An insider story is a protagonist who is already part of the world in which the narrative takes place, often in an active and significant way. The plot of an insider story can often involve protagonists grappling with a changed understanding of their own world and its moral underpinnings. These narratives can require protagonists to make major changes to their own identities, and to adapt skills or abilities from their old world into the new one.
One of the most compelling examples of an insider story is the 1999 film The Insider, starring Al Pacino and Russell Crowe. The film is a dramatization of a true story, the 1996 Vanity Fair article by Marie Brenner about whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand and his efforts to reveal the tobacco industry’s manipulation of nicotine. Wigand risks his family’s welfare, legal action and a future in television to expose this information. Eventually, he and CBS producer Lowell Bergman succeed in airing the segment, though it’s a pyrrhic victory.
Few filmmakers can take a potentially dusty scenario of corporate morality, muckraking and news gathering and make it so chest-convulsively taut that the heart pounds and the head throbs. But then, few filmmakers are of the caliber of Michael Mann. The Insider is a must-watch for anyone who wants to understand how to turn a character’s internal struggle into compelling drama.
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