Beau Jangles
BA 20217-2
Professor Downey
Final Paper
12/12/17
In the film “The Insider” (which was adapted from actual events) Russell Crowe portrays
Jeffery Wigand, a formerly high-ranking executive for the Brown and Williamson tobacco
company who was unceremoniously let go after he “blew the whistle” and spoke up regarding
the safety of an additive the company wanted to begin putting into the cigarettes it
manufactured. Wigand was strong armed into signing a confidentiality agreement stipulating he
not speak of his time with the company and any information he may have found out about
during his tenure there. The movie focuses on Jeffery’s decision about whether or not to go
public with the information about the company knowingly and purposefully endangering lives,
and how that decision ultimately effects his life, and the lives of those closest to him.
Jeffery’s life was completely turned upside down and inside out because of his desire to
tell the truth. He felt it was his duty. Even though in telling the truth he violated his confidentiality
agreement, he was convinced he was doing the right thing. Wigand seems to take a utilitarian
view of ethics this was so strong he lost his family, economic position, and his privacy. He knew,
that the cost would be high, however the true measure of the cost I’m sure he didn’t know, yet
he was compelled to uphold integrity. In an interview with Rick Lyman of the New York Times,
when asked if he would do it again, Jeff had this to say: “Yes,” he said. ”There is no stuttering
here. There is no hesitation. I am at peace with myself. I have a good name now. It’s a very
good name and I protect it very much. My name stands for integrity. I can’t describe to you what
it is like to have that feeling.” (Lyman, Rick “A Tobacco Whistleblower’s Life is Transformed.”)
I wonder if perhaps even if Jeffery Wigand had chosen to uphold his confidentiality
agreement if he would still have lost his family. Issues of morality tend to weigh heavy on a
person. He may have become volatile with his family as a result of the guilt gnawing away inside
of him. At what point does a person stop being an employee and start being a dad, or a wife,
etc.? Everyone is multifaceted. It’s interesting that the tobacco company started haranguing and
threatening his family. They hit him where it hurt.
Also of note to me is his wife’s role in all of this. It seems a business is not much
different than a marriage. You enter into it with grand ideas of how things are going to go, but
when things get difficult is when you really find out the true character, you’re down to the mettle
so to speak. I have no idea what Jeffery Wigand was like to live with, he may have been doing
the right thing in this circumstance while not being considerate of his wife and family. It is said
that he hid things from his wife. Communication is key in many aspects of life, relationships are
