The Fifth Estate

Plot synopsis:
The story opens in 2010, with the release of the Afghan War Logs. It then flashes back to 2007, where journalist Daniel Domscheit-Berg meets Australian computer hacker Julian Assange for the first time, at the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin. Daniel's interest in online activism has led him to Assange, with whom he has corresponded by email. They begin working together on WikiLeaks, a website devoted to releasing information being withheld from the public while retaining anonymity for its sources. Their first major target is a private Swiss bank, Julius Baer, whose Cayman Islands branch has been engaged in illegal activities. Despite Baer's filing of a lawsuit and obtaining an injunction, the judge dissolves the injunction, allowing Julian and Daniel to reclaim the domain name. As their confidence increases, the two push forward in publishing information over the next three years, including secrets on Scientology, revealing Sarah Palin's email account, and the membership list of the British National Party.
At first Daniel enjoys changing the world, viewing WikiLeaks as a noble enterprise and Assange as a mentor. However, the relationship between the two becomes strained over time. Daniel loses his job and problems arise in his relationship, particularly concerning the BNP membership leak, which also revealed the addresses of the people involved, and caused several to lose their jobs. Assange openly mocks Daniel's concerns about these issues, implying his own life has been more troubling. Assange's abrasive manner and actions, such as abandoning Daniel at his parents' house after having accepted their dinner invitation, only deepen the strain further. Interspersed throughout the film are flashbacks hinting at Assange's troubled childhood and involvement in a suspicious cult, and that Assange's obsession with WikiLeaks has more to do with childhood trauma than wanting to improve the world. Daniel begins to fear that Assange may be closer to a con-man than a mentor. He also notices that Assange constantly gives different stories about why his hair is white. Assange at first tells Daniel that WikiLeaks has hundreds of workers, but Daniel later finds out that Daniel and Assange are the only members. Most importantly to Daniel, Assange frequently claims that protecting sources is the website's number one goal. However, Daniel begins to suspect that Assange only cares about protecting sources so people will come forward and that Assange does not actually care who gets hurt by the website, though Assange claims that the harm the website may cause is outweighed by good the leaks create. Daniel's girlfriend tells him that she believes in his cause, but that it's his job to prevent Assange from going too far.
The tensions come to a head when Bradley Manning (later known as Chelsea Manning) leaks hundreds of thousands of documents to WikiLeaks, including a video of an airstrike in Baghdad, the Afghan and Iraq War Logs, and 250,000 US Diplomatic Cables. Assange wants to leak the documents immediately, but Daniel insists that they review the documents first. Later, several major newspapers agree to cooperate with WikiLeaks in releasing the documents while spinning WikiLeaks positively. However, both Daniel and the newspapers require the names in the documents be redacted both to protect sources and to assist in the media spin, to which Assange reluctantly agrees. Daniel realizes that Assange has no intention of following through on this promise and is grooming a right-hand man to replace Daniel. The newspapers release the redacted documents. The resulting media and public uproar forces informants to flee from their countries of residence and many U.S. diplomats to resign. Before Assange can go further, however, Daniel and the other members of the original WikiLeaks team delete the site and block Assange's access to the server.
Daniel later talks with a reporter from The Guardian, and the two fear that giving Assange such a large platform was a mistake. The reporter tells Daniel that while Assange may be untrustworthy, he had done a good thing by uncovering secret dealing in the government and business world and attempting to protect sources. Daniel also reveals the real reason for Assange's hair colour—that it had been a custom of the cult he had been part of in Australia—and reports that he once accidentally discovered Assange dyeing it that colour.
As the film ends, it is revealed that WikiLeaks is continuing to leak information (with Assange implied to have either regained the site or rebuilt it), and the Manning documents were released with no redactions. Daniel has written a book on his involvement with the organization on which this film was based, and Assange has threatened to sue in retaliation. Assange is shown to be living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid arrest on an outstanding warrant for alleged sex crimes. In an interview, he denounces the two upcoming WikiLeaks films, stating that they will be factually inaccurate (having been partly based on Daniel's book). He informs the viewer that individuals are what the government is afraid of and claims that hiring Daniel was the one mistake he made.

Tags: cult, intrigue, murder, sci-fi, flashback

Review:
Nor that it plays just once per day, at 9pm, at my local Cineworld compared to five screenings per day for Captain Phillips, eight for Ender's Game and fourteen for Thor: The Dark World.But Bill Condon's (Gods and Monsters, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn) film about Wikileaks founder and hero/pariah (delete according to your political stance) Julian Assange really isn't that bad.
It consumes 8 minutes more of your time than The Social Network, feels twice as long, is far more arduous and will require just a single viewing, compared to repeat visits for the Facebook flick.Trudging through the meeting of the ultimate whistleblower Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Daniel Berg (Daniel Brühl), the explosion of Wikileaks in the public's perception, the shadowy deals with The Guardian and the fall out from countless exposés about underhand dealings from governments and corporations, The Fifth Estate spews out a huge amount of information but never quite manages to get down to the gritty truth.It feels cluttered and more of a lecture than a movie and I'm not sure I know a great deal more about Assange now than I did yesterday.
But Thewlis' performance is evened out by able turns from the new Doctor Who, Peter Capaldi, Laura Linney and Stanley Tucci, though with so many characters vying for screen time and Condon battling to squeeze in as much information as possible alongside some outdated 80s techniques (text across faces, anyone?), they, too are lost in the mêlée.The Fifth Estate isn't a great film and it may not be terribly truthful (the jury's still out on that one) but, despite it's flaws, I still enjoyed it.
As Cumberbatch wrote in his response to Assange, "the film should provoke debate and not consensus." And in that, at least, The Fifth Estate succeeds admirably.For more reviews from The Squiss, subscribe to my blog and like the Facebook page..
The Fifth EstatePlot In his quest to make information free for everyone whistle blower Julian Assange takes on the kingpins of the world by raging a sophisticated ,new age war that threatens to shake the foundations of diplomacy and overthrow established regimes .It tells the story behind the rise and fall of wiki leaks and of its creator ;Julian Assange who some people call a visionary and some a threat to national security .The story revolves around the complex character of Assange and explores his relationship with Daniel Berg ,one of the spokespersons for Wikileaks.Script The Fifth estate is loosely based on the book "Inside WikiLeaks" by Daniel berg and uses real life examples as key points to narrate the story.
If the makers wanted a boring narration of the events that are already available online why did make all the efforts to make a movie and waste a talent like Mr Cumberbatch?The script is written to explore the association of Assange and Berg but fails to do so and only creates a one dimensional sketch of a Multidimensional relationship.
Other parts of the movie are outwardly boring and dimensionless which makes it a Prime time News at max when the viewers expected a thrilling and insightful leak into the life of one of the most Controversial public figures of the 21st Century.Direction Its Difficult to understand why Bill Condon was chosen as a director for such a controversial public figure (Mr Condon is the director of Twilight :Breaking Dawn 1 and 2, Now you get it ,right?).His lack of control of the story and the essence of Julian Assange's character is visible throughout the 128 minutes , his lack of understanding of the character is the prime reason why this movie fails to hit the right chords.Performances Benedict Cumberbatch is the reason why you should watch this movie is watchable throughout its runtime.The expression, body language ,non- verbal cues are exactly like Julian Assanges.Though Assange refused to meet when benedict requested him so that he could understand him better ,citing faults in the script which he disapproved, still he managed to bring such a complex character to life on screen with panache .He is one of the most exemplary actors of this modern world of cinema.Final Word The only reason why you may want to watch the movie is Benedict Cumberbatch.
I know I'm in the minority, but I liked "The Fifth Estate." Others will agree with me, though, that the best thing about it is Benedict Cumberbatch, who does brilliant job as Julian Assange.I come at this film from a slightly different point of view because I still don't know what was so fabulous about "The Social Network." I understand the comparisons due to the similar stories.
That's all in the film, based on two books that we're told are biased.Still, The Fifth Estate raises some interesting questions and also talks about the challenges we face now with news going out onto the Internet.
Concentrating on the strengths at first, right off the bat, it's quite obvious just how exceptional the lead performances from Benedict Cumberbatch and Daniel Bruhl are, and as usual, Cumberbatch carries that impressive volume of charisma with him where you simply can't take your eyes off his mannerisms and speech (I believe I already noted this in my Star Trek review); in short, his portrayal of Julian Assange is terrifically veracious.
At the end of the day, The Fifth Estate is great in that it sparks a mixed reaction and requires both extreme sides of the table to continuously argue over the rightfulness or criminality of Wikileaks' existence and the path that Julian Assange took to see it to success.
Similarly to aforementioned documentary, 'The Fifth Estate' has notably been objected by Assange, who wrote to lead actor Benedict Cumberbatch outlining why he shouldn't take the role or have any part in the film.
Additionally, the sequences set inside the 'cyberspace' feel out-of-place and don't work at all.The film has good intentions and attempts to raise some interesting questions, as it successfully manages not to show favour to any side of the WikiLeaks argument, even going so as far as questioning the film itself, as we see Cumberbatch's Assange dismissing it in an interview.
