Friday, November 5, 1999

R

For language

Documentary, Drama

Al Pacino, Russell Crowe, Christopher Plummer, Diane Venora, Philip Baker Hall, Lindsay Crouse

Eric Roth, Michael Mann

Michael Mann

Insider, The (1999)

     In the $246 billion tobacco settlement, the most expensive case brought against an industry in U.S. history, Jeffrey Wigand was a central witness. Wigand, former head of research and development and a corporate officer at Brown & Williamson, was a top scientist, the ultimate insider. No one like him had ever gone public before.

     Meanwhile, Lowell Bergman, investigative reporter and "60 Minutes" producer, mostly for Mike Wallace segments, arranged a legal defense team for Wigand and taped the famous Wallace interview with its devastating testimony. However, before the most newsworthy "60 Minutes" segment in years could air, Bergman would lose to a CBS corporate decision to kill it and would experience breakdown and bitter divisions within "60 Minutes."

     Wigand would find himself sued, targeted in a national smear campaign, divorced and facing possible incarceration. Wigand, having wagered so much and now unable to deliver his testimony to the American people, and Bergman, trying to defeat the smear campaign and force CBS to air the interview, are two ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. They find themselves in a fight from which no one will emerge as he entered and nothing will be the same again.