They secretly listen in on communications around the world. Katharine Gun (Keira Knightley) is a British intelligence translator in GCHQ. It's 2003 and America is making the case to go to war with Iraq. But the effect on most will be excruciating cognitive dissonance between the world we think we live in and the actual power structures that manipulate us into handing our tax money over to kill poor people overseas for geostrategic reasons that benefit no one except the very rich and powerful. It's a great yarn well told, Knightly is perfect as Katharine Gun, and it has a lot of very interesting old footage from the time which will have you shouting at the screen in frustration. The butchery-for-Raytheon profits continue with no end in sight. We continue to be deliberately and criminally deceived about these so-called humanitarian wars by a media that continues their fawning sycophantic support of the war-loving establishment. Intelligence agencies continue to illicitly gather compromising material to use as blackmail and extortion on people who might stand in the way of this war-for-profit gravy train. ![]() Bush and Blair continue to be celebrated in high society. Perhaps the most emotionally distressing aspect is the underlying knowledge that absolutely nothing has changed on any level of power, in any way, since this extraordinary deception. Official Secrets is produced by Screen Yorkshire and Entertainment One with distribution by IFC films.If you want to become freshly enraged about the massive war crime we call the Iraq war, go see this film. The Iraq War and its horrendous casualties were built on lies. Katherine Gun was valiant, but the press and public at large did not act responsibly to question leadership. The leak of the memo and the events that follow are presented with near documentary precision. The characters are introduced with their names and titles. Official Secrets has no gunplay, sensational intrigue, or violence of any sort. Official Secrets is powerfully dramatic.ĭirector Gavin Hood ( X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Ender's Game) keeps the film grounded. They desperately wanted the truth to be known, but understood the severity of Gun's charges. Matt Smith and Ralph Fiennes lend gravitas in critical supporting roles. Gun and her husband are branded traitors, then put through the ringer as their lives are dissected. She leaks the memo to preserve lives and stop the war, but was entirely naive about the repercussions. Initially she's furious at the lies seen on TV and newspapers. Keira Knightley portrays Gun through a broad range of emotions. The characters are thoughtfully explored as they tangle with the political bombshell and real world consequences of the memo. Official Secrets is brilliantly acted by a top tier cast. Fight the charges for truth and patriotism, but risk being made an example by a wrathful government. Plead guilty, and maybe the judge will be lenient as the war had descended into chaos with no WMDs found. Her lawyer (Ralph Fiennes) gave her a stark choice. Her immigrant husband (Adam Bakri) became a target for retribution. She had broken the Official Secrets act and faced decades in prison. Katherine Gun found herself in custody for treason. They printed an incendiary article questioning the intelligence sources and reasoning for the Iraq War. ![]() The document ended up with reporters (Matt Smith, Matthew Goode, and Rhys Ifans) at The Observer newspaper. She decided to leak the NSA memo to a friend in the anti-war movement. Gun knew the intelligence was not there to support that claim. Bush, had been rallying for war with the threat of Iraqi WMDs as the cause. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, much like President George W. The goal being to force their votes to affirm a war resolution against Iraq. ![]() They were tasked with spying on specific members of the UN Security Council. Katherine Gun and her colleagues were stunned by a classified memo from the US National Security Agency (NSA).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |