Web of secrets

The Fifth Estate (15)
Running time 128 minutes
Rating:***

The ever-shifting world of the Internet, with its modems, codes, passwords and other geekery, is a constant puzzle to most people who have yet to fully grasp how important it is.
The idea of a separate and complex subliminal world operating by different rules to the normal, that offers tantalising glimpses of its power, is one that fascinates the computer cognoscenti, puzzles the vast majority of the world, and appals those in power.
For the Web, its users – and possible abusers – are beyond the control of the normal organs of State control and regulation through its fog of camouflage and trickery.
And the people who have the key to the Web world – such as Julian Assange – are to be feared by those in nominal control. The Fifth Estate is the story, told from a reasonably objective point of view, of Julian, his creation WikiLeaks, and its battle over that most powerful of control instruments – information.
The film, directed by Bill Condon (Twilight, Breaking Dawn), is the account of how Australian-born Assange rose from being a child hacker to the head of an organisation that threatened to topple dictators, corrupt banks and immoral armed forces.
It is told largely through the eyes of Julian’s one-time friend, Daniel Berg (Daniel Bruhl), who later was seen as a bitter enemy because of ethical arguments over releasing secret information that potentially could put people’s lives at risk.
It portrays Julian (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) as obsessive, principled, egotistical, manipulative, charismatic, awkward to the point of paranoia, and as relatively normal people in the world of newspaper journalism found out, at times very difficult to deal with.
Like many pieces of information on the Web, coming to any decision about Assange is impossible, his perceived character changing like a reflection in a very slightly distorted mirror.
But there is no doubt that it is a fascinating story that, against all the odds, emerges as a good film, because it doesn’t take any (obvious) liberties with the truth.
The newspaper world emerges as slow, ponderous, and forced to co-operate with Assange through self interest and a desire to reveal at least part of the truth about the misdeeds of people in power who take liberties because they think no-one is watching.
The film tries to portray both sides of the argument, showing the damage that can be done through revealing some truthes, and also the damage that is done by concealing them.
It’s not a film for a light-hearted evening of entertainment, but it’s a fascinating movie about history still in the making.
Note: The film title refers to the Four Estates of Society – the Commons, the Lords Temporal, the Lords Spiritual and the Press, with the fifth estate being Internet users.