Big tobacco whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand got the star treatment in 1999, when he was portrayed onscreen by Russell Crowe in “The Insider.” Big tobacco whistleblower Victor DeNoble, on the other hand, plays himself in the new documentary “Addiction Incorporated.” It’s not just the difference in star power that makes the latter film pale in comparison. The story itself seems worn by now. Thanks to films like “The Insider,” the “60 Minutes” segment on which that film was based, and countless articles and documentaries, we all know that cigarettes are addictive and harmful to health — and that the people who have sold them have known this, too.
“Addiction Incorporated” still tells a decent tale, though — one that’s more interesting the less it is about tobacco. It’s the human story here that proves most engaging. We learn how DeNoble became the first person in his family to attend college — his dad told him it would be a good place to meet “smart girls” — and eventually set his sights on a research career in academia. That was until Philip Morris called.
| On screen |
| ‘Addiction Incorporated’ |
| Stars: Victor DeNoble, Walt Bogdanich, Joe Bruno |
| Director: Charles Evans Jr. |
| Rated: PG for thematic material involving smoking and addiction, and for some language |
| Running time: 100 minutes |
| 2 stars out of 4 |
The scientist found himself at a tobacco firm because the project intrigued him: He was to find a substitute for nicotine that would have the same “pull” — i.e., addictive qualities — but without the negative effects on the heart. In other words, DeNoble was tasked with making a safer cigarette. Who wouldn’t want to help save lives by making a dangerous product less dangerous? “I thought this was the greatest company in the world,” he says.
DeNoble was a good investigative researcher. Too good, it turned out. He not only had success in his experiments on rats with nicotine, he discovered that another agent in tobacco also had addictive properties. Those at the top of the company soon realized that they had hired someone who was creating proof — on paper — that their products were addictive. They fired him and closed the lab.
That happened in the 1980s, but didn’t come out until the 1990s, when congress persuaded Philip Morris to release DeNoble from his confidentiality agreement. That must have been some impressive persuasion: His testimony damned an entire industry.
Charles Evans Jr., making his directorial debut, tries to liven up this old story with re-enactments. But the animated segments he inserts come off as goofy, not gripping.
What his story needed was something fresh. Tobacco company executives are easy to vilify. But nicotine is not, in fact, the most harmful ingredient in a cigarette, though it might be the most addictive. Thousands of smokers have successfully quit the habit — one of the hardest to quit — using electronic cigarettes, which deliver nicotine without the tar and other carcinogens. Governments have started cracking down on their use, though. Here’s a question a young documentarian might ask: Does the government really want people with an addiction to get their drug in the most dangerous way possible?
