“Julian Assange: A Modern Day Hero? Inside the World of
WikiLeaks” is a curious 90-minute video
available for instant vliew on Netflix, from “Blow Whistle Blow” films (and
MVDE Entertainment). I can’t find it on
imdb, and it lists no director.
The film consists of interviews of Assange and various other
people connected to him. It is divided
into a number of sections (each with a banner reading “Courage Contagious”),
the last of which is a live question and answer session with Assange and one
other activist.
The initial interviews in the film cover the incidents in
2010 that led to the disclosure of leaks regarding the war in Afghanistan. There is also a lot of coverage of the video “Collateral
Murder” (available on my “cf” blog, April 7, 2010) of a serious “friendly fire”
incident in Iraq, supposedly released with the activity of Bradley Manning.
There is a particularly disturbing account of a hack,
apparently engineered from Melbourne, Australia, aimed at NASA’s launch of the
Galileo. Had it caused the space ship to
explode in the air (like the Challenger), it could have killed a lot of people
in Florida because of its plutonium payload.
Daniel Ellsberg is often interviewed, and he says that
Assange replaces him as “The Most Dangerous Man in the World”. See my review of the film about Ellsberg Feb.
28, 2010.
Bob Finkel, author of “The Good Soldiers”, says that Assange
offered the Iraq film without appropriate context.
Assange starts the film with a quote that says that people
have to be naïve to do extraordinary things, and be willing to break little
laws to serve a higher purpose.
There is a website for the film, here.
At least, it’s good to listen to Assange explain his ideas
in his own words.
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