Daily Dialogue — October 20, 2016

Lowell Bergman: I fought for you and I still fight for you!
Jeffrey Wigand: You fought for me? You manipulated me! Into where I am now — staring at the Brown & Williamson building, it’s all dark except for the tenth floor. That’s the legal department, that’s where they fuck with my life!
Lowell Bergman: Jeffrey, where are you going with this? Where are you going? (Pause) You are important to a lot of people, Jeffrey. You think about that, and you think about them. (Pause) I’m all out of heroes, man. Guys like you are in short supply.
Jeffrey Wigand: Yeah, guys like you, too.

— The Insider (1999), written by Eric Roth & Michael Mann

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Cover Up, suggested by Will King.

Trivia: Jeffrey Wigand, the anti-smoking subject of this movie, requested a ban on cigarettes in the film. However, cigarettes are smoked in the movie at least thrice: (1) by a woman in the background as Wigand enters the airport, shortly before served with a restraining order, (2) by a Muslim soldier seen briefly while Bergman is being transported to the Hezbollah meeting site, and (3) by a photographer with whom Bergman converses briefly about what might be going on inside the courtroom.

Dialogue On Dialogue: The premise of the movie is a massive cover-up by the tobacco industry and the dialogue above is representative of the story’s central conflict: A representative of Big Business and The Whistleblower.

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