We Steal Secrets the Story of Wikileaks Review
'We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks' flick review
Julian Assange, eye, is a subject of Academy Honor winner Alex Gibney'south new documentary characteristic, "We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks," a Focus World release. (AP)
"We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks" tells its story largely past telling the story of Julian Assange, the Australian hacker-turned-activist who founded the WikiLeaks Spider web site in 2006 as a clearinghouse for information that others would have preferred to keep hidden. The documentary'due south focus on Assange is non surprising. He'due south the face of the organization, having get the focus of praise or blame — depending on your viewpoint — for the release of such textile as secret Icelandic banking documents, U.South. diplomatic cables, Afghan war logs and the notorious video showing a helicopter attack on unarmed civilians by American soldiers in Baghdad.
But who is Assange? By the cease of the film, the man is in hiding in London's Embassy of Ecuador, having sought aviary to avoid pending sexual assault charges in Sweden and possible criminal prosecution in the United States. Is he, as some take called him, a "punk idealist" or a paranoid hypocrite? Traitor or hero? Self-aggrandizing egomaniac or cocky-effacing champion of costless spoken communication?
Filmmaker Alex Gibney ("Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room") tries to be off-white — and succeeds — merely nigh of what we learn virtually Assange isn't especially flattering, even if y'all approve of what he has done in the name of openness. The portrait Gibney paints, past talking to supporters, detractors and former co-workers, is of an ideologue whose concerns about the theoretical access to unfettered data blinded him, in some cases, to the very real negative consequences of that access.
At best, Assange comes across as something of a noble jerk, a human being who doesn't intendance about embarrassing public figures who take done wrong. At worst, he comes across every bit a draconian sociopath, someone who wouldn't hesitate to publish unredacted details of military operations that might actually get people killed, simply to lie about information technology later on the fact by claiming that WikiLeaks had "systems" in identify to prevent potentially harmful disclosures. At that place weren't, according to several seemingly knowledgeable individuals, including Assange's former WikiLeaks colleagues.
The well-nigh delicious irony of the film is that Assange — that champion of free information — has by the end of the film become every bit tight-lipped equally a clam. As 1 interview subject notes, Assange recently began making assembly sign a nondisclosure understanding that includes a multimillion-dollar penalty for leaking information that WikiLeaks hasn't yet published.
Nevertheless there's some other graphic symbol in "We Steal Secrets" whose story looms almost as large as Assange's. That's Bradley Manning, the geeky U.Southward. Army private who is being court-martialed for leaking the helicopter video (dubbed "Collateral Murder") and the State Section cables to Assange's site. Gibney's moving-picture show too closely examines Manning's motivations.
It's hard to come up away from "We Steal Secrets" with any conclusion other than this: As troubled as Manning obviously was — a armed forces misfit who suffered from feet and gender-identity problems — his offense seems to have been that he genuinely cared as well much. It'south arguable that he was a whistleblower in the purest sense of the word, someone inspired to right wrongs, fifty-fifty if his own actions weren't legal.
Assange, on the other hand, seems guilty of caring too niggling — not simply about Manning, just about the strangers that his deportment might hurt.
Despite its wonky-Washington theme, "Nosotros Steal Secrets" ends up being a surprisingly soulful and, yes, even moving story of hubris, proficient intentions and mistakes. People weep in it, most notably Adrian Lamo, the hacker who turned Manning in.
In that location seems to exist a lot of regret to go around in the sad story of WikiLeaks. To some caste, anybody involved admits to feeling it, except for Assange.
★★★
R. At AFI Silvery Theatre. Contains violent images, obscenity and references to drugs and sexuality. 130 minutes.
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Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/we-steal-secrets-the-story-of-wikileaks-movie-review/2013/05/29/53858746-c30c-11e2-9fe2-6ee52d0eb7c1_story.html
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