on Marie Brenner’s 1996 Vanity Fair article The Man Who Knew Too Much, but it fictionalises the true story.

Unfortunately, it was not a box office success, but it got good reviews and Oscar recognition with seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor in a Leading Role (for Russell Crowe). It took a total of $60.3 million worldwide, significantly lower than its $90 million budget.

The 1979 triple Emmy Award-winning US made for TV crime drama film The Jericho Mile is an impressive calling card for director Mann, who went on to his interesting cinema début with the 1981 heist thriller Thief [Violent Streets] and thence a glittering movie career with Manhunter, Heat, The Insider, and Collateral.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,225

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