Ordinary people under extraordinary pressure, Mike. What the hell do you expect? Grace and consistency?

"maybe things have changed."
"what's changed?"
"you mean since this morning?"
"no, i mean since whenever."

corporate interests have never (and will never) not come at the expense of our own, and here mann richly dramatizes the crushing pressures, lasting damages and sheer difficulty inherent to resisting them. are we running out of heroes or are they being systematically broken down? is there even anything left for them to save?

"No, you fucked you. Don't invert stuff." when we realized we'd corporatized everything. analog's last stand.

Amazing how tense and exciting this feels, given the length and subject material.

Pacino is great; Crowe is even better.

The script feels a little bit more put together in some areas than others, but maybe a rewatch will affect my feelings there. Certainly lots of realistic, thought-provoking dialogue, and there are no moments that feel fake or melodramatic.

The music and lighting set mood nicely, and the compositional excellence makes shots, especially wider ones, art-pieces to admire.

I love how the story sees a sort of whisteblower-inception come about, and I appreciate that we're only told about the real-life connection and its extent after the film ends.

I'm hesitant to proclaim it after just one viewing, but this could absolutely give Heat or Thief a run for their money in the Best Mann Movie department.

the second half of this movie was so good i didn't dare break concentration to have a smoke

Bumped to a 9/10 this viewing. I should rewatch, not seen since.

76%

The aesthetics and the soundtrack saved the material -which is extremely important as it is- from turning into a dry investigative piece. But, I find it a bit too self-indulgent and overdone at times. It certainly didn't have to be this long. Russel Crowe is convincing as a paranoid, tired, angry man. Even Pacino, whose yelling roles from the 90s piss me off (ugh Heat) was quite good in this one. Ooh, and, of course, Jeffrey Wigand and Lowell Bergman are heroes.

Vaya película más buena. Y aunque podía sintuir la resolución, el camino hasta ella te mantiene en vilo. Es una historia cuyos personajes le dan toda la fuerza. Las mejores escenas sin duda son las que comparten Russell Crowe y Al Pacino, dos genios de la actuación. La fuerza que tienen esas escenas es abrumadora. Un fiel reflejo de lo que es la realidad y cómo de complicado, difícil y cruel puede ser luchar por lo que es correcto, pero que aún así, se consigues y se puede ganar.
De verdad, un peliculón que no puedo dejar de recomendar. Quizá la única pega es que el tiempo se hace un poco pesado.

"the greater the truth, the greater the damage."

"...come again?"

thieves in suits.

"Fame has a fifteen minute half-life, infamy lasts a little longer." A cheap and uninspired summation of this film would be to categorize as the 1990s rendition of ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, but for the life of me, it's such much more than that effortless sentiment. Big business, character assassination, conspiracy, freedom of the press, healthcare, invasion of privacy, justice, love, prestige, righteousness, and whistleblowers - this one has it all. The film has what very well maybe Al Pacino's last great role, a Russel Crowe performance that ascended him to A list status, and a filmmaker in the height of his prime in one Michael Mann. Riveting cinema at its finest.

ON POINT.

To most, this is a slow burn of a film but to me this is a captivating piece of film. So much of it is so compelling to me because it is a stand against big tobacco for their horrible acts. It’s even more intriguing than Mann was able to get this made while under Disney because you know they were afraid a law suit was going to come down. After watching the doc about Mike Wallace it’s even more interesting to see a man who cares so much about truth in journalism has to tone down a story that he doesn’t want to.