This week, a look back at The Fifth Estate. This Dreamworks Pictures movie was one of many films to be produced by the Spielberg led company and released in the dying days of Touchstone. Is The Fifth Estate worth celebrating and claiming as a Disney classic? Or should it be forgotten in the vault of Walt?
Logline
Daniel Berg is languishing away in his mediocre job when he encounters Julian Assange. They know each other, and when Berg learns about Assange’s work at his upstart news site WikiLeaks, Berg believes he has found his calling.
Joining the eccentric Assange, the duo crafts WikiLeaks into a premiere website for whistleblowers to submit their documents about the wrongdoings of their employers and governments. Soon the site is inundated with submissions, and Berg starts to learn that the army of volunteers that is processing the work is really a small group of one led by Assange.
The years pass and more and more information are made public through WikiLeaks. When an American soldier leaks a ground-breaking number of documents stolen from the US government, WikiLeaks is front and center. Within the handed over treasure trove of documents is classified information that chronicles the true cost of what has happened in Iraq, Afghanistan, and diplomatic communications from around the world.
Assange is elated at the level of recognition and impact that WikiLeaks is about to have, while Berg is concerned about the safety of the people mentioned in the documents. Angered by Assange’s refusal to redact personal information, Berg and Assange split upon the release of the documents, never to be friends again.
High Praise
The actors and director make this story live as well as it does. Cumberbatch and Bruhl are perfect opposite pairs. They work well in their combative roles and make The Fifth Estate compelling thanks to their work.
Director Bill Condon is a fantastic director who knows timing, pacing, and can ramp up the thriller factor in a movie about computer hackers and whistleblowers.
What Were They Thinking?
I did not enjoy this movie. At all.
The problem for me is not the actors, or the script, and it certainly wasn’t the scenery. The European setting was incredible.
My biggest problem with the film is that I could not care for Julian Assange or the story of WikiLeaks. I know that since the movie is based on Daniel Domscheit-Berg’s book, which means that objectivity is probably questionable at best, but setting that aside, I just didn’t care.
The debate about freedom of information compared to the illegal publication of private and confidential documents that could cost people their lives, doesn’t make for thrilling entertainment. The publication of confidential sources by WikiLeaks scares me, because people who advocate for the rights of everyone are blatantly putting people who risk their lives in the interest of good in danger.
This movie has Stanley Tucci, Anthony Mackie, and Laura Linney, and they barely get any screen time. What a shame.
There is much comparison between the Pentagon Papers and what WikiLeaks published from the US government, but they are vastly different. I want to like The Fifth Estate, but I can’t because I do not like the subject matter.
Backlot Knowledge
- Julian Assange reportedly emailed Benedict Cumberbatch before filming began encouraging the actor not to participate in the film.
- The film won the Golden Fleece Award at the Golden Trailer Awards.
- Director Bill Condon won the Audience Choice Award at the Chicago International Film Festival for his work on the film.
- Benedict Cumberbatch won a BAFTA award for British Artist of the Year in 2013. His work on The Fifth Estate was credited with a long list of work that year for his award.
- The character of Ziggy is based on the WikiLeaks volunteer Sigurdur Thordarson. He went on to be an FBI informant.
- James McAvoy was originally cast to play Daniel Berg but had to drop out over his commitments to his role in the stage play Macbeth.
- WikiLeaks was less than pleased with the film, and thought it did great damage to the true honest work they were trying to accomplish.
- Jeremy Renner was reportedly very interested in playing Assange in the film back in 2012.
- The title sequence to the film took over a year to create.
- Star Trek fans will recognize Sarah Shaw’s source Dr. Tarek Haliseh who is played by Alexander Siddig from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Critical Response
{Snub-Skip this Film, Overexposed-Desperate for Something to Watch, Money Shot-A Perfect Film For Any Device, Magic Hour– You Must Watch This Film on a Big Screen, Award Worthy– This Film is Cinema.}
The Fifth Estate gets the Snub award. I want to be interested in the intricacies of what happens with WikiLeaks and how they have grown to hold countries and companies accountable for misdeeds, but the central figures of Berg and Assange are not likable people, nor are they heroic in my opinion.
In my mind true heroism is doing the right thing that is in the best interests of everyone, without putting lives in danger. For such a worldly topic, the movie was a box office failure, and one to forget.
Call Sheet
- Benedict Cumberbatch as Julian Assange
- Daniel Bruhl as Daniel Berg
- Alicia Vikander as Anke
- David Thewlis as Nick Davies
- Peter Capaldi as Alan Rusbridger
- Stanley Tucci as James Boswell
- Anthony Mackie as Sam Coulson
- Laura Linney as Sarah Shaw
Productions Team:
Directed by Bill Condon
Produced by Touchstone Pictures / Dreamworks Pictures / Reliance Entertainment
Written by Daniel Domscheit-Berg / David Leigh / Luke Harding
Release Date: October 18, 2013
Budget: $28 million
Domestic Box Office Gross: $3,255,008
Worldwide Box Office Gross: $9,058,564
Coming Attractions
Next week, a look back at the 1991 Hollywood Pictures thriller, Run. Somewhere in another timeline, Patrick Dempsey was the biggest action hero of the 1990s.