'The Insider'
The Ringer's Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Sean Fennessey take down Big Tobacco as they rewatch the 1999 drama 'The Insider,' starring Al Pacino, Russell Crowe, and Christopher Plummer.
Cast
Al Pacino as Lowell Bergman
Russell Crowe as Jeffrey Wigand
Christopher Plummer as Mike Wallace
Philip Baker Hall as Don Hewitt
Bruce McGill as Ron Motley
Diane Venora as Bergman's Wife
Michael Gambon as Thomas Sandefur
Stephen Tobolowsky as Eric Kluster
Rip Torn as John Scanlon
Gina Gershon as Corporate Lawyer
Lindsay Crouse as Sharon Tiller
Directed by: Michael Mann
Written by: Michael Mann, Eric Roth
Notes
- Budget of $68 million, grossed only $29 million. Joe Roth (Disney head) said marketing it was 'like walking up a hill with a refrigerator on your back.'
- The film's commercial failure essentially closed the door on expensive adult dramas being made at Disney and later Hollywood in general.
- 7 Oscar nominations (Best Picture, Director, Actor for Crowe, Adapted Screenplay) but won zero – swept by American Beauty.
- Pacino was NOT nominated for Best Actor, which the hosts call 'outrageous.' Christopher Plummer was also snubbed despite winning the LA Film Critics Circle Award.
- Mann and Eric Roth wrote the first draft at the bar of the Broadway Deli in Santa Monica. Based on a Vanity Fair article by Marie Brenner.
- Russell Crowe was 33 playing a character meant to look 50+. He put on weight and went gray. Could not speak to the real Jeffrey Wigand due to his confidentiality agreement.
- Mike Wallace detested the film. Michael Mann was living in the same building as Don Hewitt, who was criticizing the movie in Page Six.
- Mann shot on location everywhere depicted: Mississippi, New York, the Keys, Louisville, the Middle East – that's where the $68M budget went.
- This was Mann's first movie since Heat. Released by Disney, which they find remarkable.
- Part of The Rewatchables 1999 limited series, originally produced for Luminary.
Categories
- Chris: Lowell and Jeffrey in the car feeling each other out in the rain, and the Mississippi courtroom sequence with Bruce McGill.
- Sean: Mike Wallace confronting Bergman at 5:30 AM; the golf driving range / Bruce McGill courtroom scene.
- Bill: The golf driving range scene; Pacino unleashed confrontation scenes with Christopher Plummer.
- Chris: Pacino and Crowe faxing back and forth; Pacino on pay phones.
- Bill: The New York Times in the lobby; 60 Minutes mattering as much as it did.
- Sean: The general acceptance of cigarettes in daily life; corporate influence on news media being a novel issue.
- Christopher Plummer as Mike Wallace – since Wallace hasn't been on TV in ~15 years, Plummer's interpretation now stands on its own.
- Pacino's performance. The cinematography by Dante Spinotti.
- The inner workings of 60 Minutes/CBS News (also aged the worst simultaneously).
- The inner workings of 60 Minutes, knowing what we now know about Don Hewitt's later scandals.
- Bill: The slow-motion ending of Pacino leaving the building – 'tacky.' Wings Hauser being prominently cast.
- Sean: The score/music; Mann straining for individuality. Corporate influence on news media is now a settled, lost battle.
Sean: This is Mann's 'last great masterpiece' and his best work, while also being 'a little masturbatory' in style.
Val Kilmer was up for the Wigand role. The hosts discuss how Crowe showed what Kilmer's career could have been.
- Bruce McGill wins the 'Triple Crown' – Dion Waiters, Sal Rubinek, AND Joey Pants Awards. His Mississippi courtroom outburst is the signature moment.
- Enormous field: Philip Baker Hall, Gina Gershon, Stephen Tobolowsky, Rip Torn, Michael Gambon, Lindsay Crouse.
Winner: Bruce McGill – his courtroom explosion ('This is the sovereign state of Mississippi's proceeding. Wipe that smirk off your face.'). His only real scene, and he absolutely goes for it.
- Bruce McGill: Definitely – his career-best moment.
- Pacino: No (Godfather). Crowe: No ('Gladiator'). Christopher Plummer: No (Sound of Music).
- Michael Mann: Debated but not conclusive.
Bruce McGill's courtroom scene is the most 'dialed up' performance. Mann loves a ham.
Al Pacino – unanimously. 'He's so good in this movie.' Had 'The Insider' and 'Any Given Sunday' in the same year.