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The 5ifth Estate
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Buena Vista Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (14th January 2014). |
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The Film
 Julian Assange is easily one of the most interesting figures of the last few years and WikiLeaks one of the biggest stories of the decade. His story is made up of scandal, conspiracy, freedom of speech, ethics, and exposing the truth in a world cloaked in secrets. Easily a no-brainer for a Hollywood thriller. Based on two books "Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange and the World's Most Dangerous Website" by Daniel Domscheit-Berg and "WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy" by David Leigh and Luke Harding, both optioned by Dreamworks, a film was quickly put into production with competent helmer Bill Condon. "The Fifth Estate" tells the story of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Daniel Brühl), these two men work together to reveal secrets and uncover conspiracies that aimed to shed light on abuses of power. Between the two of them they create WikiLeaks, a whistle-blowing platform that allows users to submit information anonymously. Quickly they uncover a banking conspiracy that helps launch the site into the media mainstream. Their lives will forever be changed when they receive thousands of classified US military documents and would eventually become the largest intelligence leak in US history. Julian and Daniel's relationship eventually deteriorates as issues of ethics come into play in regards to how the documents are presented and battle over the redaction of names becomes central to the film's narrative. Information sometimes has a terrible cost. What the film manages to achieve spectacularly is the nature in which Assange and Berg ran the site, an insightful look inside their operation and the lengths they went to in order to keep the site up and operational. From travelling across Europe to set up servers, to attending conventions and presenting key note speeches spreading the word about WikiLeaks and their mission. Condon has done a terrific job of visually communicating their efforts, in particular a metaphorical virtual office that represents the behind-the-scenes of the site. However, the film does often feel rather pedestrian, aside from the slick photography by Tobias A. Schliessler, which is truly masterful. The overall film comes across as a glorified movie of the week, even actors of usually high pedicure seem to sleep walk through the film. David Thewlis, Laura Linney and Stanley Tucci seem wasted in their roles. There are attempts to infuse the film with "thrill" elements by showing the Government response/results of the leaked information, after all, a two hour film about a couple of guys on their laptops isn't exactly exciting cinema, so I can see the need to spice up the film to give it an espionage feel, but in the end it falls under its own weight. A couple of attempts are made to humanize Assange, in one example - an ill-conceived scene where Julian tells Daniel of his traumatic upbringing at the hands of his stepfather and how they spent three years on the run from him. Even if it happened in real life as they portrayed it in the film, the scene itself seemed disingenuous and obviously serves a single purpose - to add some sort of balance to a portrayal of Julian that presents him as dishonest, manipulative and an almost cult leader-esque egotistical and megalomaniacal personality. The balance, however, is never really equal. Upon it's original theatrical release, it received mixed reviews, Assange himself is a very complicated individual whom divides public opinion, some condemn him as an evil mastermind while other see him as a modern day saviour - a digital warrior so-to-speak. Whatever your opinion of the man will likely influence your feelings towards this film. Much like the events portrayed in the film, the film itself was a source of controversy with Assange attacking the film as taking a perspective that was "... irresponsible, counterproductive and harmful." Assange had read the screenplay (which was leaked online) and described it as a "serious propaganda attack on WikiLeaks and the integrity of its staff" at an awards presentation in January 2013. Later that year in October WikiLeaks published a personal letter to actor Benedict Cumberbatch to request he reconsider his involvement with the film, that Assange called "a project that vilifies and marginalizes a living political refugee to the benefit of an entrenched, corrupt and dangerous state." It was clear that Assange was not happy about this film, the portrayal of himself and the message it was sending. Luckily for him, not that many people saw the film theatrically to really effect any strong negative opinion towards Assange and his organization. The film's opening weekend earned an eighth place spot with an estimated $1.7 million (total domestic box office was just over $3 million), this marked one of the lowest openings for a DreamWorks release, and the worst 2013 debut for a wide release according to Variety. Interestingly enough the film ends with Cumberbatch's Assange in an interview setting commenting on how this film which we've just watched is based on two books that are allegedly filled with lies and don't reveal the full story. Perhaps in an effort to persuade viewers to delve deeper into the story and not take this film for gospel? However, this actually comes across as a submission of making a film that is deceptive. It's widely known and accepted that films based on real events will at some point feature people or events in some form of fictionalized nature, creative licence will be taken, and words will be placed in the mouths of characters that probably were never uttered in reality. I don't see any good reason why this was added to the end, it feels tacked on and the purpose of it to quell the real Assange's personal feelings towards the film. Why did the movie fail at the box office? - possibly because everything we ever want to know about WikiLeaks and Julian Assange has been reported and over analyzed in every imaginable way across all media around the world. In other words it's too fresh in the publics' minds. And if you know nothing about this, watching this film will only show you one side of the story, I would recommend also watching Alex Gibney's documentary "We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks" (2013) if you want a fuller story.
