The Fifth Estate : a movie review

Tags

movie, movie review, postaday2013, The Fifth Estate

My hubby wanted to see The Fifth Estate instead of Rush which I have to say surprised me because normally a movie like The Fifth Estate he would say merits a small screen, but today that is what he wanted to see. Our baby boy, who went with us to the movies, went into watch Rush alone. He loved it, he said it fed his adrenaline need and it is a Ron Howard movie so nothing more needs to be said; movie review courtesy of the baby boy.

Now for The Fifth Estate; I thought that it was a good movie, it is based on the book written by Daniel Berg, the former close associate of Julian Assuange, who later called him a traitor and disavowed the subsequent book and movie. While watching the movie it was difficult to separate the personalities from the website, the organization and the mission. Julian Assuange is the founder and visionary of the Wikileaks organization but after awhile, you see from the movie’s point of view that for Julian it isn’t only about the information, it is also about him and therein lies the issue. Daniel Berg on the other hand is a simpler individual and I think that he gets overwhelmed by the gravity of the responsibility and Julian’s narrow view of his organization and the services he wants to provide to the world.

I believe that Wikileaks is important and provides our society globally an important service; keeping those in power and institutions honest. Assuange keeps saying that individual privacy is important, whistleblowers be kept secret and institutions transparent . I completely believe that we need to strive for that and hopefully Wikileaks will be around for a long time. Considering what we learned about the United States military forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, I want the U.S government to think twice before they think that they can act with impunity against civilians. My hubby and I think that this was an important movie to see and a piece of history was unfolded before our eyes. If you don’t see it in the movies, keep it in mind for Netflix orHBO.

Reading material

How do you pick what blogs or books to read? What’s the one thing that will get you to pick up a book or click on a link every single time?

I can't put my finger on a singular thing that pushes me to pick a book or pick a blog. I think that it is mainly a feeling or a gut instinct that guides my hand to the bookshelf or guides my finger to click. Since I love reading so much and I will read anything that has a written word, I am open to many things. Curiosity is also a big part of my makeup so if there is a new concept, idea or subject I would have more of a tendency to zero in on that book or post.

Reading is one of life's ultimate joys and I cannot imagine a day going by without reading, I would be starved emotionally, intellectually, and mentally. I think that it would be incredibly hard and I would enter into a huge depression if I didn't have the stimulus that reading provides me. It is something that I take for granted I know and perhaps we shouldn't take it for granted. We should make sure that censorship never comes into our lives the way that it has in the past, what with book burning and book banning. I love books, words, thoughts and everything else associated with learning, I consider ourselves to be incredibly lucky that we have the freedom to read anything we like and to write whatever we like. I am writing this as I have just spent the morning reading everything that has come into my inbox.