Thirty-years ago when people wanted to get
their news they would sit around a box and watch “Newsmen” deliver the world’s
daily happenings. You trusted that
person and they became almost a part of your family, but times have changed
now. Today everybody can be a “Newsman”, all you need is a computer and you can
maybe change the world. In 2006 a man named Julian Assange founded a website
called “Wikileaks” and changed the way information was shared forever.
There is
a formulation that dates back to the eighteenth century that describes any
class or group in society. You have clergy (First Estate), the nobility (Second
Estate), the commoners (Third Estate), and the press (Forth Estate). The
blogosphere started to refer to itself as the Fifth Estate. The movie “The
Fifth Estate” focuses on Julian Assange and the information that his site
“Wilileaks” released from 2008 to 2010. Julian (Benedict Cumberbatch) always
believed you could change the world by the information that was released. So he
decided that he would design a site where people could share secrets
anonymously, and unedited. Julian would attract a certain type of person and
inspire them to want to help him in his cause. One such person was Daniel Berg
(Daniel Bruhl), who with Julian, would go on to release classified documents
that would shock the world.
“Wikileaks”
changed how information was revealed. Yes, there have always been
whistleblowers, but they went through a filter by the time we got the news. We
were told what someone thought we should know, and not the whole unabridged
truth. When “Wikileaks” started releasing the information they did, they put it
all out there, and did not edit it to protect the innocent. Unfortunately for
us “The Fifth Estate” is not as exciting as what actually happened. Directed by
Bill Condon (Kinsey) and adapted for the screen by Josh Singer, from two
different books, one even written by Daniel Berg himself. The movie paces it’s
self and the movie moves too slow and you feel like the filmmakers missed out
on a great opportunity. They could have told a story about a man willing to go
to any extremes to release information that he thought the world should know.
At about the midpoint of the film, you start to feel like you are about to be
taken on a ride, as we watch Assange and Berg try and release the largest
amount of classified material ever. I think though that they put that part in
the movie to keep you awake, because it doesn't take long for it to start to go
back to its snail’s pace. Both Benedict Cumberbatch and Danial Bruhl are
excellent in their roles and deserved a better vessel for their performances. I
sometimes think that great stories are hard to turn into great movies, because
of the subject matter. Is it because of the stories size? Or is it sometimes
you just can’t duplicate the greatness that is the real
story? Either way I think “Wikileaks” deserves a better retelling, but until
then, this is one movie that can be skipped.
Brian Taylor
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