“The Insider” quotes
(1999)
Michael Mann
directed this movie
in 1999
Title The Insider
Year 1999
Director Michael Mann
Genre Drama, Thriller, Biography
Year 1999
Director Michael Mann
Genre Drama, Thriller, Biography
Plot – Lowell Bergman works at "60 Minutes", a radio program where he's famous for his interviews, while Jeffrey Wigand's life is marked by family and daily rhythms. Recently he's been dismissed from his company and tries to find comfort in Bergman's program, until the DJ pushes him to denounce his former employer. As a scientist, Wigand's morality cannot tolerate anymore his company's ethics.
All actors – Al Pacino, Russell Crowe, Christopher Plummer, Diane Venora, Philip Baker Hall, Lindsay Crouse, Debi Mazar, Stephen Tobolowsky, Colm Feore, Bruce McGill, Gina Gershon, Michael Gambon, Rip Torn, Lynne Thigpen, Hallie Kate Eisenberg, Michael Paul Chan, Linda Hart, Robert Harper, Nestor Serrano, Pete Hamill, Wings Hauser, Cliff Curtis, Renee Olstead, Michael Moore, Gary Sandy, Willie C. Carpenter, Paul Butler, Jack Palladino, Megan Odebash, Roger Bart, Alan De Satti, Sayed Badreya, Chris Ufland, Douglas McGrath, Bill Sage, Joseph Hindy, Dennis Garber, Tim Grimm, Paul Perri, Wanda De Jesus, Robert Patrick Brink, V.J. Foster, James Harper, Eyal Podell, Breckin Meyer, David Roberson, Gregg E. Muravchick, William P. Bradford, David Carr, Ann Reskin, Claire Slemmer, Steve Salge, Derrick Jones, Donald F. Burbrink, Vyto Ruginis, George R. Parsons, Isodine Loury, Charlene Bosarge, Saemi Nakamura, Ronal G. Yokley, Bob Lazarus, Robert J. Ragno Jr., Alvin L. Welch, Nathan Lewis Hill, Paula Bisbikos, Christi Evans, Knox White, Amy L. Caudill, Brian Canberg, David C. Fisher, J.B. Flinn, Phil Hawn, Zane Lamprey, Dono Langley, Clyde Lee, Robert Malone, Vin Morreale Jr., Robert D. Parham, Roger Phenix, Ted Speaker, Robbie G. Tomlin
show all“The Insider” Quotes 30 quotes
“Our standards have to be higher than anyone else because we are the standard of everyone else.”
“- Eric Kluster: It was a time consideration, Mike.
- Mike Wallace: Time? Bullshit! You corporate lackey! Who told you your incompetent little fingers had the requisite skills to edit me?”“Big Tobacco tried to smear Wigand, you bought it. The Wall Street Journal, not exactly a bastion of anti-capitalist sentiment, refutes Big Tobacco's smear campaign as the lowest form of character assassination! And now, even now, when every word of what Wigand has said on our show is printed, the entire deposition of his testimony in a court of...” (continue)(continue reading)
- Eric Kluster: We're doing this with or without you, Lowell. If you like, I can sign another producer to edit your show.
- Lowell Bergman: Since when has the paragon of investigative journalism allowed lawyers to determine the news content on "60 Minutes"?- Helen Caperelli: Mike...
- Mike Wallace: Mike? "Mike"! Try "Mr. Wallace". We work in the same corporation doesn't mean we work in the same profession.“Dr. Wigand, I am instructing you not to answer that question in accordance to the terms of the contractual obligations undertaken by you not to disclose any information about your work at the Brown and Williamson tobacco company, and in accordance with the force and effect of the temporary restraining order that has been entered against you by...” (continue)(continue reading)
“- Mike Wallace: Do you wish you hadn't come forward? Do you wish you hadn't blown the whistle?
- Jeffrey Wigand: There are times when I wish I hadn't done it. There are times when I feel compelled to do it. If you asked me would I do it again, do I think it's worth it? Yeah, I think it's worth it.”“I joined Brown & Williamson, came up through sales. I was the best salesman they ever had, and do you know why? I never made a promise I couldn't keep.”
“What you're saying is it wasn't enough to fire me for no good reason. Now you question my integrity? On top of the humiliation of being fired, you threaten me? You threaten my family? It never crossed my mind not to honor my agreement. And I will tell you, Mr. Sandefur... and Brown & Williamson too - fuck me? Well, fuck you!”
- Jeffrey Wigand: How did a radical journalist from Ramparts Magazine end up at CBS?
- Lowell Bergman: I still do the tough stories. "60 Minutes" reaches a lot of people.“- Mike Wallace: And that's what cigarettes are for?
- Jeffrey Wigand: A delivery device for nicotine.
- Mike Wallace: A delivery device for nicotine. Put it in your mouth, lit it up and you're gonna get your fix?
- Jeffrey Wigand: You're gonna get your fix.”“You are important to a lot of people, Jeffrey. You think about that, and you think about them. I'm all out of heroes, man. Guys like you are in short supply.”
"Tortious interference"? That sounds like a disease caught by a radio.
“- Lowell Bergman: Did you ever get out a plane, walk into a room and find that a source for a story changed his mind? Lost his heart? Walked out on us? Not one fucking time. You want to know why?
- Mike Wallace: I see a rhetorical question on the horizon.
- Lowell Bergman: I'm gonna tell you why: because when I tell someone I'm gonna do...” (continue)(continue reading)“Jeffrey Wigand, who's out on a limb, does he go on television and tell the truth? Yes. Is it newsworthy? Yes. Are we gonna air it? Of course not. Why? Because he's not telling the truth? No. Because he is telling the truth. That's why we're not going to air it. And the more truth he tells, the worse it gets!”
“Fame has a fifteen minute half-life, infamy lasts a little longer.”
I'm talking about when you're nearer the end of your life than the beginning. Now, what do you think you think about then? The future? In the future I'm going to do this? Become that? What future? No. What you think is "How will I be regarded in the end, after I'm gone?".
“I did Iran-Gate and the Ayatollah, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Saddam, Sadat, etcetera, etcetera. I showed them thieves in suits. I've spent a lifetime building all that. But history only remembers most what you did last. And should that be fronting a segment that allowed a tobacco giant to crash this network? Does it give someone at my time...” (continue)(continue reading)
“- Lowell Bergman: I am trying to protect you, man.
- Jeffrey Wigand: Well, I hope you improve your batting average.”“I find chemistry to be magical. I find it an adventure, an exploration into the physical building blocks of our universe.”
Highlights
