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New Century of Cinema
DOWSE Guide to the
Movies
by Tony Lee editor of
Pigasus
Press
The Insider
Director: Michael Mann
151 minutes (15) widescreen 2.35:1
Buena Vista/Warner DVD Region 2
review by Gary Couzens
Sixty Minutes producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino) uncovers a story of
malpractice at tobacco giant Brown & Williamson. Vital to his story is research
chemist Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe), recently fired from B&W. Wigand has the
proof that B&W knew that nicotine was addictive, and that an additive to their
cigarettes was carcinogenic. However, a lot of powerful people want to prevent Wigand
from blowing the whistle on them...
The Insider is a true story. No names are changed, and very few
events have been fabricated for purposes of dramatic licence. The Insider tells
a complex story, and - just for once - trusts in the intelligence of its audience.
Wigand is no saint: he's a man who was content to take the tobacco-company dollar for
many years and at first his primary motivation is revenge for being dismissed. Crowe -
who put on weight for this role and is playing twenty years older than his real age -
shows how good an actor he is, and was rightly Oscar-nominated. Pacino is his usual
intense self, but Mann keeps him from going over the top. Christopher Plummer (as news
anchor Mike Wallace) is better than he's been for years. The cast has a lot of strength
in depth, with performances from Diane Venora, Debi Mazar and Gina Gershon that are
among their best. And who would have thought that direct-to-video veteran Wings Hauser
would ever appear in a film Oscar-nominated for Best Picture? Mann's films are always
visually strong (his regular cameraman, Dante Spinotti, uses different colour schemes
for different locations, as an aid to keeping tabs on the plot) and make striking use
of music.
One of the best films released this year, The Insider could well be
one of the great conspiracy movies, up there with All The President's Men. The
DVD has a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack and contains a featurette.
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