THE INSIDER - What Price Honesty ?

[I saw this movie several years back and so I can just recall a bird's eye view of it.]

It is the story repeated again and again in the history of humanity - how honest people get punished and tortured by others who are afraid of being exposed. Whether it is ancient Greece, Egypt or modern democracies like USA and India, the world is still unsafe for rebels who stand up to authority!! 

The Insider depicts one aspect of this continuing saga in a modern environment.  There are people struggling every day to retain their integrity as they and their families bear the consequences when they stand up to big companies and big governments. They may not be poisoned when they say that the earth is spherical and not flat and that the earth rotates around the sun and not the other way around, as they would have been in the ancient world, but they might be 'trapped' , isolated and punished by the 'system' . This system includes the network of TV, print and now the internet. 

Click for The Insider Movie Trailer

The Insider depicts such a true story of a professional employee who discovers that one of the cigarette BRAND his employer makes has a chemical that might not be safe for smokers. Yet, the company continues to sell that brand until that employee becomes a whistle-blower, at which point there are attempts to physically harm him and his family. He asks his wife and children to leave him so they can be safe. I believe it is on the CBS show '60 Minutes' that he exposes his employer. The constant threats to his life and the forced isolation take a toll on his mental health and he ends up as a school teacher instead of a highly paid employee of a big company!!

[Add to this, how an honest immigrant faces even more of a pressure and competition from the locals and others and you will notice that the equation becomes more complex!! At that point, even '60 Minutes' will become biased and not help him, you see.]