The Insider

Director: Michael Mann

1999 / 157min / 35mm

Mann’s white-knuckle drama of white-collar whistleblowing and callous boardroom skullduggery stars Russell Crowe as tobacco industry research scientist Dr. Jeffrey Wigand and his Heat star Al Pacino as the 60 Minutes producer desperate to get the good doctor to spill his secrets on air, leading to a clash of corporate titans between Brown & Williamson tobacco and CBS News. Media manipulation, profits over people, and businesses operating like rogue states—Mann didn’t invent the 21st century, but he sure saw it coming. “Mann has directed The Insider with a pulse-quickening panache that heightens the tensions within the story. In describing Wigand’s progress from a staid corporate existence into a risky and unpredictable one, the film entails both visual and moral vertigo.” —The New York Times