I'll just leave to Wikileaks's response the task of identifying all the gross factual mistakes done by the movie (just search for 'wikileaks internal memo fifth estate').This film is a joke, the objective of tarnishing Assange's image is obvious from beginning to end.
Calling a movie about WikiLeaks "The Fifth Estate" begs the question: Can people who work with such an organization really be called journalists, are they lawbreakers, or are they something new and different, something that defies definition?
Even to the way Assange ties his scarf this film is complete make-believe, and is probably best given a wide berth for those interested in what really happened regarding the leaked US embassy cables.I've just watched Mediastan, which is a road movie recounting the distribution of the cables across central Asia and the obstacles encountered: geographical, political, security, and media.
As the Assange character in the movie puts it, "Whoever thought that we'd need extra servers to fight censorship attacks from the bastion of free speech?" The fostering of Fear is paramount in any Fascist society, and it was Hillary Clinton herself who said, "We recognize that the world's information infrastructure will become what we and others make of it." Wikileaks brought us as a nation face to face with our own hypocrisy and to this day fugitives who should be hailed as heroes are demonized by the Corporate Media.
There's a lot of talk of hypothetical harm that's been done to the American $urveillance $tate by whistleblowers, but a movie like THE FIFTH ESTATE , with its collateral characters and laughably overblown imagery, is simply disingenuous and does more real Harm than Good..
Bill Condon is at the helm of this controversial look at Julian Assange and Wikileaks, the organization which infamously leaked top secret documents, videos, and other highly classified information belonging to many of the world's governments starting back in December of '06.
All in all this movie is a good watch for those who are interested to know in depth about Julian Assange and Wikileaks in a non-documentary way!.
Through Daniel Berg's point of view, as a person, Assange is an odd, anti-social egomaniac who constantly invents stories about how his hair grew white, cares very little about the consequences coming after the exposure of corruption through the leaks, not thinking things through and is sometimes mean, cold and condescending towards individuals and his friends and family.Despite the positive things about him, such as his charisma, determination to change the world and the fantastic, wonderful things that his website Wikileaks has done, by the end of the film, he is still made out to be a liar and manipulator, wanted for rape in Sweden; a bad guy who's done a good thing with his website.
The movie stars Benedict Cumberbatch as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Daniel Bruhl as his partner in crime Daniel Domscheit-Berg.
The two lead actors are both great in the film but the movie itself is shamefully exploitative.The story explores how Julian Assange (Cumberbatch) and Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Bruhl) first met (in 2007) and started up the website WikiLeaks.
The movie also examines Assange's upbringing (and time spent in a cult) and Daniel's relationships with colleagues, family and friends.The film is somewhat suspenseful and adequately directed but it makes no effort whatsoever to hide it's true agenda; that of smearing WikiLeaks and it's founder Julian Assange.
Like I said the two lead performances are excellent though, especially Cumberbatch (who is supportive of WikiLeaks and communicated regularly with Assange during filming).
Director Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters, Kinsey, Dreamgirls, The Twilight Saga series) directs a film adapted from Daniel Domscheit-Berg's book "Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World's Most Dangerous Website" - along with another similar book by David Leigh and Luke Harding – adapted for the screen by Josh Singer – and in doing so brings considerable clarity to the WikiLeaks scandal in a way that more of us can understand the history and the concept behind this precursor to the contemporary fixation on spying.
It may by a bit long in the tooth, and perhaps it is one man's view, but the pacing of the action and the extraordinary way in which the concept developed is enlightening.The headlining true story begins as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his colleague Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Daniel Brühl) team up to become underground watchdogs of the privileged and powerful.
This is not a flattering portrait of Assange by any means because it draws on two books critical of him by people who have worked most closely with him and who feel that they have in a sense been betrayed by him, notably the German WikiLeaks expert Daniel Domscheit- Berg (played by Daniel Brühl) and colleagues of the British "Guardian" investigative journalist Nick Cohen (David Thewlis).In an age when the ability to obtain and store vast amounts of information on governments, corporations and individuals is ever more possible thanks to incredible development in technology, questions about the legitimacy of holding, using, abusing, and revealing such information are at the core of what privacy and protection mean in the age of all-powerful governments and armed fundamentalist groups.
By focusing on one US state official (played by Laura Linney) and one informer against his corrupt government, we are asked to appreciate that simply revealing everything that is leaked without careful redaction and the provision of context - arguably best done by conventional media like the "Guardian" newspaper - is literally playing with life and death.This is heavy stuff and director Bill Condon (previously director of bio-pics "Gods And Monsters" & "Kinsey") seeks to liven it up with some kinetic and flashy camera-work and surreal sets which actually detract from what needs to be a serious examination of an incredibly serious issue.
