'The Insider' is a powerful commentary on journalistic integrity

In this film review, I dive into the 1999 masterpiece that artfully mirrors its rhythmic pace, colour palette and framing with a powerful script to relay an impactful message.

Based on real events that transpired in the 1990s and were covered in Marie Brenner’s Vanity Fair article, ‘The Man Who Knew Too Much’, Michael Mann’s 1999 thriller drama, The Insider, with Al Pacino and Russell Crowe at its helm, revs off in full speed, the minute the opening credits roll.

With the pace set in a high octane action sequence in the Arabian Desert, in a series of close and subjective shots, the viewer is immediately thrown into the unknown along with the characters. The first ten minutes establish the universe in which the film is set: top-notch investigative journalism and the risks undertaken by journalists, in their attempt to break a story. When the CBS News program 60 minutes producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino) arranges for an interview with a terrorist, the viewer goes in with heightened awareness of the transparency and the top tier level of journalism at play. With the very first dialogue in Bergman’s conviction and reiteration of their reputed status as the highest-rated television magazine, the core theme of the movie is established: journalistic integrity.

Past the initial high voltage drama, soon, the tide shifts, and on the fore, it appears to move towards a lengthy and almost boring story set in closed rooms of corporate giants with sheaves of paper stacked hurriedly amidst typewriters, fax machines, and claustrophobic offices. And thus begins the narrative arc of one of the most high profile whistleblower cases exposing the dirty truth of the tobacco industry and its key players. Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe), former employee and research head at leading tobacco firm, Brown and Williamson, is caught in a moral and ethical dilemma when he’s fired and bound by a contractual agreement preventing him from leaking any information that may tarnish the company’s reputation. What follows is a relentless yet cautious pursuit of the source by honest and transparent investigative journalism— as Bergman attempts to work around the contract and somehow get Wigand’s story out to the public without causing him harm.

With powerful performances by Crowe and Pacino who shoulder the movie, Mann’s gripping use of soundtrack and dialogue gives the viewer a mind’s eye perspective of the protagonists. The rhythm of the film mimics the harrowed frustrations of investigative journalism and authentically depicts the newsroom without over-dramatization. The narrative echoes varied conflicts that each character undergoes: from Bergman’s conflict in protecting his source and maintaining journalistic ethics and integrity while also attempting to break a powerful story, to Wigand’s grappling conflict with morality and ethics in the information he is privy to and in the safety and protection of his family. 

As the colour palette shifts from yellow warmth to cold blues, it reflects the atmosphere playing out on screen. Mann artfully weaves all elements of sound, dialogue, colour, lighting, framing, and perspective to place greater emphasis on the story itself. One almost feels trapped and suffocated with the characters- behind closed glass, window blinds and darkness; who know too much but are unable to do much about it. Layered with several themes that emerge as the story progresses- from corruption, willful ignorance, objective truth and misuse of power— each character in the film is nuanced, irrespective of their role. Dialogue is undoubtedly the driving factor; as powerful as the unsettling lack thereof. From Mike Wallace’s (Christopher Plummer) agitation as he states, “Fame has a fifteen-minute half-life; Infamy lasts a little longer,” to Wigand’s usage of the term ‘commodity’ for himself as a source for a journalistic feature story and the resonating line of “greater the truth, the greater the damage,” what plays out is a complex web of interpersonal ties— between corporates, the media, the people, some money, fame, control, power, and the truth.

Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky's ‘Propaganda Model’ as elaborated in their famous work Manufacturing Consent, 1988, resonates in the background of the film, throwing light on the presence of propaganda, systemic biases, and corporate control of mass media.

The Propaganda Model. Image source: Monthly Review

Just as their observed theories remain prevalent for journalism today, 20 years on, the film remains more relevant than ever. Lines between the insider and the outsider are blurred in the wake of objective truth; and in the control over these lines by an external power, one’s own moral integrity becomes prime. As you venture into a space outside of comfort and into a medium dominated by the outside, The Insider comes as a perfect response- both within journalism and without.