When Michael Mann’s 1999 The Insider hit theaters, it was a ripped-from-the-headlines drama about Big Tobacco and corporate control of the media. But the film is more than a thriller; it’s also an operatic look at the moral dilemmas of the whistleblower. The film stars Russell Crowe and Al Pacino as Lowell Bergman and Mike Wallace of CBS’s 60 Minutes, the investigative TV show that uncovers a scandal.
When a highly placed tobacco executive named Jeffrey Wigand goes public with claims that tobacco companies knew for decades that cigarettes were addictive and caused cancer, his story hits the news. But the corporate giants have a team of lawyers working to thwart the story and smear Wigand. Bergman, Wallace and the rest of the crew at 60 Minutes try to get the word out despite the fact that they are facing a lawsuit from CBS’s parent company.
In class, Maichael asked students to write about a time when they felt like an insider or an outsider and to analyze why they had that experience. Students drew upon personal experiences and their knowledge of the historical context to analyze their writings.
The movie makes a virtue of not resorting to car chases or sleazy sex scenes, and the performances from Crowe and Pacino-from explosive passion to brooding introspection-suffuse the film with moral urgency. In the end, though, it’s a cautionary tale about the power of greed and the value of journalism.