Michael Mann

Watched the Insider again last night - great movie. It's what every docudrama should aspire to be. It makes little things one wouldn't think of as being filmmable, interesting. I find that pretty spectacular. One of the best sequences is at the driving range, when Russell Crowe notices a corporate thug spying on him. No dialog, nothing flashy, just pure visual storytelling with music (it's Michael Mann, after all) and you're totally scared and wrapped up in this man's predicament.

Some other great scenes - Mike Wallace yelling at the corporate lacky's at CBS. The lawyer going off on the Brown and Williamson lawyer....these are scenes that had they been done on documentary, probably wouldn't have had the dramatic impact, because I'd imagine a regular office scene would be fairly boring, as would a sworn deposition. And who knows if the incidents really happened on not. But for a fiction film, they are constructed, and they work great. My other favorite part is Pacino going off on Wallace and the news executive about why they won't run the segment - "Is he telling the truth? Yes. Is it newsworthy? Yes. Are we going to run it? Of course not. And why are we not going to run it? Because he's telling the truth."

Doing this director presentation on Mann just makes me respect the man more and more.