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| Directed by Michael Mann; Starring Al Pacino, Russell Crowe, Christopher Plummer, Diane Venora, Philip Baker Hall, Lindsay Crouse, Debi Mazar, Stephen Tobolowsky, Colm Feore, Bruce McGill, Gina Gershon, Michael Gambon, Rip Torn, Lynne Thigpen, and Hallie Kate Eisenberg |
Michael Mann, the best director to come out of the eighties? I really cannot say whether that is true or not, but Mann seems to always make the best films time and again. Plus they often vary in genre and he makes films only every once and a while. Could he be the Stanley Kubrick of the next twenty years? Whether it is Thief or Last of the Mohicans, Mann gives an edge to films that few directors can do. Look at Heat. The film is a so-so story, made up for by two great actors and a high-octane direction pushing the story beyond its limits. I’d dare say that without Mann’s direction and merely his script, Heat might have stood as a mediocre place in film history. Of course all I’ve ever known Mann for has been action films, so the news that his next film was going to be a drama caught me off-guard.
The Insider is not simply some action director trying out another genre (re Wes Craven and Music of the Heart), it is testament that Mann is not a one note director — he can do drama better than he can do action.
The Insider is the film I’ve been waiting for all this year. Sure I saw Eyes Wide Shut, a beautiful film, but more of a trek than a true drama, and American Beauty, a drama hiding in comical clothing. But the first true drama that has been terrific is The Insider. I had to wait until early this year to see last year’s great drama (The Thin Red Line) and I’m just happy that it was thrown at me without having to wait for a wide release. Devoted readers that know my Kubrick adoration, brace yourselves, The Insider is actually the second best film of the year and now a second film to surpass Eyes Wide Shut.
The Insider is the true story (though, as always, filmically dramatized) of Jeffrey Wigand, the man that blew the whistle on the tobacco business, implicating high officials of knowing the great medical effects of their products. After the cigarette company he works for lets him go with a secrecy document and severance pay, Jeffrey becomes a target for both the industry, who does not want him to tell their secrets, and the press, who wants him to open up to them. In charge of the press is cocky 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman (Pacino), who at first sees Jeffrey as another person to get on the air, but when problems arise in the CBS law department, the Wigand story becomes his mission.
One thing that I really liked was the fact that the film did not simply show what happened to Wigand when he decided to go public, but it actually spends more time with Bergman. Pacino is in top form, questionably the second best male performance this year. Also holding up their own weight as actors are Crowe and Plummer (as 60 Minutes anchor Mike Wallace) who both deserve Oscar nominations, especially the latter. I also enjoyed the supporting performances of Gershon (as a CBS attorney) and the underrated Hall (as 60 Minutes executive producer Don Hewitt.) The direction of Mann, the screenplay of Mann and Eric Roth (Forrest Gump; based on the article “The Man Who Knew Too Much” by Marie Brenner), and cinematography of the Italian great Dante Spinotti (L.A. Confidential) are contenders for the year end awards of myself, other critics, and, hopefully, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Few films meet the magnitude of The Insider, a film that would surely appear on the top twenty-five of this decade.
