We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks

Directed by Alex Gibney

(R)

***

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The rise and fall ofWikiLeaks and its founder is a tale already widely known, said David Edelstein in New York magazine. But documentarian Alex Gibney doesn’t traffic in expected themes, and the Oscar-winning director “has a talent for creating a one-stop shop for anyone who wants to experience the full scope of this ugly, scary story.” The only character close to a hero here is Bradley Manning, “a short, angry, sexually confused Army private” who triggered WikiLeaks’ grandest coup when he gave the secret-sharing website 250,000-plus classified documents about the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan, said John Anderson in The Wall Street Journal. WikiLeaks’ embattled founder, Julian Assange, is treated as a radical not worthy of even friends’ trust. But the film doesn’t need heroes to draw us into the conflict it examines, said Nicolas Rapold inThe New York Times. This documentary “lacks the swing and drive” of Gibney’s best work, but it finds compelling tragedy in Manning’s story and a rich debate in the challenges of using secret operations to ensure the security of a democratic nation.