Interviewer: What drives you?
Julian Assange: Well, I like being creative, I mean I am an inventor and all.....I also like defending victims. And I'm a combative person, so I like crushing bastards....and so this profession combines all three things and hence it is deeply, and personally satisfying.
Written and directed by Alex Gibney (of Enron:The Smartest Guys In The Room fame), We Steal Secrets is the story of Wikileaks, the whistle-blowing website founded by Julian Assange. While trying to tell the story of Wikileaks, this documentary inevitably leads to making judgments about the character of Assange.
As the patriot vs traitor debate rages on, it brings up the tarnished claim of Wikileaks that never has been the identity of an informer compromised. Of course, until Bradley Manning. Although questions can be raised about Assange's true intentions and his persecution complex, there is no doubt that the true victim here is Bradley Manning. And somewhere along the way, the documentary moves to the more interesting part of Bradley Manning vs The State. The moment the classified documents became public knowledge and another American hacker, Adrian Lamo, turned Bradley in to the authorities, there were all kinds of stories about his sexual orientation, former bosses corroborating the stories about his wayward ways, etc - a systematic character assassination. When he was recently convicted on 22 counts for "aiding the enemy" and could possibly receive the death sentence, the question still remains unanswered - who exactly is the enemy? Is it anyone who stands up to the Government? As one of the clips shows Ron Paul saying, "Wasn't it once considered patriotic to stand up to the wrong-doings of the Government?" When we see a teary-eyed Adrian Lamo wishing it had never happened - he endangering Bradley's safety for the perceived safety of others - the only party left to be blamed is the Government. Or as one interviewee mentions, it's a "politically motivated act of vengeance against someone who hasn't damaged national security, but has caused embarrassment".
Coming back to the story of Assange, the documentary interviews the two women who had accused Assange of rape. Amidst rumors that one of the women was a CIA agent, the documentary tries to make light of it and is more sympathetic towards the two women and questions why Assange has been resisting being extradited to Sweden to face justice. Well, isn't it obvious? Even if the CIA agent story might be a stretch, it could very well be a trap. Moving on from there, we are shown some interviews of Assange where he is questioned about the lives he puts at risk by going public with classified information. In one of them he specifically mentions if an Afghan civilian is helping the American soldier, then he deserves to die. Well, that's truly debatable. In some cases, it's not as black or white as he thinks it is and his "Lights on...rats out" theory does not hold.
There are lots of notorious hackers, but no one has ever done what Assange did and remained alive for so long. After reaching a cult-like status, one's ego can definitely feed to his delusions and can lead to feelings of persecution when anyone questions his character, rightly or wrongly. However, if you call it paranoia, it's exactly that what has kept him alive. Surprisingly there is no mention of Michael Hastings, the reporter from Rolling Stones who empathized with Assange and was killed in a "car accident" at the age of 33. The best way for Alex Gibney would have been to just state the facts without portraying Assange in a way as it tries to do. By bringing on former employees of Wikileaks and trying to depict Assange as a man who is turning into the character that he despised himself, the case can be made void by depicting his former colleagues as "disgruntled employees". In the end, with so many vested interests, it's impossible to separate the facts from the fiction. And with the wave of sympathy for Assange, it could very well explain the low rating of the documentary on IMDB. Even though I would fall in the category of Assange supporters, this is a well-made documentary overall with small lapses here and there. Everything, after all, becomes a matter of opinion.
Rating: 7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment