Newspaper Movie: The Insider
As a newspaper obsessive, I’ve been compiling a list of films set in newspapers, you can find the others here. If you have a newspaper-related movie to recommend, that I’ve missed, please let me know.
The Insider (1999)
Rating: 4.5 stars
Newsroom quotient: 4
Rolling presses vibe: 2
Newspaper featured: CBS News/The New York Times
Newsroom used for filming: unknown
I admit I'm stretching the definition of 'Newspaper Movie' by including The Insider. However, it's a great film, and The New York Times does play a pivotal role in the story, so it's not entirely fallacious. The Insider has been on my list to watch for a while, and with the recent sad death of Christopher Plumber, it seemed fitting to take a look; I'm glad I did.
Lowell Bergman is the producer of Sixty Minutes, a CBS News production with a national reputation for investigative journalism. Bergman contacts Jeffrey Wigand, the former Vice President for Research and Development at Brown & Williamson Tobacco, regarding consulting for a story. Wigand is nervous and so specific about what he can and cannot discuss that Bergman realises there could be a larger story.
Brown & Williamson (B&W) have bound Bergman with a very restrictive confidentiality agreement on which the financial security of his family depends. When B&W gets wind that Wigand has been talking to Bergman, they put pressure on him not to talk and they tighten the confidentiality agreement even further.
Russell Crowe, playing Jeffrey Wigand, is at the top of his game. Yes, to Gladiator and LA Confidential. I loved his performance in State of Play (review), but here he shows the full depth of his skill. Wigand is a complicated character; he's incredibly bright, a little awkward, honest, loyal, and under enormous pressure. He wants to do the right thing, but what is the right thing? Is doing the right thing honouring the agreement with B&W thereby looking after his family; or is it exposing the lies of a company allegedly complicit in the deaths of thousands of Americans? He can't do both, that is the fault line that lies at the centre of this movie.
Lowell Bergman draws out an equally powerful performance from Al Pacino. Bergman obviously wants Wigand to talk, that's his job, his passion. But it's more than that he's a man obsessed with seeking the truth. So obsessed, that when Wigand calls him and accuses him of breaking his confidence, he flies from New York City to Louisville to argue it out.
Russell Crowe as Jeffrey Wigand in The Insider.
Bergman finally persuades Wigand to agree to the interview, which is hosted by Mike Wallace, played by Christopher Plumber. CBS executives get cold feet at the prospect of a possible multi-million dollar lawsuit from Brown & Williamson and pull the interview. Bergman fights to broadcast the interview, but loses out.
Finally eighteen months after they first met, a heavily edited version of the show goes to air. But Bergman can't accept that he made a commitment to Wigand that wasn't kept. In frustration, he gives the evidence, along with details of the disagreement within CBS, to The New York Times (yes, this is the peg on which I hang my 'newspaper movie' hat – don’t judge me!).
From a New York Times editorial on November 12, 1995, "The most troubling part of CBS's decision is that it was made not by news executives but by corporate officers who may have their minds on money rather than public service these days. With a $5.4 billion merger deal with the Westinghouse Electric Corporation about to be approved, a multibillion-dollar lawsuit would hardly have been a welcome development."
The New York Times article with those in the New York Daily News and The Washington Post persuade CBS to relent and air the unredacted interview.
OK, you've got me, it's not an out-and-out newspaper movie. But it is a great movie with solid journalism and more than a tinge of newspaper - even if it's just to save the broadcaster's ass! I highly recommend it.
More about: Jeffrey Wigand / Lowell Bergman
Let’s stay safe out there!
The Insider, movie poster
The Insider, movie poster
