The Insider (1999)

I saw The Insider around when it came out on DVD. I remember it being one of the first Touchstone DVD releases. I watched it with people from my dorm floor. The close-ups are extreme. Even on the rear-projection CRT tv they had in the basement common area (55"!), you could see Al Pacino's pores on those close-ups.

The vibe generated by the burning out car along with Lisa Gerrard's wailing felt a little manufactured. It's the kind of moment in a grad school workshop where someone would say they felt the hand of the writer. Tone it down, we're all adults here.

It's a shaking story, particular in the media landscape that exists now. I remember in seventh or eighth grade ('92 or '91), Ian Anderson came up to me and said: "You know, I was thinking. there's that show 20/20? You think they're going to do a celebration when it's still on in the year 2020? True crime stories, and the grizzly amusement of Keith Morrison, the seriousness of that program is an ouroboros that has long since ate and shat Bill Hader's SNL tribute.

Where is that investigative journalism now? After the interview is aired, Lowell Bergman is turning in bed with his wife, and she whispers "You won," to which he replies "Oh yeah, what did I win?" It's a harbinger of the corporations weighing their self interest over the good of the public. A media for profit, the 24-hour news cycle. Money for nothing, and the clicks aren't free.