How far would you go to stand up for the truth? Would you be prepared to risk your job, your income, your home and the safety of your family?

Jeffrey Wigand (Crowe) did just that.

The Insider depicts the true story of Wigand, a successful scientist who is fired from Brown & Williamson tobacco company for objecting to certain lab tests.

He signs a confidentiality agreement with the tabacco company, but when hotshot 60 Minutes TV producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino) recruits Wigand to help him decipher some technical documents, he realises that there's a bigger story hiding inside Wigand.

Eventually Bergman convinces him to break the agreement and sit for an interview with Mike Wallace (Christopher Plummer), who fronts the investigative television programme.

But the programme remains on tape.

Buckling under corporate pressure, CBS pulls the plug, which sparks Bergman to leak information to the press.

The resulting media frenzy causes Wigand to lose the support of his family and forces Bergman to confront the harsh reality of his business.

As Wigand deals with his personal dilemma, Bergman battles the corporation that begins to show its true colours.

Both men must decide for themselves if they've made the right choices.

Like his other films Thief, Manhunter, and Heat, director Michael Mann takes on the theme of a man trying to do the right thing while trapped by circumstances that could destroy him.

Once again Mann pulls terrific performances from his entire cast. Crowe is outstanding as Jeff Wigand, the insider who risks everything for the truth.

With its brilliant performances and stunning cinematography, The Insider is an emotionally intense film that reveals the consequences of standing up for the truth.

By choosing the story of an individual's fight against a faceless corporation - a fight that costs Wigand his job, his reputation and his family - writer/director Michael Mann succeeds in telling a compelling tale of quiet, real-life heroism.

Tim Evans