Video
Presented in the film's original theatrical ratio of 2.40:1 mastered in high definition 1080p 24/fps using AVC MPEG-4 compression. As noted in the film review, the cinematography by Tobias A. Schliessler is slick, and this transfer represents that well. The film's colors lean towards the blues and greens, a steely, cold look synonymous with political thrillers. Color reproduction is solid, blacks are rich and deep without any noticeable noise. Depth, detail and textures also hold up well within this HD image, and it's clean of any issues. I could not detect any compression related issues or flaws. Simply put, this is a terrific transfer.
Audio
Four audio tracks are included in English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mixed at 48kHz/24-bit, French Dolby Digital 5.1 and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 surround tracks with an English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track for the visually impaired. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its English DTS-HD audio. For a dialogue driven thriller, this audio track was rather impressive and completely immersive. The complex track makes excellent use if the surround channels adding depth to the mix with natural environmental sounds, direction effects and most importantly the film's score. The audio track is more than the usual run-of-the-mill type of tracks normally associated with films of this ilk, which is a nice surprise. Optional subtitles are included in English for the hearing impaired, French and Spanish.
Extras
Buena Vista has released this film with a small collection of supplements that include three featurettes, a theatrical trailer, a collection of six TV spots, a series of bonus trailers, plus a DVD version of the film as well as a digital copy. Below is a closer look at these extras. DISC ONE: BLU-RAY The first extra is "The Submission Platform: Visual Effects" (1080p) featurette which runs for 10 minutes 17 seconds, which as the title suggests takes a closer look at the visual effects utilized for the film that brings the submission platform to life. "In Camera: Graphics" (1080p) is the next featurette which runs for 6 minutes 22 seconds, this takes a look at how the filmmakers managed to create in camera graphic for the film and how the actors interacted with it. "Scoring Secrets" (1080p) is the final featurette which runs for 9 minutes 15 seconds, this takes a look at the process of creating the film's score and examines the musical themes and the choice of songs used for the film. The film's original theatrical trailer (1080p) is also featured and runs for 2 minutes 32 seconds. There are also a collection of six TV spots (1080p) that were created for the film's television marketing campaign, they include: - "Titles" which runs for 30 seconds. - "Button" which runs for 30 seconds. - "Estates" which runs for 30 seconds. - "Decide" which runs for 30 seconds. - "Critics Review" which runs for 30 seconds. - "Untold Story" which runs for 15 seconds. Rounding out the supplements are bonus trailers (1080p) for: - "Delivery Man" which runs for 32 seconds. - "Need for Speed" which runs for 1 minute 33 seconds. - "Thor: The Dark World" which runs for 1 minute 4 seconds. - "Anti-Smoking" PSA which runs for 32 seconds. DISC TWO: DVD This is a standard DVD version of the film and included in the package is a promotional code to unlock a digital copy version of the film.
Packaging
Packaged in a 2-disc Blu-ray case with first pressings housed in a cardboard slip-case.
Overall
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