Staff Writer
The controversial movie The Fifth Estate is not being released until October 18 and already critics are rushing to both sides of the fence over it. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Julian Assange, the story delves into the founding of WikiLeaks; the group responsible for leaking many sensitive government documents to The Guardian. The naysayers have included WikiLeaks and Julian Assange himself who recently leaked a copy of the script online in an effort to discredit the film.
This week the project received praise from an unexpected corner – the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron.
Prime Minister Cameron had the chance to review a section of The Fifth Estate prior to appearing on television Monday night. On the ITV show The Agenda, Cameron spoke frankly about his feelings toward the movie and his admiration for Cumberbatch in the lead role.
According to The Guardian, Cameron told Tom Badby, ITN’s political editor and television presenter, “Benedict Cumberbatch – brilliant, fantastic piece of acting. The twitchiness and everything of Julian Assange is brilliantly portrayed.”
In further analysis of the film, Cameron seemed particularly interested in how The Fifth Estate depicts Assange as being more worried about endangering those who came forward with information instead of those impacted by the information being exposed. He stated, “There is an interesting bit at the beginning when he says some of these documents are confidential, people’s lives are at risk and of course he is thinking of the people who have leaked them. Actually you also need to think about the people whose lives are at risk because they have been leaked. In the bit of the film I saw that didn’t come out enough. But it makes you think.”
Prime Minister Cameron has himself been involved in information released by WikiLeaks. In 2010, the group revealed that US President Barack Obama thought that Cameron was a political “lightweight”. He praised WikiLeaks for their early work, particularly their exposure of African corruption. However, he did express concern about their later activities and its potential to endanger lives.
On Monday’s appearance Cameron added, “There is some information that government has to keep secret for national security, for people’s safety. I think that needs to be part of the debate too.”
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