Creating debate by arguing both sides of the issue: Whether to release or whether to edit or whether to not even be involved.The movie makes you think about it, that people don't usually do when they simply see a video on youtube/internet about US and automatically assume the most evil things are happening.Everything Assange does can be considered dangerous to the lives of people around the world.
This film tells the story of the founder of Wikileaks, and the core volunteers work in building a secure platform to help whistle blowers to expose injustice."The Fifth Estate" starts off very impressive, with a collage of news and ways to deliver news in the last hundred years.
Script The Fifth estate is loosely based on the book "Inside WikiLeaks" by Daniel berg and uses real life examples as key points to narrate the story.
The Fifth Estate is a thriller film partly based on Daniel Domscheit-berg's book "Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange" and "the World's Most Dangerous Website" who had personal and legal disputes with WikiLeaks.
STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday MorningA biopic of Julian Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch), the infamous founder of Wiki Leaks, and his controversial exposes of various scandals and institutions around the world, whose personal and professional relationship with old friend Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Daniel Bruhl) faltered after he pushed the line further and further and the stakes grew steadily higher.Julian Assange is one of the most influential figures of our time, in a day and age where the internet has become so much of a more powerful tool for information than the printed media, especially with the British press being hit by the Leveson report, being the man behind a renegade website not constrained by any sort of injunction or code of conduct.
Being such a trendy modern actor, Cumberbatch is probably pretty ideal to be taking on the role of this socially awkward, ill mannered loner, who took on the establishment he felt so compressed by.The Fifth Estate is an enigma of a film, in the sense that it's a dramatization of one of the most interesting figures of modern times, that somehow by it's very nature is so boring.
Most people will compare this to the Social Network I'm sure, but it differs in the motivation behind this website.The story is about a computer programmer named Julian Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch) who creates the website Wikileaks to allow whistle-blowers to anonymously post confidential reports.
The Fifth Estate is a movie about the infamous WikiLeaks and the people who were behind it – mainly Julian Assange and Daniel Berg.
I personally belong to the small percentage of people who actually went to the theater to watch this biopic and, honestly, I wish that I didn't, since The Fifth Estate is more or less a waste of time.The movie focuses on Daniel Berg (Daniel Brühl), a programmer, who soon meets the charismatic Julian Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch), who then enlists Daniel in his WikiLeaks project.
Leaks r Us. There is an energy to the Wikileaks movie but the screenplay is just so plain that you just know the film is contrived by trying hard to be exciting.The Fifth Estate is about the biggest whistleblowers in history and the fractious relationship between Julian Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Daniel Bruhl.)The film is based partly on a book written by Daniel Domscheit-Berg and it shows.
I watched this movie at home on DVD from my public library system.Benedict Cumberbatch is good as the featured character, Julian Assange, who founded what became known as WikiLeaks, an internet based vehicle for illegally obtaining and widely distributing confidential information.
-The Fifth Estate is a 2013 thriller film directed by Bill Condon, about the news-leaking website WikiLeaks.
The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch as its editor-in-chief and founder Julian Assange, and Daniel Brühl as its former spokesperson Daniel Domscheit-Berg Anthony Mackie, David Thewlis, Alicia Vikander, Stanley Tucci, and Laura Linney are featured in supporting roles.
The movie clearly gives in-depth knowledge about Wikileaks site and the how the leaked data goes viral,U.S government is stunned by a common man Julian,his one idea and a load confidential data is just out there open for every single person.I wished the end should have been better,and a little boring movie but the concept of actual news was terrific.the power of media is clearly popping out and one man can seriously make a difference.real life story of Julian is taken from a book ,I think a lot is yet to be shown is hidden ,Some words like corruption was heard but its was not clear in the movie, more movies like this should come up which actually real facts.
The Fifth Estate is a dramatic biography based on these real events, and tells the story from the perspective of one of Assange's (Benedict Cumberbatch) colleagues, Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Daniel Bruhl).
There are also some great supporting roles to watch out for from the likes of David Thewlis, Peter Capaldi and Alicia Vikander, who all bring their own character's dimension to add to the mix.After I saw this film when it first came out I was interested in finding out more about what Julian Assange's perspective of the story was, and I came across a document published on the Wikileaks site giving his side of the story.
Everyone will of course have their own opinions about the events that unfolded surrounding this story, and I am not in any way dismissing the version presented in The Fifth Estate; instead I choose to believe that there is truth to be found in both the film and from Assange's perspective.
After watching "The Fifth Estate" it's one film that you may not understand and may be a little confused, that is if your not down with the business of the high tech and modern world of cyber crime and computer hacking as the film is based on the international WikiLeaks scandal and it's founder Julian Assange(Benedict Cumberbatch).