254 reviews
Sales Rank: 3190

Format: Ac-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 158
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
DVD Layers: 2
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 5 x 0.6

MPN: 717951007391
ISBN: 0788820591
UPC: 717951007391
EAN: 9780788820595
ASIN: B00003CWRX

Theatrical Release Date: 1999
Release Date: April 11, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com essential video
As revisionist history, Michael Mann's intelligent docudrama The Insider is a simmering brew of altered facts and dramatic license. In a broader perspective, however, the film (cowritten with Forrest Gump Oscar-winner Eric Roth) is effectively accurate as an engrossing study of ethics in the corruptible industries of tobacco and broadcast journalism. On one side, there is Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe), the former tobacco scientist who violated contractual agreements to expose Brown & Williamson's inclusion of addictive ingredients in cigarettes, casting himself into a vortex of moral dilemma. On the other side is 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino), whose struggle to report Wigand's story puts him at odds with veteran correspondent Mike Wallace (Christopher Plummer) and senior executives at CBS News.

As the urgency of the story increases, so does the film's palpable sense of paranoia, inviting favorable comparison to All the President's Men. While Pacino downplays the theatrical excess that plagued him in previous roles, Crow is superb as a man who retains his tortured integrity at great personal cost. The Insider is two movies--a cover-up thriller and a drama about journalistic ethics--that combine to embrace the noble values personified by Wigand and Bergman. Even if the details aren't always precise (as Mike Wallace and others protested prior to the film's release), the film adheres to a higher truth that was so blatantly violated by tobacco executives seen in an oft-repeated video clip, lying under oath in the service of greed. --Jeff Shannon

Product Description
Recounts the chain of events that pitted an ordinary man against the tobacco industry, and dragged two people into the fight of their lives.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 1-JUN-2004
Media Type: DVD

Customer Reviews: Read 249 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

A Masterpiece May 27, 2008
Wow! Al Pacino (terrific and not overacting!) and Russell Crowe (devastating performance) in a "based on true story" about the tobacco industry, "60-Minutes," Mike Wallace (brilliantly played by Christopher Plummer and conspiracy to addict Americans.

4 out of 5 stars

Great Movie!!! April 11, 2008
This was recommended to me by a quit smoking group. I highly recommend this to smokers/non-smokers alike. If I had known about this, I would have never started smoking. 4 ****!!!

4 out of 5 stars

tobacco industry April 5, 2008
A great expose of the tobacco industry and their lies to get their product sold and you addicted to nicotine. It also shows the destructive power of bad corporations that don't care about the public good.

5 out of 5 stars

Riveting movie about how Mike Wallace buckled over to CBS bigwigs and big tobacco January 13, 2008
Everyone does a great job of acting. I forgot this was a movie as I watched it. I was outraged that the poor smuck that trusted 60 MINUTES to run his expose of the tobacco industry was abandoned by Mike Wallace and his gang and that he lost everything, his retirement income, his home and his wife and litle girls, while Wallace's big worry was how he would be remembered after he retired from 60 MINUTES.

5 out of 5 stars

Powerful film that asks some startling questions we do well to find the answers to... December 3, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

If `Gladiator' is responsible for introducing me to the one we know as Russell Crowe then `The Insider' is responsible for cementing in my psyche the fact that he is capable of just about anything (on screen that is). `The Insider' is a far cry from `Gladiator', that's for sure, but Russell Crowe's performance is just as if not even more powerful than his Oscar winning portrayal of General Maximus. `The Insider' is a dramatic look at the world of politics, in both that of big business and journalism and it does a fantastic job of establishing a view we all can share, letting each and every one of us see for ourselves the good, the bad and the ugly side of it all. Michael Mann delivers an edge of your seat thriller that is not your conventional thriller. I feel the need to say that because if you walk into this film expecting to see something flashy and, for lack of a better word, `commanding' (in a purely Hollywood, Blockbuster sense of the word) then you will be sorely disappointed. If you walk into this film expecting to see a drama that will force you to think and comprehend what you are witnessing then by all means, sit back and enjoy.

`The Insider' recounts the true story (at least for the most part it's true) of `60 Minutes' insider Jeffrey Wigand, a former tobacco executive who breaks his contractual agreements and feeds information, confidential information, to `60 Minutes' producer Lowell Bergman. This causes major problems for Wigand and it affects him drastically, causing problems within his family, his marriage but also within the pit of his soul. Wigand is tortured by his decisions for they present him a moral dilemma that he can't quite ascertain the correct answer to. As Wigand struggles with his own demons Bergman becomes increasingly insistent and this presents Bergman with his own morality questions that he must decipher himself.

Mann's direction creates a sense of tension, of uneasiness that manifests itself brilliantly within certain sequences of the film. When Wigand is at the driving range for instance the viewer finds himself at the edge of his seat, hair standing on end, holding his breath until the scene is over and all is well. Mann just has a masterful way of unnerving his audience, unraveling the surroundings of his film in such a way that we are left speechless (check out `Collateral' as well for the same effect). The script, written by Mann and Eric Wroth (based on the article by Marie Brenner entitled `The Man Who Knew Too Much') also helps in this regard for it fleshes out the characters so well we become entangled in their plights and emotionally invest ourselves in their situation.

The biggest asset to this film though is the incredible cast, Crowe especially (so I'll get to him last). Al Pacino has faltered quite a bit in recent years, never really delivering quite like he used to, but here he manages to muster up his flare of yesteryear and deliver a top notch and commanding performance. Christopher Plummer is also very well used as Mike Wallace. His performance is very well grounded and memorable. Diane Venora doesn't have a lot to do here but lend support to Crowe and she does a fine job at that. Certain scenes really flesh out her performance, especially the scene when she finds a message on her computer. Philip Baker Hall is always a delight to watch and his contribution to this film does not go unnoticed.

That brings us to Crowe, an actor of whom I have no shame in admitting my unfailing devotion and utter admiration. As Jeffrey Wigand, Crowe does what we look for in a performance...he loses himself in his character. This is something I've always admired about Crowe's work but I don't feel that any performance of his to date comes close to the power behind that of Jeffrey Wigand. This performance is probably my favorite interpretation of a real person in recent years, maybe ever. What makes this such a commanding performance is that Crowe didn't have a gimmick to work with here; he just had a story to tell. Jeffrey Wigand wasn't eccentric, he didn't have a disability...he was just an average person. So what I mean to say here is that what Crowe did with Wigand is much more difficult that, say what Hoffman did with Truman Capote or what Jamie Foxx did with Ray Charles. There is no `mimicry' here; there is no legend to channel. This is just flawless acting.

Crowe does so much acting with his face it becomes impossible not to get lost in his stare. The ways his eyes seem to lose all their valiant energy expertly depict his almost hopeless state as the film progresses. We can read every emotion, from confusion to fear, misery and dread to that devastating feeling of loss and regret that flood his eyes as he watches his world unwind. I love Kevin Spacey, and I love his performance in `American Beauty' but there's no doubt in my mind that Russell Crowe gave the performance of the year in 1999.

`The Insider' is a film that will mesmerize and entertain you, make you think and maybe even make you worry but in the end it will make you realize that not all decisions are easy ones to make and not all questions, especially of the moral kind, have a right or wrong answer. Sometimes we are left to find our own `right' answer and just pray that it doesn't destroy us in the end.