The Insider (DVD)

Al Pacino plays the journalist and Russell Crowe is Jeffrey Wigand, a former executive of tobacco company, Brown & Williamson & a whistleblower. The Story Jeffrey returns home, dejected & humiliated. He has just been fired from his job. But worse is to follow when he is approached by a journalist filled with questions about a document on cigarettes & fire safety belonging to another company. He is concerned to mention a confidentiality agreement he has with his last employer, & soon his concerns are justified. Almost instantly his previous employers threaten legal action & to withdraw the ‘severance package’ of benefits he ...

At one point in 'The Insider', a character summarises the events depicted in the film as "the biggest public health reform issue in U.S. history". Usually this kind of statement is considered over-the-top, but in this case, he could well be right. This is because the film focuses on former tobacco executive turned whistle-blower Jeffrey Wigand, who is willing to reveal sensitive information that could cost the big tobacco companies billions of dollars in lawsuits. Not long after that famous scene where the CEOs of the 7 big tobacco companies stood up in court and denied that cigarettes are addictive, investigative reporter Lowell Bergman tracks ...

Russell Crowe - from dark, brooding, powerful, noble Roman war machine to grey, haggard, flabby old business exec - you can hardly accuse the guy of being typecast. However, flawed though the character that Crowe plays in The Insider is, he's still very much on the side of the angels. The Insider is one of those films which is based on real life events and picks over the bones of the tobacco industry, highlighting the scurrilous steps big corporations took to prevent legal action being taken against them, and does so in a very earnest and sincere way, although it gets a little too earnest for my taste at times. However, it's undoubtedly ...