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    		•

    FILMS

    The Insider (1999)
  • Starring Al Pacino, Russell Crowe, Christopher Plummer, Diane Venora, Philip Baker Hall, Lindsay Crouse, Debi Mazar

  • Directed by Michael Mann

    • Many times I watch a movie, but because of the damnable marketing and advertising, what I expect isn't going to be what's delivered. More importantly, it was never intended on being delivered as the movie that was filmed is much different from the movie advertised.

    Stupid commercials.

    Popping The Insider into the DVD player, I expected a story that centered around Russell Crowe with gray hair trying to get his story about Big Tobacco out to the public while Al Pacino does his patented "furious rage" shouting in the background.

    What I got was much different. Not bad, just different.

    The story is about Jeff Wigand (Crowe) being fired from a cigarette company and attempting to blow the whistle on their business practices and their product. And Al Pacino, playing a producer for 60 Minutes managed a few good screams in this film. So, that much followed the ads. But halfway through the movie the story (and the conflict) shifts from Wigand as the central character to Pacino's Lowell, a producer trying to get the true story out while CBS lawyers try and shut it down.

    Apparently this is based on a true story. I say "apparently" because I'm always cautious with fact-based filming. Because I don't know the real-life details, I tend to assume that the writers and directors nipped and tucked elements of the story, like a plastic surgeon, for dramatic effect. Which is fine for storytelling. Things have to be pruned for purposes of cinema, I understand that. I'm just cautious (and ignorant) of where the fact ends and the fairytale starts.

    (Fair spoiler warning: Stop reading here if you don't want anything ruined!)

    Did Wigand really have people sneaking around his garden late at night? Did the tobacco company really send him threatening emails? Why did the FBI confiscate his computer, which had all of his evidence on it? (And then why does the film never follow up on this point?) Did the company really put a bullet in his mailbox? Or is some of this just fair fiction to excite an audience? I'd like to assume that all of this really happened because it makes for a much more interesting story, but I'm hesitant.

    The Insider is a good story that I enjoyed watching, but my interest quickly dissipated after the credits rolled. It's a movie that I'll probably never watch again. Could this deflated excitement be because the story is true? Perhaps there's something in me that's scared that when Big Money and Big Secrets are at stake, these things can and do really happen? Or does the cautious side of me think that most of the story is phoney baloney and I'm shrugging at a Hollywoodized bastard version of an emotional real-life event, but up on the silver-screen it's just not interesting enough?

    I don't know. And I'm not sure that I actually care.

    I'll tell you what I did like about this film: Christopher Plummer playing Mike Wallace. I guarantee that Wallace is like that in real life. In front of the camera he's the grandfather figure asking questions, probing the injustices of the world, and lancing them like so many boils revealing to the masses the Puss of Truth. (Wow, I bet I never have an instance to use that phrase again.) But behind the cameras it's:

    Will you tell him that when I conduct an interview, I sit anywhere I damn please!
    and
    "Mike"? Try "Mr. Wallace." We work in the same corporation, doesn't mean we work in the same profession. What are you gonna do now? You gonna finesse me? Lawyer me some more? I've been in this profession fifty fucking years.
    and
    Bullshit! You corporate lackey! Who told you your incompetent little fingers had the requisite skills to edit me?

    In my universe Mike Wallace swears like a two-dollar whore trying to make change. And I'm tickled to death by this. I love it, because there's nothing scarier than an old, powerful man who speaks well below his education and, more importantly, his reputation. It's nice to know that things ain't peachy at the top. They're just as petty and argumentative up there as they are down here, where all the real people are. Only difference is, up there the costs and the stakes are higher, and the landing is much more painful when you fall.

    It's the same reason why I enjoy the bits they play on the radio from time to time. You know what I'm talking about. Casey Kasem swearing about doing long-distance dedications after he reads a letter about a dog dying. "It's ponderous, man. It's [bleep]ing ponderous!" Or when an open-microphone catches famous actors swearing because they don't have the right water bottle or coffee mug.

    It tickles the mini-bastard inside me. (Who, by the way, looks exactly like me. But he's 1/8 my size.)

    Mike Gentry pointed out to me that Mike Wallace plays the foil to Lowell, just as Jeff Wigand's wife is the foil for Jeff. Both foils turn their backs on their partners when times get tough. They take the easy way out. Thanks for pointing that out, Mr. Gentry. As I said, my brain shut off after the credits and I hadn't considered the structure of The Insider at all. I guess I hadn't enough interest to think about it. But I like your analysis. I like it so much that I'm stealing your words outright for this review. That's just the kind of fella I am, I guess.

    And as long as I'm in a downward spiral, I'll offer up my Cynical Thought For The Day:

    Films can be a lot like people. Sometimes what they're advertising ain't what they're selling.