Tuesday, April 11, 2023

150. Russell Crowe & Al Pacino in Michael Mann's 'The Insider' (1999)

Following his 1995 crime epic 'Heat', Michael Mann was in a position to do most any film he desired to do. So when Disney Studios ponied up north of 90 million dollars to help him bring a thorny, wordy, action-free journalism picture to life, they probably reasonably expected a 'All The President's Men' for a new generation. And while their efforts garnered 7 Oscar nominations, the film disappointed at the box office in part due to the difficulty in communicating to prospective viewers exactly what the film was about. And pointedly, Mann cast Pacino and Crowe exactly BECAUSE he planned to use them as they'd never been seen before. Audiences expecting Crowe to break apart a desk as he'd done in 'LA Confidential' or for Pacino to embody Satan a la 'The Devil's Advocate' were instead confronted with something quite different. Pacino as facile, intelligent man of the media. Australian-born Crowe playing a man 23 years older than him, a man with a complex speaking voice equal parts The Bronx, Japan, and Kentucky..but no part Australian. A fictionalized account of a true story, 'The Insider' is based on the battle surrounding a 60 Minutes segment about Jeffrey Wigand, a whistleblower in the tobacco industry, in particular covering his and CBS producer Lowell Bergman's struggles as they defend his testimony against efforts to discredit and suppress it by both inside business interests within CBS and by Wigand's former employer, the powerful Brown & Williamson tobacco company. In this episode, I talk about the making of this film, its extraordinary technical accomplishments, and the fantastic leading performances from Crowe, Pacino, and Christopher Plummer as 60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace. We hear from Mann and Crowe about the film, and play some surprising sound drops highlighting some of the twists and turns that the film presents. Also covered: 'Miami Vice', WKRP In Cincinnati's Andy Travis and his unlikely cameo in 'The Insider', Animal House's D-Day in maybe the best scene in the whole of 'The Insider', supporting work from Colm Feore, Gina Gershon, Phillip Baker Hall, and MORE!