The Insider

Director Michael Mann
1999
RT Score: 96%
My rating: 7/10

I want you to close your eyes. Are they closed? ... Wait, you can't do this in a blog! Anyway, just take a moment and think back to a time before movies like Jack and Jill, Righteous Kill and 88 Minutes to a time when a new Al Pacino movie actually felt like a most see occasion.
Such is the setting when I went to see The Insider on opening night back in 1999. And I must say I was not disappointed that night. Being almost 19 years old and having been an editor on my high school newspaper I was totally sucked into this story of a whistle blower and a 60 Minutes producer willing to sacrifice everything and fight big business to get their story told. It is idealistic in a way that makes every 19 year old feel like every fight is a good fight.
Over a decade later I am sitting on my coach watching this again with my wife and I'm still enjoying the film, but not on the same level. The film tells the story of a fired tobacco company scientist named Jeffery Wigand who wants people to know that the tobacco companies are lieing when they say they know nothing of addiction or the effects of nicotine and that they in fact are manipulating their product to increase it's addictive quality. It's a story that by now evokes a response along the lines of 'D'Uh' but at the time you could still find cigarette vending machines at restaurants.
As the story develops we see Wigand and Pacino put together a plan to get his interview on air without violating his confidentiality agreement. When I was 19 I found this compelling, at 32 I find myself seriously questioning how someone could fight this kind of a fight while sacrificing their family's well being. It's something I am much more sensitive to now as a father of 4 and  while I don't think Wigand should be vilified for what happens to his family I would like to see him balance that more than simply moving forward the way he did.
As Pacino prepares to get his interview on air we see another swerve as CBS balks at the idea of going head to head in a legal battle with big tobacco just in the name of journalistic integrity. Again, 32 year old me has a different reaction to this than 19 year old me. At the time I saw this I thought there was still hope for media so long as people like Pacino's character are out there fighting the good fight and while I still think CBS was wrong, it is stuff like this that has left me with no faith in journalism/media. There is a term used several times towards the end of the film called infotainment and what this film chronicles in one of the major steps media took in that direction and why I believe journalism (at least on a national level) is dead.
I should mention that the film remains an actors film. Pacino and Russel Crowe are brilliant and all the supporting elements are equally brilliant. There are many tense moments that are provided by the acting talent in this film and some of the best scenes leave you with the same out breathe feeling a great car chase is supposed to provide you with.
My final thoughts here are on the director. I always put Clint Eastwood and Ron Howard on my Mount Rushmore of overrated directors. Third on that list would probably by Michael Mann. Heat and Collateral are overrated, Ali and Public Enemies never should have been as bad as they were and I never saw Miami Vice. That being said, in order to be over rated there is an implication that you have to be capable of doing quality work and for me, this is Mann's best work. There is some great handcam work through out the film and especially in the Wigand's home. It definitely adds to the tension that is increasing within the Wigand home. There are also some seemingly endless solo shots with operatic music playing in the background that make the film feel over long and keeps this from being the great film it deserves to be.