← Back to results
The Insider
1999 158 min United States of America R 18+
★8.3
Drama, Thriller
Director: Michael Mann
🎭 Based on
«The Man Who Knew Too Much»
byMarie Brenner
Trailers
EN
EN
Description
A research chemist comes under personal and professional attack when he decides to appear in a 60 Minutes exposé on Big Tobacco.
Budget:
$90M
US Gross:
$29.09M
Worldwide:
$60.3M
Starring
Russell Crowe
Actor
Al Pacino
Actor
Christopher Plummer
Actor
Awards
Academy Awards 2000
— Best Adapted Screenplay
Golden Globe 2000
— Best Director
Golden Globe 2000
— Best Original Score
Academy Awards 2000
— Best Director
Academy Awards 2000
— Best Cinematography
BAFTA 2000
— Best Actor
Golden Globe 2000
— Best Picture (Drama)
Screen Actors Guild Awards 2000
— Best Actor
Golden Globe 2000
— Best Actor (Drama)
Academy Awards 2000
— Best Picture
Academy Awards 2000
— Best Sound
Golden Globe 2000
— Best Screenplay
Academy Awards 2000
— Best Film Editing
Academy Awards 2000
— Best Actor
Key opinion
The Insider is widely regarded as a masterful, thought-provoking political thriller that grounded a high-stakes corporate whistleblowing saga in human morality. While a small minority of viewers found the pacing sluggish or the narrative focus fragmented, the majority of critics and audiences praise the intense performances and Mann's meticulous, documentary-style direction.
| Acting | Russell Crowe and Al Pacino deliver powerful, career-defining performances that ground the film's moral conflict in authentic human emotion. | |
| Direction | Michael Mann employs a meticulous, documentary-like aesthetic that successfully transforms a complex corporate story into a compelling and immersive cinematic experience. | |
| Screenplay | The screenplay effectively balances technical industry details with the profound personal and existential dilemmas faced by individuals challenging a powerful system. | |
| Pacing | The film's deliberate, slow-burn tempo is praised by those who value deep character development, while others find the lengthy runtime and contemplative pace exhausting or unfocused. | |
| Score | The atmospheric score and visual style reinforce the tension of the narrative without overwhelming the grounded, human-centric focus of the story. | |
| Screenplay | Opinions on the narrative cohesion are divided; some critics admire the complexity of the plot, while others feel the character motivations and story structure are occasionally underdeveloped or fragmented. |