The Insider - "Wipe That Smirk Off Your Face!"

The Scene: "WIPE THAT SMIRK OFF YOUR FACE!" from The Insider (1999).

The Setup: Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe), a high-profile would-be whistleblower for big-tobacco giant Brown & Williamson, is bound by the terms of a corporate confidentiality agreement, forbidding him from disclosing to 60 Minutes the lurid truth about big tobacco, which he feels morally compelled to disclose. In hopes of freeing him from that agreement, 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergmann (Al Pacino) arranges for Wigand to testify in court proceedings instituted by the State of Mississippi against big tobacco, and Wigand, after deep soul searching,arrives amid much commotion to give a sworn deposition which will air big tobacco's dirty laundry in the public domain (and we are not talking about skid-marked underpants here, folks).



Incisive Commentary: Jeffery Wigand sits in a stark hall filled with suits, his hand raised, swearing under oath in the State of Mississippi to tell the whole truth. No sooner has his deposition begun than a lawyer for big tobacco (Wings Hauser) objects to the questioning, stands, and commands Wigand to remain silent, in accordance with his confidentiality agreement and in accordance with a restraining order that has been entered against him in a Kentucky court, the violation of which could send him to jail upon his return to Kentucky. And it is in this moment that the full weight of Wigand's journey becomes apparent. Jeffrey Wigand's journey from corporate executive to corporate target was a solitary one. Though he met an ally or two along in the way, it is he who lost his job and his house, he whose life was threatened time and again by unknown persons, and he whose wife, immediately prior to this scene, informed him that she was leaving (presumably for his moral renaissance and not for his unfortunate taste in eyewear, a far more understandable reason). Even the ally he did find in Lowell Bergmann operated in shadows, helping only covertly as his own employer bowed to the might of big tobacco. Jeffrey Wigand is utterly alone, while big tobacco wields its sword, as Wigand puts it, "with impunity." And he sits facing a barrage of commands from this big tobacco minion who will once again intimidate Jeffrey Wigand into silence. Enter one Ron Motley, Esq. (Bruce McGill), a lead attorney in Mississippi's case against big tobacco and Wigand's deposer. Upon hearing opposing counsel's admonition, "That means you don't talk!" Motley wheels on him, and mockingly, yet with restraint, informs him that "This is the sovereign State of Mississippi" and that big tobacco "doesn't get to instruct anything around here." Opposing counsel shrugs off the remarks with a smug grin, until Motley explodes, "WIPE THAT SMIRK OFF YOUR FACE!" The average viewer, at this point, (1) shits himself and (2) realizes that finally, in this moment, Jeffrey Wigand is not alone. Motley turns back to Wigand and gently asks him to continue, and Wigand, with all obstacles crashed aside by the steamroller that is Ron Motley, continues. Wigand sees, for the first time, someone else stand up to big tobacco and win, and his journey begins to make more sense.

Cheese Factor: 0/10: Lawyer/courtroom scenes are notorious for over-the top performances (see A Few Good Men, And Justice for All, etc.) but this one is an exception. McGill's performance as Ron Motley is so believable, that you almost get the feeling that when the cameras stopped rolling he walked over to Wings Hauser and beat him with the stenographer's typewriter.