There’s a look to The Insider that I love. It’s all deep greens and blues and blacks with no bright colors whatsoever in the palette. No yellows or oranges or fiery reds. But blacks with blues bleeding into it, white skin (Russell Crowe has never looked so pasty), and a sort of sickly green color – the kind of green you see under glaring flourescent lights. When there is a shot of warmth, it is noticeable. There’s a scene where Al Pacino and his wife (played by the wonderful Lindsay Crouse in what could have been a thankless role, but she injects the entire thing with reality) are on vacation on the beach. It is dusk. The waves are a deep green, and the sky a heavy thunderous grey. Pacino is out on the beach trying to get a signal on his cell phone. He stands in the water. He is in black, the dark green waves come in around him, the sky is enormous and heavy and dark. It is a bleak scene. He comes back inside, and his wife is in the kitchen, and you can see out the front windows right onto the beach – the greens and greys and darkness right there – but the inside of that house glows with a golden warmth. It is startling. I realize, watching, “Wow. This is the first warm moment I’ve seen.” That soft buttery yellow of the light has been absent from the entire film, and only when it shows up, briefly, do I get a sense of how much I have missed it.
That is smart art direction, cinematography. This is a movie whose every shot, every frame, dovetails into the larger themes of risk, personal responsibility, fear, ambition, and loss. If you know the story you want to tell, and you know the look you need to tell that story, then you cannot afford to even have an extra, seen briefly in a crowd scene, to be wearing a bright red dress, or a yellow raincoat. Everyone is in black, or dark blue. Michael Mann, with his background in Miami Vice, an entire television series that (in a groundbreaking manner) created a look and feel and vibe – hugely influential – so that each episode was like a mini-movie, is an artist. The colors chosen carefully, the atmosphere, the set direction … Obviously Michael Mann has not invented these things, but it is his sensibility that I am appreciating right now. Never has his artistry been more apparent than in The Insider.
The actors bring their own thing to the picture. But each one (down to Debi Mazar, Philip Baker Hall, Gina Gershon, Colm Feore) bring their specific sensibility to bear, not pulling focus, but doing their job – completely unselfconscious, no actor-y flourishes … these are people and we are getting to know these people, and the camera just happens to be there to capture it. Of course this is all an illusion. Every shot is planned, every actor is carefully chosen, every scene is mapped out – but the illusion is that we are watching something spontaneous. We are in that newsroom. We are on the bus with Debi Mazar, or in the courtroom in Mississippi. Nobody pulls focus. Michael Mann was smart to cast real character actors in every single part in that film except for the three leads – so we’ve got some serious heavy-hitters like Rip Torn – doing what is basically a walk-on, and Oscar-nominated Lindsay Crouse in “the wife” part, and Bruce McGill as the Mississippi lawyer, in what I consider to be a movie-stealing scene.
"Their teeth aren’t fixed, their hair isn’t perfect, they’re just
regular people."
They
are lining up now!
My husband and I are hard-core MacGyver fans. Everytime we see Bruce McGill on screen, we exclaim, “It’s Jack Dalton!” I agree, he’s great in everything he does and I’d love to read a post about him.
I so agree with you about McGill. I’m also a huge Philip Baker Hall fan. “Hard Eight,” “Zodiac,” his insane turn as the library cop Mr. Bookman on “Seinfeld.” I mean, everything he does is good. He always adds just the right texture, if that makes sense. I am just a HUGE fan. Lovelovelove.
Philip Baker Hall is awesome! I love the trajectory of his career too – to really start getting meaningful parts when he was, what, 60? 65?? Gives me hope. He’s amazing. Wonderful here, too. Magnolia?? He’s tragic.
Lord. You get more out of a movie than anybody I read. I have to see this again with your thoughts in mind. What I most remember is, having seen the real Wigand in the Wallace interviews, that Crowe absolutely nailed him, a full body performance. More spooky even than Carrey doing Kaufman. This in my mind was his Oscar performance, over Gladiator. Like Cruz for Elegy or Volver instead of VCB. But that’s a whole nuther topic.
Excellent essay, thanks for this. These.
Howard – thanks so much for the vote of confidence! Yes, I believe Crowe was actually given his Oscar for THIS performance – a really wonderful subtle and powerful bit of mimicry and emotional truth. I love love him here. I love how he walks, how he carries his weight, how uptight he is, how upset – it’s just a wonderful character study. His love for his daughters – just great great stuff.
The Insider is definitely one of my favorite films of the last 15 years or so. Never get sick of it.
Jill – thanks for the push – yeah, I really need to write more about him. I’ve only seen a fraction of his work – typical character actor: his resume is 3 times as long as a movie stars – he’s just a fine fine actor.
I loved him in The Legend of Bagger Vance, too – where he gets to be big and broad and funny – totally over the top.
God, he’s so good.
Believe it or not, I’ve never seen Magnolia. And I’ve actually wondered WHY I haven’t seen it. I have some sort of resistance to it and I have no idea why. Knowing Philip Baker Hall is in it — which I didn’t know, for shame — may be the push I need to see it.
I thought he should have been nominated for an Oscar for Magnolia.
Magnolia is a love it or hate it movie – I LOVE it … but definitely: he has a huge juicy part and he is 100% tragic. Terrible. Fantastic acting. PT Anderson (with Hard eight being the start) is responsible for his renaissance as an actor – pretty amazing!