We Steal Secrets: The Story Of WikiLeaks – Review

4th November 2013

It’s just as interesting to read the online comments as watching the film.

Alex Gibney must now be in the running for our greatest current documentarian. The man seems to release films of high quality at an alarming rate, yet none feel rushed or that he hasn’t given anything but his full consideration. This summer saw the release of ‘We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks’. With the recent release of Bill Condon’s ‘The Fifth Estate’ it seems the film world was champing at the bit to put the story of Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley) and the truth revealing enterprise up on screen. ‘We Steal Secrets’ (which incidentally is spoken by former Director of the CIA Michael Hayden) much like it’s feature drama counter-part shows the uprising of WikiLeaks, Assange and the principal leakage which brought them worldwide notoriety.

Reading up on the film online what has been just as fascinating as the film is to read into peoples interpretations of it. Some argue that Gibney has made an anti-Assange film, which also seeks to paint Chelsea Manning as a mentally incapable psychopath. Others have said the film is seeking to justify “crimes” which are tantamount to treason. I believe you take away from this film whatever your pre-conceived notions about the subject are. Assanage as a ‘character’ is described as a hero, a freedom fighter, justice seeker, a vagrant, manipulative and a rapist. Gibney tracks his rise, from the early days of hacking into NASA space program to his flight against rape charges. The film revels in his triumphs and downfalls. Toward the end Gibney describes his one and only meeting with Assange in which he asked for $1 million dollars for his participation. When Gibney declined Assange asked proposed that he would appear if the director were willing to pass on information given to him by other participants. His greatest crime seems to be that he has become the very thing he has also railed against, a secret-keeper. That and the fact he maybe a rapist.

It is really the story of Chelsea Manning though that gives ‘We Steal Secrets’ it’s emotional gut-punch. As interesting the story of Assange is there is only so much screen time you can take in the company of a man who clearly loves the smell of his own farts. In haunting re-telling’s of Manning’s correspondents to Adrian Lamo we see a person who is desperately at odds with the world around them, the system they find themselves and even they’re own body. It seems that Manning was already imprisoned within herself and the act of leaking of information not only acted as an act of bravery but even gave a fundamental purpose to her life (and yes that psychology 101 course is coming along nicely thank you). Again some have complained that ‘We Steal Secrets’ hold Manning up to be the great whistle-blower when he in fact endangered thousands of lives. Some see her representation to be a character assassination in order to discredit. I did not see either of these personally. That’s right I’m fence sitting again. I saw the presentation of correspondence that showed a deeply unhappy individual trying to decide what is wrong and what is right, yes music and colour give a sense that something dark is a-foot but hey there has to some filmic devices at work. Did she make the right decision? Time will be the ultimate tell on that front.

Which could be an argument against the film. The details of the film are so fresh that they have not been allowed to come to a resolution. The film leaves Mannings fate in the air when we now know of her 35 years sentence. Assange still remains holed up in London fighting the rape allegations which the film also discusses as a potential conspiracy. Maybe in a few years Gibney will gift us with ‘We Still Steal Secrets: This Time We’re More Secretive’ as a where-are-they-now follow up. You will take what you want away from the facts as Gibney presents but it can’t be denied that he has created something intriguing, disturbing, infuriating but ultimately very watchable.

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