"The Insider" details CBS's controversial decision to not air an interview crucial to the tobacco debacle a few years back. Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino) is a producer at the weekly public affairs program, 60 Minutes, known for his ability to secure difficult interviews and for the dependability of his word. His integrity is compromised when he gains the trust of Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe), an ex-employee of tobacco giant Brown & Williamson whose insider knowledge of the operation threatens the safety of his wife and two little girls.
When 60 Minutes producer Bergman mysteriously receives a box of documents on the tobacco giant Phillip Morris, he turns to Dr.Wigand (Russell Crowe) for assistance in deciphering them. A high-ranking executive and the top scientist at rival cigarette-maker Brown & Williamson, Wigand accepts. He's just been fired, "for no good reason" and a confidentiality agreement is in place with B&W. Wigand will act as a consultant regarding the specifics of Bergman's tobacco documents, but no more will he say.
Bergman, smelling a big story that Wigand is right in the middle of, pushes Wigand to go public with what he knows. But Wigand is torn between his desire to honor his confidentiality agreement and the necessity of following his conscience, between his desire to protect his family (B&W is making thinly veiled threats) and his need to unburden himself of his terrible secret.
Once Wigand agrees to talk on camera, Bergman's other battle is with CBS corporate lawyers. The network is running the serious risk of being at the losing end of a lawsuit from B&W if they are seen as being complicit in pressuring Wigand to break confidentiality. Though Bergman fights to get Wigand's indictment of Brown & Williamson, and the entire tobacco industry by extension shown on 60 Minutes, he's initially unsuccessful.
In 1994, the seven heads of the tobacco companies go into public hearings and testify that they do not believe nicotine is addictive. This hilarious moment, widely broadcast at the time, was one of those absurdities that make you upset and wish somebody would do something to expose this insanity.
Although it targets the tobacco industry, "The Insider" is even more about TV news. CBS did its best to kill the Wigand interview, leaning on 60 Minutes to delete his testimony from their story. The fact that 60 Minutes did exactly that provides a rich source of drama for the movie. CBS claimed they were protecting themselves on an obscure legal point, involving Wigand's confidentiality agreement with B&W. However, the film explicitly suggests it may have had more to do with the impending sale of CBS, which did not want to get mired in a lawsuit at that point.
Wigand and Bergman are heroic because they are on the side of truth regarding important issues, but what makes their story tragic and interesting is the concept that they illustrate. In this world, it is the unusual man or woman who dares to do the right thing and face the resistance and losses that will surely follow. Constrained as we are by our need to feel secure, normal people do not take any risk, especially if they believe that there is something important threatened.
The difference between these "heroes" and those who do nothing is that they come to value justice and integrity above their own private security and comfort. It is this human drama at the center of the bigger story that ultimately resonates and makes this a film worth seeing. Regardless of one's interest in the tobacco scandal, the frailties of corporate journalism or the terrorism inherent in the misuse of the American judicial system, the process by which two men come to terms with their shared need to stand up to powers greater than themselves is powerful in and of itself.
"The Insider" subtly urges us to wonder to what degree our own choices make our reality. "The Insider" may not be groundbreaking in terms of its great revelations or its cinematic achievements, but it is an exceptionally well-crafted, well-acted drama whose themes are as vital today as ever.
"The Insider" is a success at every level. It's a gripping drama, not to be missed.
