Rent The Insider (1999)

Excellent but requires concentration - The Insider review by RP

Superb. This is a drama based on a true story, starring Al Pacino, Russell Crowe and Christopher Plummer in the lead roles. Crowe plays a research chemist employed by a tobacco company to head research into a non-carcinogenic flavour enhancer. When he tells the CEO that a non-carcinogenic substitute cannot be found, the company insists on continuing the use of the carcinogen and fires him with a substantial payment but gagging him with a confidentiality agreement. Crowe turns whistle blower – he is the insider who knows the truth that the big tobacco companies are not telling.

Al Pacino plays the role of producer of the US documentary TV show '60 Minutes' and Plummer the presenter of the show. Pacino persuades Crowe to be interviewed and tells him that he will protect his source. But Crowe's ex-employer finds out and proceeds to ruin his personal and professional life with legal proceedings and a smear campaign, not to mention death threats.

This is a long and wordy film but I found it gripping. It is the first Russell Crowe film I've seen in which he actually acts rather than simply playing Russell Crowe. Pacino plays a typically intense role, in my opinion one of his best since 'Serpico'. Plummer is excellent as the TV journalist and presenter.

The film was nominated for 7 Oscars but lost out to 'American Beauty' + Kevin Spacey, but has picked up many other awards. It really is excellent but requires concentration as it's certainly not an action thriller. 5/5 stars - highly recommended.

A fascinating true story with great performances - The Insider review by TB

After their work together on Heat, Michael Mann and Al Pacino reunite for this explosive story about the first whistleblower from actually within the tobacco industry, Jeffrey Wingard, who then went to a journalist to tell his story, only for the news organisation to try to block it being reported on fully. In the end it took legal cases and huge pressure before they relented and reported the full facts.

The performances are great, especially from Pacino and Crowe. Crowe in particular was very effective at communicating his horror at how long he'd been effectively keeping this secret quiet and his mortification at his silence causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. Seeing the torture mentally was also extremely moving, especially as his youngest daughter was extremely sick and the job he had helped pay for the advanced medical care she needed.

There are some good courtroom scenes as well. Sadly, Pacino isn't able to do a meltdown in any of them, but another character gamely takes this up.

The positive result of all this was the tobacco companies eventually admitted liability and paid out a multi billion record settlement.

A final funny bit of trivia is that Russell Crowe was preparing for Gladiator, which he started shooting a few weeks after he finished The Insider. So rather than being the actual look of Wingard (large, portly, not physically fit, someone who spent all his days either sitting or standing in a lab,) Crowe is absolutely stacked and built like a brick sh*thouse. The camerawork also does wonders in not showing this, but there is a slip-up at one stage during a late night scene and when I saw it, just burst out laughing. An unintended moment of amusement.

Over rated, the box office audience was right - The Insider review by Jezzer

It is easy to see why this film underperformed at the box office as it is boring and tedious. Al Pacino's character didn't have to do anywhere near the level of painstaking investigation of Woodward and Bernstein that makes All the President's Men so compelling. The story just fell into his lap. Wigand, being a wealthy, well-educated and experienced company executive, doesn't evoke the sympathy of the poor, working class mother in Erin Brockovich.

By this time in history, it was already known that tobacco companies had covered up the harm from smoking for many years previously, so Wigand's secret really seems quite trivial in comparison. There are no victim scenes to heighten the drama and give some badly needed human interest.

Russell Crowe was too young to play Wigand, who was in his fifties at the time, so they had to artificially grey his hair which looks stupid.

This is a story with unlikeable and unrelateable people who think they are more important than they are, martyring themselves over an issue that really isn't worth the sacrifice. Its high review ratings come from virtue signalling, Social Justice Warrior types who identify with this film's sense of moral superiority. It's a shame as the screenwriter Eric Roth also wrote The Good Shepherd which is one of my personal favourites.

Give this a miss and stick with All the President's Men or Erin Brockovich instead. Or treat yourself to some fictional equivalents like The Rainmaker or A Few Good Men.