Have you also watched 'WikiLeaks - We steal Secrets'?

Polar, on the one hand I can understand why you are hesitant to watch TFE, on the other hand: But that's why we love that man so much, isn't it? Because he is able to transform himself so perfectly into someone else and thereby Benedict vanishes almost completely. You'd really miss out on something by not watching TFE - I absolutely loved him in that film.

 

Last edited by SolarSystem (February 25, 2014 5:15 am)

I love it!

Does the DVD have subtitles? I would prefer to buy it now to waiting for the German edition but subtitles would be nice. 

I watched the movie last night as well, and I see what you mean, tonnaree. Although I must say, I was actually pretty engrossed in it while I watched it. Not a movie that I'd call fantastic, but it still captivated me, and I also thought the subject matter was really interesting. (And I do like Daniel Brühl and Moritz Bleibtreu, so that was a plus.)

I thought Benedict did a great job. Not sure just how genuine the accent sounded, I'm no expert on Aussie accents. I'm not quite sure why he gave Julian that lisp, though. Looking at Assange interviews, the real guy doesn't appear to have such a pronounced lisp. Well, I suppose it was just something that Ben wanted the character to be.

I thought that he excellently portrayed the aloofness of the character and the definite antisocial tendencies. He was just a little bit like Sherlock at times, wasn't he? The blatant disregard for socially awkward situations, the devil-may-care attitude that ruthlessly left emotional damage along the way -- all quite Sherlockian. But I never felt like I was watching Sherlock or any of Benedict's other characters, which certainly shows he's a very good actor.

The hair... well... not a fan. But also true to the real guy, so I'm not gonna complain.

What bothered me a little bit was the language issue. Chunks of the movie took part in Germany and Switzerland, and (thankfully) they picked German/Swiss actors for those parts. But to then have them speak English with each other just seemed... strange. I understand why they did it, because the film was first and foremost made for an English speaking audience, but Daniel and Anke would never speak English to each other if they were alone, nor would Daniel and his parents. I think I would have liked it better if they had done those scenes in German and subtitled them.

Visually, I really liked what they did, with the visualization of the submission platform and the captions and animations they used. I'm glad I watched the movie, even though I'm not sure I would watch it a second time.

SusiGo wrote:

Does the DVD have subtitles? I would prefer to buy it now to waiting for the German edition but subtitles would be nice. 

The UK Blu-ray (which I assume is also the case for the DVD) has English subtitles for the hard of hearing. (Which I think doesn't only subtitle the dialogue but also has descriptions of what you can hear in the background.)

Le Bear Polar wrote:

I confess I have not watched TFE because, rather superficially, I'm worried I'll have the same adverse reaction as I had watched Cumberbatch in Atonement--that fear of that unnerving feeling of watching him so completely transformed into someone else. Terrible me, I know.

I haven't seen Atonement, so I can't compare the roles, but from what I've heard, I think you don't need to worry about Benedict in TFE. While Assange comes across as a bit of a cold-hearted,unsociable jerk sometimes, he's never despicable. Well, towards the end he gets quite ruthless, and there's definitely a moment where his motives are questionable, but you never want to deeply condemn him. They always portrayed him as human. Or at least that's how I felt.

Last edited by TeeJay (March 7, 2014 6:55 am)

besleybean wrote:

I can only repeat:
Loved the film, loved Benedict and was quite puzzled at the anatagonism towards the piece...

 
Agree wholehearted with you. To me it was one of the best pictures last year.

I hate it. I mean, Cumberbatch was really good, as usual, but the movie itself is a huge attack against Assange's personality. It is not focused on Wikileaks as an organization. Assange has been showed as a pervert, a manipulative guy (while Daniel Berg was the idealist one > HEY, YOUR WIFE IS WORKING FOR MICROSOFT NOW).

For example, during the flight scene, when Assange was spreading anon in the social network that Daniel Berg was a traitor? It's not a accurate fact : we don't know if it's true. Same thing for the girlfriend : actually Assange never met her in reality.

Plus, American government is showed as good guys. They don't talk about the poor Bradley Manning trial, how they discredited him, etc. I mean, of course we can disagree the choices of Wikileaks for revealing the cables. But the cables shows truth too.

So, eventually I think that the director screwed up, and it's too bad because it's a very interesting AND actual subject, and Cumberbatch and Brühl are both very good. When I watched the movie, I basically didn't know anything about Wikileaks, only the headlines in the newspapers, and despite that, I really felt it was a huge propaganda. The only good point is that immediately after that I fetched more informations about it and watched "Mediastan", which was much more better and more accurate (but still, very idealist).

 

Up until Sherlock, The Fifth Estate was my favourite performance for BC. 

I think he just inhabited Julian Assange in that role.  I know JA had real problems with this movie and I understand his apprehensions totally.  I also think that Cumberbatch did his utmost to portray him in an honest light.

But beyond that, when looking at just the performance - it was remarkable!  There wasn't one untrue moment from him as an actor.  And the role was very complicated (not unlike his current role in The Imitation Game). 

His character is not an easy one to like on the surface.  He is standoffish, mecurical and demanding.  Not warm and cuddly at all. But because of BC's skill he is able to elicit empathy for his character (at least to me) and make his viewpoint accessable to the audience.  That is no small task and it goes beyond the script.  It depends on how the actor brings his subject to light and how much "humanism" he gets across when he says what has been written in the script.  I really love it when an actor makes me feel, truly feel, for a character by the power of his performance and Cumberbatch does this with the impact of a tornado in The Fifth Estate.

I think the perceived politics of the film (which flopped at the boxoffice) kept BC from getting the widespread recognition that he deserved for this role.  I am very, very happy that with The Imitation Game BC is finally getting another chance to show the mainstream movie going audiences a more complete picture of the true strength of his abilities on screen.  They were given this opportunity in The Fifth Estate but they chose not to see it.  Shame.  This time it looks like they will finally take that chance and be rewarded with what fans of BC have known for some time - he is a force to be reckoned with!

-Val

 

Every time I see Julian, I just see Benedict now!

A sign he is the best of actors.