Insider Essays (1022 words) - Brown Williamson, Films, The Insider

Insider The Insider A dramatization of 1995 events in which the tobacco industry allegedly covered up proof that nicotine is addictive and harmful. When Brown and Williamson executive Jeffrey Wigand (Crowe) tries to expose the industry's cover-up, he is threatened into silence. He eventually gets his story to 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman (AL Pacino), but CBS decides against airing it due to political and economic pressures, and the threat of lawsuit from Brown and Williamson. Before we start, I think it's important that you know a little thing about me, and where I'm coming from. I do smoke. But I believe that most of the lawsuits filed against the tobacco industry are unfounded, desperate attempts for people to put the blame on anyone but themselves. I think social security is a safety net for the financially irresponsible. I thought The Insider was a great movie from a strictly entertainment perspective (don't get ahead of me on this one!), and I enjoyed it very much. Russell Crowe is Jeffrey Wigand, a Brown and Williamson VP of Research and Development whose conscience compels him to blow the whistle on the industry. He claims that Big Tobacco has been covering up scientific research that proves nicotine is addictive and harmful. The writing puts a lot of energy into making sure that Wigand is a sufficiently complicated character, and one that we sympathize with. To be sure, he's not entirely one-dimensional. Initially, he does what most of us would do in his position: he takes the money and benefits that the company offers him in return for silence. After all, the guy has a family to look out for. But then Wigand is tortured over his passiveness, wondering if he should take a more aggressive stance with his potentially damaging knowledge. 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman, sensing a big story in the works, tries to coax Wigand into talking. An energetic Al Pacino, who fights to get the story on the air, only to have it snuffed by CBS, plays Bergman here. Allegedly, the television network was possibly up for sale around the time of this story, and airing it might have damaged their image with controversy, making it less appealing to potential suitors. This, coupled with the threat of lawsuit from Brown and Williamson, made CBS refuse to air the story. The Insider portrays these events as a crusade on the part of Bergman and Wigand to get the truth out there, against the will of Big Business and Bigger Tobacco. And while Bergman is never portrayed as much more than a journalist with an uncharacteristic amount of integrity, Wigand is a great character to follow as he tries to balance out everything around him. Tortured and sleepless, his reactions are what you would expect from someone forced to choose between the safety of his family with the gravity of what he knows. Most of it makes for edge of your suit viewing. Suspense abounds, and AL Pacino's confrontations with the evil corporate executives, censors, and whatnot are the centerpiece of the movie. He gets to climb up on the soapbox and belt out a few speeches about truth and justice and freedom and right and wrong and all that other fun stuff. It's tense, and it's really quite fascinating, actually. From a dramatic standpoint, this movie couldn't have asked for better performances. Gina Gershon makes an appearance in the movie as a tough, icy corporate attorney for CBS. As a standard caricature of faceless law more interested in money than people, she's fabulous. The Insider runs at over two and half hours, but always remains interesting and never drags. The biggest issue I have with this movie is how it so comfortably passes itself off as an unbiased, historical representation of what happened between real life executive Jeffrey Wigand, real life producer Lowell Bergman, and real life corporation Brown and Williamson. The problem is that the movie is so well crafted and so interesting that it's very easy to accept it as 100% Grade A Truth. However, this is clearly Wigand's story, and closer inspection would reveal that the main characters here are just a little too perfect to be real. Did Bergman really storm into the offices of CBS and rant

Adjustment Case Study Essay - Choosing the Paper and Topic

Adjustment Case Study Essay - Choosing the Paper and TopicSo you're ready to get started on your Adjustment Case Study Essay. Great! One of the first things you need to do is choose the right paper and essay topic.The best way to do this is to take a look at a sample of an Adjustment Case Study Essay and see how the writers used the material in the essay. Then you can make your choices based on that information. I'm going to give you the first part of the decision making process today.Now, I know some people feel that they need to go about this in this order. This is not always necessary. You can consider each essay sample as you go through this process, until you have your first choice of papers and topics.First off, I would highly recommend that you get the Adjustment Case Study Essay paper and topic that has been chosen by the writer who wrote the Adjustment Case Study. It will be easy for you to make your decisions based on the one that you are using. It also lets you see the wri ting skills of the writer.Once you find this essay sample, pick out the types of paper that you are going to use. Then pick out the topics of the essays.Now you have a good idea of what you need to write about. Next you need to decide what level of essay you are going to do. Will you write an essay level one or two? Then decide if you want to write an honors thesis or just a standard research paper.Once you decide what level of degree you need to get, you need to decide on the degree or schooling you need to get. This is a pretty important step because it allows you to stay focused.After you make all these decisions, all you have left to do is get started on your final decision. So go and look at the Adjustment Case Study Essay samples and choose the one that you like the best. You are now ready to put your thoughts into words!