Based on the true story of Jeffrey Wigand, a researcher for a tobacco company who became a 'whistleblower', The Insider is an indictment of an industry that is currently under fire from all sides. The criticisms of this industry are coming from almost all sides and it is has been going through a period of major upheaval since before Dr. Wigand first spoke up. The industry to which I refer is not tobacco as you might think, but journalism.

The incident that takes center stage in this Michael Mann masterpiece is one of the darkest days that journalism has ever experienced. After the very talented 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman had convinced Dr. Wigand to be interviewed, Bergman has to watch as corporate executives at CBS block the airing of the interview. Don Hewitt and Mike Wallace went along with this decision by the corporate "suits", one of the few black marks ever against two of my personal heroes of the news biz.

Before I get too far afield editorializing about journalism, let's focus on the film for a moment. Michael Mann has directed six feature films to date, including The Insider. I think this is his best work yet. Mann, who also gave us the terrific television series Crime Story is the kind of director who wants the audience to be on the edge of their seats throughout and he gives his works more than enough tension and excitement to keep that audience right there on the edge. While he and co-writer Eric Roth (who won an Oscar for the screen adaptation of Forrest Gump) have taken "dramatic license" with the true story, the key elements are there. The tobacco industry has complained that the veracity of the film is in question because of the dramatic license being taken, but the key fact that Dr. Wigand's allegations that the CEO of Brown and Williamson perjured himself in testimony before Congress shines through...once it is permitted to be heard.

Even the casting of the film is particularly good. Al Pacino was the best choice to play producer Lowell Bergman. He is intense, dramatic, passionate and this is some of his best work in some time. He is well-matched against the performance of Russell Crowe (L.A. Confidential) who plays the scientist/researcher Jeffrey Wigand, whose conscience forced him to do something that cost him everything. Christopher Plummer does a very credible Mike Wallace, even managing to look remarkably like the actor in several sequences. The women (Diane Venora as Liane Wigand, Lindsay Crouse as Bergman's wife Sharon Tiller and Debio Mazar as Bergman's right-arm, Debbie De Luca) have smaller but important roles and each is up to the task. I thought the acting here was first rate. But then again, even if Mann has directly only six films, one of his strongest attributes is his ability to get the most from his actors.

The only criticism I have of The Insider is that it has a running time of 157 minutes, which is a bit long. But even that criticism has to be tempered by the fact there are not many moments of the film that I would want edited out. I do know that I didn't look at my watch from boredom even once.

The chain of events by which the story was aired on 60 Minutes without the Wigand interview, and then subsequently airing the interview after being roundly criticized is indicative of what is wrong with journalism today. In the old, golden days of broadcast journalism, the concerns of corporate profits were not an issue the news division had to be concerned with. That has changed and the change isn't good for the public. The proud tradition of news excellence at CBS was damaged by the Wigand incident, and the reputation of broadcast journalism continues to suffer damage daily as the news divisions become "infotainment". Worse yet, tabloid television, masquerading as legitimate news programming muddies up the waters. Perhaps The Insider will be a wakeup call to this industry to clean house now.