The Fifth Estate (2013)

A dramatic thriller based on real events that reveals the quest to expose the deceptions and corruptions of power that turned an Internet upstart into the 21st century's most fiercely debated organization.

Director:

Bill Condon

Writers:

Daniel Domscheit-Berg (book), David Leigh (book)

Stars:

Benedict Cumberbatch, Daniel Brühl, Carice van Houten

2 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Peter Capaldi	...	Alan Rusbridger
David Thewlis	...	Nick Davies
Anatole Taubman	...	Holger Stark
Alexander Beyer	...	Marcel Rosenbach
Philip Bretherton	...	Bill Keller
Dan Stevens	...	Ian Katz
Daniel Brühl	...	Daniel Berg
Benedict Cumberbatch	...	Julian Assange
Jamie Blackley	...	Ziggy
Ludger Pistor	...	Supervisor
Alicia Vikander	...	Anke Domscheit
Michael Kranz	...	Otto
Christin Nichols	...	Otto's Girlfriend
Christoph Franken	...	Game Console Hacker
Ben Rook	...	Young Julian

Storyline

The 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. On a shoestring, they create a platform that allows whistle-blowers to anonymously leak covert data, shining a light on the dark recesses of government secrets and corporate crimes. Soon, they are breaking more hard news than the world's most legendary media organizations combined. But when Assange and Berg gain access to the biggest trove of confidential intelligence documents in U.S. history, they battle each other and a defining question of our time: what are the costs of keeping secrets in a free society-and what are the costs of exposing them?

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Plot Keywords:

internet | pantyhose | red pantyhose | female stockinged legs | female stockinged feet | 

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Taglines:

You can't expose the world's secrets without exposing yourself.

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Genres:

Biography | Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and some violence

Did You Know?

Trivia

On September 18 2013, Wikileaks released a mature version of the complete script to the public, because "the film is, from WikiLeaks' perspective, irresponsible, counterproductive and harmful." They also published a "Talking Points" memo "because it represents a frank internal appraisal of [the film] and what is wrong with it."

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Goofs

After Julian and Daniel fight and finally split up there is a shot of the streets outside Daniel's apartment by night. Two cars drive past backwards, revealing the film has been played in reverse.

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Quotes

Sarah Shaw: You don't want ugly pictures, you should stay out of ugly wars.

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Connections

Referenced in The Graham Norton Show: Harrison Ford/Benedict Cumberbatch/Jack Whitehall/James Blunt (2013)

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Soundtracks

Dumb Animals
Written by Dan Boeckner and Alexei Perry
Performed by Handsome Furs
Courtesy of Sub Pop Records

User Reviews

Cumberbatch shines in a dull and only occasionally interesting account of the Wikileaks story

You know what they say – you wait for a bus and then two come along at once. After causing a media frenzy in recent years, Julian Assange and his whistleblowing website WikiLeaks have found their way to the big screen this year, twice. Earlier in the year, the documentary 'WikiLeaks: We Steal Secrets' was released to highly positive reviews and a lengthy complaint from Assange himself. Now, we have Bill Condon's dramatic (and according to some, heavily fictionalised) account of the history of the now-infamous website and its founder. 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. Despite this, Cumberbatch didn't, instead delivering an excellent and nuanced performance that never feels like an impersonation. On the flipside, Cumberbatch is far-and-away the best thing in the film.

That's not to imply that 'The Fifth Estate' is a bad film by any means, it's just that it's regularly flat and occasionally boring. Many have compared it to David Fincher's 2010 masterpiece 'The Social Network' and the similarities do exist (the foundation of a revolutionary website involving two different people who eventually fall out over said site), but the difference is that this film lacks the spark and most importantly, the compelling dialogue of the latter. When making a film such as this centred on dialogue, it is imperative to make the talk as gripping as possible, but despite trying their best, the conversations here are only sporadically attention-grabbing. 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. As well as Cumberbatch, Daniel Brühl is very good as Assange's partner Daniel Domscheit-Berg, while David Thewlis is as usual, a pleasure to watch, here playing the best on screen Guardian journalist since Paddy Considine in 'The Bourne Ultimatum'. Overall though, the film is not as good as its star – it's a plodding and unremarkable account of one of the biggest new stories in recent history.

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook

Country:

USA India Belgium

Language:

English Icelandic Swahili Arabic

Release Date:

18 October 2013 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Man Who Sold the World

Filming Locations:

Hoeilaart, Belgium

Box Office

Budget:

$28,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$1,673,351, 20 October 2013

Gross USA:

$3,255,008

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$9,058,564

Company Credits

Production Co:

DreamWorks, Reliance Entertainment, Participant

Technical Specs

Runtime:

128 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital Datasat SDDS

Color:

Color Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1