We Steal Secrets: the rise and fall of WikiLeaks in classic Hollywood terms

All movies have heroes and villains and Alex Gibney's documentary, We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks, felt like vintage silver screen. Two-thirds of the way through, the film established clear roles. Our protagonist is Julian Assange, WikiLeaks founder and underdog hacker hero. His evil nemesis is actually information-silencing bureaucracy but the US government largely plays this role (voiced often by Michael Hayden, former director of both the NSA and CIA). It's a classic conflict: a battle waged over censorship and the public's right to know.

We Steal Secrets begins with point-of-view shots from above the Earth and this could loosely be seen as the start of a hero's journey. The satellite Galileo is orbiting as Bryant Gumbel, Ted Brokaw, and other talking heads read news of the WANK digital attack on NASA. The film later ties Assange unofficially to this Melbourne hacker collective that penetrated 300,000 NASA computers during the incident. (WANK's slogan, "You talk of peace for all and then prepare for war," is a lyric from one of Assange's favorite songs.) So here is the talented but misguided young hacker, shown at one point being charged in his home country for actions under his past Mendax moniker. WikiLeaks represents the realization of his potential. One talking head comments that it's something he would have screwed up 20 years ago, but the timing is right now.