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The Insider

ARLENE GOLDBERG-GIST, C&EN WASHINGTON

“The Insider” is one juicy oyster of a movie with many pearls to offer. In this film, which is based on a true story, science and media converge and collide and then come together for the benefit of society.

Russell Crowe plays Jeffrey Wigand, a Ph.D. biochemical engineer with an impressive résumé. Prior to going to work as vice president and head of research and development for cigarette company Brown & Williamson, Wigand worked in R&D for a number of major pharmaceutical companies. As the only breadwinner in his family, he is drawn to the job in Louisville for the salary, health insurance—his eldest daughter has serious asthma—good schools, and lifestyle. Also, he is led to believe that there is potential for doing research that would actually benefit the health of smokers, developing a low-tar cigarette.

But when he discovers that coumarin, a pipe tobacco additive (and a rat poison), is being used to enhance the effects of nicotine in cigarettes, Wigand voices his objections in a letter to the chief executive officer. We’re told that this enhanced effect is the result of ammonia chemistry.

When we first meet Wigand, he’s just been fired and has signed a confidentiality agreement not to speak about Brown & Williamson, thus securing a severance package that includes keeping his family health insurance for several months. But he needs more money. So he agrees to interpret technical documents from Philip Morris that “60 Minutes” producer Lowell Bergman (Pacino) has received anonymously and has contacted him about with regard to a story on the fire safety of cigarettes.

The high and mighty at Wigand’s former employer get wind of this, however, and insist that he sign another agreement further restricting what he can say to whom. Someone’s been spying on Wigand and threatens his life while also menacing his wife, Liane (Venora) and their two young daughters. The scare tactics turn Wigand into a reluctant whistleblower and he agrees to be interviewed by Mike Wallace (Plummer), calling cigarettes a “delivery device for nicotine.”

In an attempt to maintain some normalcy for his family, Wigand takes a job teaching at a local high school. On the first day, he says to his chemistry class: “I find chemistry to be magical. I find it an adventure—an exploration into the building blocks of our physical universe.”

But Wigand’s life is being examined under the media microscope in an attempt by big tobacco to discredit his testimony. Unable to take the pressure, Wigand’s wife leaves him. His only friend through the ordeal, it seems, is Bergman. Wigand, however, feels manipulated and becomes despondent when CBS corporate executives decide not to run the interview under threat of litigation from big tobacco.

Even the Wall Street Journal picks up on the drama being played out at CBS and delves into Wigand’s past. The New York Times runs a front-page story on the pressure that CBS corporate executives have placed on CBS News not to run the Wigand interview. Then, of course, Wigand’s story is out there.

Eventually, through pressure from Bergman and Wallace, CBS airs Wigand’s interview. Finally, as Mississippi Attorney General Michael Moore (played by himself) says, the industry that “perpetrated the biggest fraud on the American public in history” is laid low. Wigand thinks his coming forward was worth it.

When the credits roll at the end of the 1999 movie, we’re told that Wigand was given a 1996 Teacher of the Year Award and that Bergman works on PBS’s “Frontline” and teaches journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. The movie was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Those are some pretty pearls.