Time: 158 Minutes
Age Rating: M – Medium level coarse language
Cast:
Al Pacino as Lowell Bergman
Russell Crowe as Dr. Jeffrey Wigand
Christopher Plummer as Mike Wallace
Diane Venora as Liane Wigand
Philip Baker Hall as Don Hewitt
Lindsay Crouse as Sharon Tiller
Debi Mazar as Debbie De Luca
Director: Michael Mann

Jeffery Wigand, the former head of Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company, goes live on television to expose the bitter truth of how tobacco companies function.

The Insider is another great movie from Michael Mann, intelligent, excellently made, and compelling throughout.

It is based on a true story of an exposing of Big Tobacco, albeit one with some fictionalised events added in. The screenplay is fantastic and eloquent, telling its thrilling story greatly. The story is gripping and riveting throughout and builds up suspense and tension. It starts out as a slow burn investigative journalism drama about fighting corporate interests and powers, and it turns into an engrossing thriller. The story could’ve easily been mundane and dry, but it is quite engaging. They are able to convey so much detail of the case without resorting to exposition dumps, keeping the right balance of not dumbing it down too much but keeping the viewer in the know about what’s happening. At 2 hours and 40 minutes it never feels dull.

There is a great cast here, all delivering amazing work. Russell Crowe gives one of his best performances as the titular insider. He does well at portraying the vulnerability and conflict and is believable as an ordinary guy who does the right thing and tells the truth at great cost. Al Pacino is also great, giving a grounded and understated performance, especially when compared to his other roles at the time. Crowe and Pacino are a solid on screen duo with some good chemistry. The rest of the cast are great including Phillip Baker Hall, and Christopher Plummer is especially a standout.

Michael Mann’s direction is slick and polished, as you’d expect from him. There’s some stunning cinematography and great camerawork, with good usages of colour and lighting, and the score from Pieter Bourke and Lisa Gerrard is great.

The Insider is an incredible and compelling film, with stellar writing, excellent direction and amazing performances (especially from Crowe, Pacino and Plummer). It’s some of Michael Mann’s best work, which is saying a lot.