WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is a very complex and troubled soul.  He wanted to expose the secrets of the world in his attempt to save the innocents, but THE FITH ESTATE chronicles the rise and fall of Julian Assange.   He recruits Daniel- a like-minded soul who wanted to expose corruption and tyranny with Julian.   In the end, Julian Assange created a hornet’s nest which had the US intelligence community scrambling to protect their sources while Daniel fights to control Julian’s ego as his fame grows.  

 

THE FIFTH ESTATE is an interesting character portrait of Julian Assange and his friend Daniel along with painting what was going on in the White House and the offices of the Guardian newspaper.  Benedict Cumberbatch brings his usual character twitchs to Julian Assange along with a few little bits you would recognize in Sherlock Holmes (on the Sherlock TV series).  Daniel Bruhl shows how Daniel was swept up with Julian’s quest only to be conflicted by how far Julian should go to expose the secrets about the US war against the Taliban in Afghanistan.  To get a better picture of who Julian Assange is, you should watch UNDERGROUND: THE JULIAN ASSANGE STORY to understand his early years followed by THE FIFTH ESTATE to understand the WikiLeaks story of how information flows so freely now (while now corporations and governments are trying to censor the freedom of information with bills like SOPA and the TransPacific Partnership (TPP)).  Julian Assange had the right idea about whistle blowing on the internet, but he does need to hold himself accountable with how far one should take it to expose tyrants and corruption.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

THE SUBMISSION PLATFORM- how they created the virtual world of the submission platform through a green screen set and Visual Effects done by Phosphene.  Interviews with director Bill Condon, production designer Mark Tildsley, screenwriter Josh Singer, and the VFX artists at Phosphene.  See behind-the-scenes footage, production artwork, and still shots of the finished VFX and various attempts at the VFX in the submission platform

 

The following two featurettes only appear on the blu-ray:

IN-CAMERA GRAPHICS- how they created the computer graphics 9which were done by Prologue) and project computer words, use colors for certain characters, and teach the actors what keys to push on the computers

SCORING SECRETS- composer Carter Burwell talks about how he approached the score for THE FIFTH ESTATE from recording synth elements, use actual musicians done on a delay, and using a electronica composer to remix the music score before carter went back and remixed it further.

 

Also on the disc are the theatrical trailer and all seven TV spots.

 

The only thing not included on the blu-ray and DVD are an audio commentary and behind-the-scenes featurettes on the filming of the movie with interviews with the actors.

 

The movie is included in standard definition on DVD along with a code for a Digital HD digital copy of the movie.

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:  THE FIFTH ESTATE is an interesting character piece of a man with his own demons who wanted to expose the secrets no matter what the cost is.   I do wish they included more behind-the-scenes featurettes on the actual production of the film in addition to the effects work and music score.

 

This review is ©2-3-2014 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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