Timing can make or
break a film. The documentary “We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks” is
superior in every way to “Fifth Estate,” the overcooked dramatization of anarchist/hacker
“journalist” Julian Assange. I saw the fictional film before this, a reversal
of their respective cinema rollouts. This is akin to fresh air. Director/writer
Alex Gibney compiles deft footage of an uncooperative Assange and his empire of
nerds to portray a group of rebels out to crash all-powerful, secret-obsessed
corporations and governments. But with fame comes power, and corruption.
Assange falls to paranoia and his own secrets, damn the costs. As well, we see
painful chat-room quotes from Private Bradley/Chelsea Manning, whose story also
figures heavily here. His tale is a film onto itself, a true whistleblower hero
to Assange’s loud bullhorn. As talking heads, U.S. spy chiefs and military
honchos alternately damn and dismiss Assange and Manning as blips on the NSA’s
endless, all-powerful eye of Sauron. Gibney lets us decide who is more
trustworthy, even if there are no “good guys,” and he -- thankfully -– does not
need hyperbolic lines or fake CGI desk-burning to let us know this is not history,
but a new, never-to-end struggle of truth. A-
Monday, January 6, 2014
We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks (2013)
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