In We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks, master documentarian Alex Gibney, weaves together three threads, each essential to the improbable story of WikiLeaks. First, there is the hermit-like anarchistic hacker Julian Assange, whose narcissistic brashness could deliver personal fame, but not sustain a movement. Then there’s the leaker Bradley Manning, a lonely misfit with one soaring talent. Finally, there is the post-9/11 security environment, in which US government secrets are now shared between many levels of many security agencies, presuming each lowly functionary has a need to know.
Gibney brings us interviews with Manning’s immediate supervisor in the Army, his boyfriend and the confidante who turned him in. We see footage of Assange in his hotel room before his big press conference (from another filmmaker – Assange did not cooperate with Gibney). Gibney does introduce us to Assange’s former team members at WikiLeaks, his journalistic partners and even a Swedish woman who accused him of sexually victimizing her. It all makes for a comprehensive inside perspective.
All three threads of the story are astounding, especially how anyone could keep Bradley Manning in the US Army and how the nation’s diplomatic and military secrets were all opened to a private at an isolated forward base in Iraq. Gibney could have made an equally entertaining movie, if less complete, based on Assange alone; Assange is an odd duck who had his rock star moment and left a trail of relationship carnage behind, burning every single friend, colleague and well-wisher along the way.
Gibney is remarkable prolific. After winning the 2008 Best Documentary Oscar for Taxi to the Dark Side, he has churned out Casino Jack and the United States of Money, Client 9: The Fall of Elliott Spitzer, Magic Trip, The Last Gladiators, Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream and Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God. It’s a body of work that is notable for its strong quality and even more astonishing productivity.
We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks is in theaters and is also available streaming from Amazon, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and other VOD outlets.