Russell Crowe ventured beyond his usual man-brute screen presence in this compelling 1999 docudrama. Preceding his Oscar- winning performance in A Beautiful Mind, the New Zealand-born actor morphed with ease into the role of another troubled if vaguely heroic American persona - in this instance, the real-life figure of Jeffrey Wigand, a well-regarded scientist whose decision to turn whistle-blower against his former employer, U.S. tobacco company Brown & Williamson, came to the attention of the venerable newsmagazine 60 Minutes in the early nineties.
Directed by Michael Mann, the film splits evenly between the slow crumbling of Wigand's personal life because of the public fallout and 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman's battling with senior CBS executives, who initially tried to suppress the story.
The pivotal role of Bergman is played with rare understatement by Al Pacino, and Christopher Plummer is appropriately crusty as the veteran TV newsman Mike Wallace, who at one point berates a young CBS executive with the temerity to address him by his first name. "Mike? Try Mr. Wallace."
Saturday, History Television, at 9 p.m.
