Pursed lips suck through the padded butt of a cigarette, regardless of consequence. Their lungs are then lined with tar and thick smoke all because of an addiction. The multi-billion pound tobacco industry is responsible for supplying us with these white sticks, and also for the deaths of countless people. Yet the business keeps rolling on. Should we be given information objectively? Are we unknowingly being fed an addictive drug as corporate big-wigs smoke the profits?
The Insider depicts the true life account of Jeffrey Wigand played by Russell Crowe. Wigand was a former vice president of research and development at Brown & Williamson. He became a whistleblower when he publicly questioned his former company in regards to them making their cigarettes more addictive. What culminated were the destructive powers of major corporations and their attempts to mute truthful news.
Wigand is grey and inwardly shy but determined and outwardly firm. Whether Crowe is swinging swords or golf-clubs, he does so with a towering dominance and the film is in his pocket for the first half. Crowe is the films superhero, if only by build, but his very presence is anti-hero. He is rightly noted for his aggressive qualities because the testosterone seeps through the screen like a ticking watch of destruction.
Al Pacino is also on the quest for righteousness, whilst getting pissed off and curious with his trademark gusto. He plays Lowell Bergman, a producer from CBS show 60 minutes. Bergman is the stories catalyst and he convinces Wigand to blow the smoke on the tobacco industry. The second half of the film is Al Pacino’s as he tries to battle for Wigand’s account to be aired. He is a journalist with a heart and has built a career on integrity and honesty. Even without his machine gun Pacino still shoots quick-fire insults like the seasoned veteran he is.
Michael Gambon plays CEO Thomas Sandfeur of Brown & Williamson. His bellowing tones are wasted with a misguided turn as a Texan. He does have the demeanour of a company executive but his vocal cords have the construction of a British corporal. Christopher Wallace is also in the cast as Mike Wallace, an interviewer for 60 minutes. His role as an ageing reporter with a reputation to maintain is impressive and some of the films only humorous moments are reserved for him.
Michael Mann is in the director’s chair although he rarely sits still. The camera is whisked around the screen and gives the viewer a voyeuristic vision of the action. The lens is sometimes so close to the actor it’s a miracle there were no bruised faces. This style has become synonymous with Mann’s work. He has injected an electric pulse into his films that has seen him scoop various awards, including four academy award nominations for The Insider.
Marie Brennar and Eric Roth wrote the film with Mann. Roth has created some of Hollywood’s most absorbing stories including Forrest Gump and Munich. The Insider has been criticised for over-dramatizing some of the events. It’s never going to be flavour of the month when defiling an industry and those who work within it, but most of the events have been confirmed. What rises from the real-life tale is the lengths that a company will go to stop the truth being revealed, a truth that could end the cycle of addiction and prevent a cloud entering into the homes of so many people.
