Insider Essays - Brown Williamson, Films, The Insider,

Insider A dramatization of 1995 events in which the tobacco industry allegedly covered up proof that nicotine is addictive and harmful. When Brown and Williamson executive Jeffrey Wigand (Crowe) tries to expose the industry's cover-up, he is threatened into silence. He eventually gets his story to 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman (AL Pacino), but CBS decides against airing it due to political and economic pressures, and the threat of lawsuit from Brown and Williamson. Before we start, I think it's important that you know a little thing about me, and where I'm coming from. I do smoke. But I believe that most of the lawsuits filed against the tobacco industry are unfounded, desperate attempts for people to put the blame on anyone but themselves. I think social security is a safety net for the financially irresponsible. I thought The Insider was a great movie from a strictly entertainment perspective (don't get ahead of me on this one!), and I enjoyed it very much. Russell Crowe is Jeffrey Wigand, a Brown and Williamson VP of Research and Development whose conscience compels him to blow the whistle on the industry. He claims that Big Tobacco has been covering up scientific research that proves nicotine is addictive and harmful. The writing puts a lot of energy into making sure that Wigand is a sufficiently complicated character, and one that we sympathize with. To be sure, he's not entirely one-dimensional. Initially, he does what most of us would do in his position: he takes the money and benefits that the company offers him in return for silence. After all, the guy has a family to look out for. But then Wigand is tortured over his passiveness, wondering if he should take a more aggressive stance with his potentially damaging knowledge. 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman, sensing a big story in the works, tries to coax Wigand into talking. An energetic Al Pacino, who fights to get the story on the air, only to have it snuffed by CBS, plays Bergman here. Allegedly, the television network was possibly up for sale around the time of this story, and airing it might have damaged their image with controversy, making it less appealing to potential suitors. This, coupled with the threat of lawsuit from Brown and Williamson, made CBS refuse to air the story. The Insider portrays these events as a crusade on the part of Bergman and Wigand to get the truth out there, against the will of Big Business and Bigger Tobacco. And while Bergman is never portrayed as much more than a journalist with an uncharacteristic amount of integrity, Wigand is a great character to follow as he tries to balance out everything around him. Tortured and sleepless, his reactions are what you would expect from someone forced to choose between the safety of his family with the gravity of what he knows. Most of it makes for edge of your suit viewing. Suspense abounds, and AL Pacino's confrontations with the "evil" corporate executives, censors, and whatnot are the centerpiece of the movie. He gets to climb up on the soapbox and belt out a few speeches about truth and justice and freedom and right and wrong and all that other fun stuff. It's tense, and it's really quite fascinating, actually. From a dramatic standpoint, this movie couldn't have asked for better performances. Gina Gershon makes an appearance in the movie as a tough, icy corporate attorney for CBS. As a standard caricature of faceless law more interested in money than people, she's fabulous. The Insider runs at over two and half hours, but always remains interesting and never drags. The biggest issue I have with this movie is how it so comfortably passes itself off as an unbiased, historical representation of what happened between real life executive Jeffrey Wigand, real life producer Lowell Bergman, and real life corporation Brown and Williamson. The problem is that the movie is so well crafted and so interesting that it's very easy to accept it as 100% Grade A Truth. However, this is clearly Wigand's story, and closer inspection would reveal that the main characters here are just a little too perfect to be real. Did Bergman really storm into the offices of CBS and rant and rave the way AL Pacino does in this movie? Some words might have been exchanged, but it's hard to believe anything as dramatic as what's depicted in The Insider could have happened for real. They would have likely said, "Okay, calm down, have a cup of coffee, have

Course Evaluation Essay Sample

Course Evaluation Essay SampleIf you are having a hard time with your final paper, try writing a course evaluation essay sample to help you out. These essays are generally used in both the undergraduate and graduate level.You want to write an essay that uses recent data to support your arguments. In the graduate level, most programs don't give you the chance to create your own argument. They will let you choose a specific topic from a short list. This list can range from a significant event in history, the first half of a conversation between two people or a series of events from one or more years in college.Firstly, make sure that you understand how the essay will be graded. What are the criteria? Generally speaking, every essay must include at least three major points, if not four. The most important point is the conclusion, which usually begins with a question mark and answers the questions that the reader may have.Some colleges give no direction when it comes to the main point of the essay. They just ask for a specific topic or even an alternative topic. So for example, if you ask your reader 'what was the most significant event in their life' they could also ask you to provide information about a student who died recently. However, this doesn't mean that you can't come up with some other alternatives.A student's major or area of concentration is often used as the basis for an argument. So if you are writing about the events surrounding an election you might mention that politics is a field with many fields to fill, thus showing that students always need new ideas. It would be good to also discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the candidates, but only briefly because the purpose of the essay is to support your argument. For instance, if you were to start the argument by saying that an extra candidate could not have won the election, you would probably fail your course evaluation essay, but if you later mentioned that the second candidate had certain quali ties that could not be found in the first candidate, you could very well get an A.Instead of using analysis sections, you could also use a 'last paragraph' or conclusion to help get the point across. Since the essay should answer the reader's questions, you should have a conclusion that builds the argument and directly addresses the reader's main questions.The conclusion section should not end the evaluation essay. If you really want to make a persuasive argument, the conclusion should say something like 'The problem with the argument is that it requires a change in thinking.' It should also point out the faults in the argument and what needs to be done in order to fix them. While this will do nothing to change the score, it could help to make it more persuasive and likely to receive an A.Your grade will depend on whether you use your analysis section effectively or not. On a specific topic, if you use the analysis sections, you may earn a D or an B, depending on how well you do in the argument. On a general topic, you may still get and if you use the analysis well, but a C if you are not so well spoken.