Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Julian Assange. Bradley Manning. Collateral murder. Cablegate. WikiLeaks. These people and terms have exploded into public consciousness by fundamentally changing the way democratic societies deal with privacy, secrecy, and the right to information, perhaps for generations to come. We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks is an extensive examination of all things related to WikiLeaks and the larger global debate over access to information.
Alex Gibney's documentary is a thorough and compelling examination of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, and Bradley Manning, weaving together a complex political narrative with impressive access to key figures and materials. The storytelling is reasonably well-structured, balancing the idealism of the early WikiLeaks mission against Assange's increasingly erratic behavior, though critics noted the film's perspective leaned away from Assange, who declined to participate. Acting is not applicable in the traditional sense, though interview subjects and archival footage are competently assembled. Cinematography is functional documentary work — competent but unremarkable. Novelty is moderate: the subject matter was genuinely explosive and culturally significant at the time, and Gibney brings his practiced investigative documentary style, but the approach follows a fairly conventional journalistic-documentary formula. The ending is satisfying enough, leaving viewers with the unresolved moral and political tensions intact, which suits the subject matter.