THE INSIDER

 

FOUR STARS - Powerful

The Insider (1999) List Price: $19.99 Our Price: $17.99 You Save: $2.00 (10%)

 

 

       “The Insider” is an excellent study in integrity.   Based on the true story of the whistle-blower who revealed not only the lies the tobacco industry was making about the addictive nature of nicotine but also their deliberate manipulation of the chemistry of cigarettes in order to increase nicotine control over the user, “The Insider” explores the costs and rewards of integrity within a constellation of lives.

       The central person within this true drama is Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe).  Wigand is Director of Research at the third largest tobacco company in the United States, Brown and Williamson.

       Having decided to sell his soul for the monetary rewards of the tobacco industry, Wigand finds himself numbing his conscience not only with alcohol but also with a sullen and angry isolation from coworkers and family.  Thus, when his relationship with Brown and Williamson comes to a head and he is fired, he silently clears out his desk and doesn’t even inform his wife until she discovers it.

       This is the first level of the study.  Integrity expresses itself in a need to be true to one’s values and beliefs.  Wigand is a trained specialist in the chemistry of health.  Having previously worked to relieve the diseases and pains of people, he has now chosen to work for a company whose sales benefit from making their product more addictive.

       At first, Wigand explains, he thought he could live with himself because he was doing it for his family.   But it simply isn’t enough.  He can not buy off his conscience with providing them a beautiful home and expensive, private schools.

       To keep his silence after his termination, Brown and Williamson purchases Wigand's integrity with a lucrative termination package in exchange for his signing a confidentiality agreement.  He cannot disclose what he knows about cigarettes or the chemistry of its addictive delivery.

       Serendipitously, 60 Minutes’ producer, Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino), is exploring a story on the fire hazards of cigarettes.  Having been anonymously leaked some inside reports by the tobacco industry, he is given Wigand's name as a possible consultant to interpret the complex data within them.  But when Bergman meets with Wigand, it is obvious that Wigand is sitting on a far more important national health issue than the incendiary dangers of cigarettes.

       It is in this relationship that the second level of integrity is introduced.  If Wigand is to pay the financial, relational, social and professional costs of redeeming his integrity from the tobacco industry, will Bergman keep his word and air his testimony?

       This is not as easy as it sounds.  In the world of big business, there are few forces as strong as tobacco.  The profits possible by addicting persons to your product has created a monster at many levels.   Not only are those within the industry selling out their fellow human beings and their own souls, their obscene profits also enable the industry to use the legal and political system to control politicians as well as the seemingly “free” press.

       This reality comes to a head when the CBS corporate lawyers convince Mike Wallace (Christopher Plummer) to not air Wigand’s testimony, not because it isn’t true, but because it is, due to a cunning legal threat.

       It is then that Wallace and Bergman, who have worked together for fourteen years, hear a different call.  Berman hears the call of integrity to the promises he made both to Wigand and to himself as a journalist.  Wallace, though he tries to mitigate his decision by airing a strong condemnation of CBS Corporate, nevertheless protects the institution.

       This is the third level at which integrity is studied.  It is often the case that, for the financial well-being of institutions, people are willing to sacrifice integrity and lives.  In this case the life being sacrificed is Jeffrey Wigand’s and the integrity being sacrificed is Wallace’s.  Though Wallace eventually repents and confesses his wrong, the damage done to himself, 60 Minutes and “free press” costs him his partnership with Lowell who now works for Frontline.

       During the final scenes of “The Insider,” we are given the continuing facts about Jeffrey Wigand and the hundreds of billions of dollars the big seven tobacco companies have paid to stop whistle-blowers from speaking the truth about tobacco.  It also should come as no surprise that the tobacco industry filed suit against the Disney company for releasing this film.

       Although the price paid by Wigand was enormous, there is no doubt that he made the only choice of integrity.  Our future, both as individuals and as humanity, depends on each of us valuing one another and acting with integrity on that value.  If we sell our integrity to those who would use us to destroy others, we will neither survive physically or spiritually.

 

(792 words)

 

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