I can't help but wonder how many events like this one, or to a similar end, have happened without the public ever knowing about them.
Honestly, the world could do with a few more selfless people who decide to turn into whistleblowers for the greater good of humanity. Katharine should be applauded.
Shame on anyone who promotes unnecessary war, unlawful invasion and the murdering of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Greedy killers hiding beneath their "defenders of freedom" cloak. Shame on them.
Official Secrets (2019)
Dir: Gavin Hood
Official Secrets is a somewhat political drama mystery set in 2003 where a British intelligence specialist leaks top secret information to the press regarding the Iraq war.
Personally i'm not a huge fan of films that are outright political dramas like this one, about the press and the media. Although I did quite enjoy this one, despite it falling flat quite a few times. This film does an incredibly good job of telling the story how it should be told, packed full of relevant information of the deception throughout the government. Although, I found that it struggled to get an actual emotional response from me personally. This film didn't really make me feel anything, I was just kind of 'meh' when the film ended. Official Secrets was definitely gripping, as we see the main character fighting with her own morals whilst receiving the fallout from her actions in the government, and with this being based on real events it can sometimes be quite difficult to pull off.
I'd say my only serious flaw with this film was Keira Knightley. I don't have anything against her but all of her characters just feel the same to me, and there's no real distinguishable characteristics for any of her characters to me. I feel as though you could just swap and change her characters from film to film and they'd still be the same character.
Overall this film was pretty good, but personally it's not one that I would choose to rewatch as it seems once you've seen this film, there's nothing particularly gripping or prominent enough to make you watch to come back for more. I'd definitely recommend this film to anyone with an interest in political drama, or more specifically the British government in the early 00s.
Great movie. Very well produced and played. This is a very important topic. There is so much BS going on past, prestent and, most likely, future. And people need to be reminded. Even if it falls on deaf ears with the majority.
Gripping all of the way through. It's no secret that the UK and US governments lied about weapons of mass destruction, but the film brought to light some details that I hadn't known before. A good film, and one that is quite topical, as the governments who rule our countries continue to lie and deceive us.
It was after 9/11 and during the run up to the Iraq invasion that I started to pay a LOT more attention to politics than I previously had. There were a lot of things I missed during that time and the story of Katharine Gun was one I didn't remember a lot about, so it was great to go back and revisit this story. It's also quite relevant to today's political landscape and shows some contrast (and stark similarity) between the relationship between gov't and media then and today. All three of the leads were quite good, even if they were only playing slightly modified versions of themselves. For a political drama, I did like that they gave some time to focus on Gun, her personal life, and the toll her actions were taking. Gavin Hood has come a long way from the trash heap that was X-Men Origins: Wolverine, so kudos to him for the progress he's made.
This movie is for people like Jameela Jamil who said she was too busy learning about social justice to pay attention to ‘history’ like the Iraq war. Also, it’s for people who don’t know USA and UK are fat, ugly, arrogant, narcissistic warmongers. “We have a right to intervene in the Balkans. We should do the same in Iraq.” – that’s the American and British way, biggest criminals on this planet, somehow, have the right to intervene in sovereign countries.
There’s nothing apparent bad about the film but there’s also nothing to make it memorable or creative. It’s basically overly dramatic take on the story of Katherine Gun, an event that didn't change anything. She was charged with a crime and then the prosecutor dropped the case. That's the whole story. No suspense. The most interesting new information in this is the content of the memo itself and the spell check fiasco, all of which happened in the first 30 minutes. Everything after that it just about Katharine and her husband, which isn't particularly interesting.
The rest of the characters include veeery idealistic defense attorney and journalists. So there are no colorful characters in this cast. And why on Earth does this movie end with two male side characters talking about their friendship?
I guess moral of the story is all wars need a few lies to get going. But hey, Ellen DeGeneres said it’s okay that she's besties with George Bush, so who am I to say that Bush and Toni Blair should rightfully be rotting in the Hague.
I'm a fan if you can keep me as engaged as any of the Fury Road action sequences.
Official secrets comes under the 'whistleblowing' genre whose stalwarts include movies like All the president's men and Network. There have also been a few in recent times like The Post and Spotlight. But what makes this stand out is the amount of time we spend on the protagonist's personal life. Not to take away anything from these movies, (they might even lessen if they try something like this) but it was important here that we devoted our focus into the character's personal struggles because only then would we know how hard the decisions that she made were and the things that were at stake for her when she chose this for herself. That for me elevated the movie to a whole new level.
Another great Bushwack movie (movies proving Bush was wack). I personally love Bushwack movies, but this one was really special.
No strong start, as her actions and decisions don't seem very motivated and determined initially. But later we get plenty of everything that matters.
Knightley does one of her better performances in this one but it gets a little boring at points and would probably been more enjoyable if had been released and watched closer to the actual events.
Wow, great movie with a very interesting story and Keira Knightley was brilliant as always.
I liked this theiller about how an employee of the UK leaks a document about the government trying to get involved in an illegal war. Keira Knightley holds this movie with a good acting. I liked the production values and music, I think they create a good athmosphere for the film. Maybe it lacks the good old Hollywood drama, but I enjoyed it. What I did not like was perhaps that it only is about the leak and trial, not the consequences of this and we only know about them as final text explanation.
[Amazon] The concept of "legal/illegal war" is itself Machiavellian. Debating loyalty to a country or loyalty to a government is nonsense. These reflections are set out in a correct film that delves into war crimes without almost mentioning them. In "Eye in the sky" Gavin Hood created a thriller about war; here he builds a suspense story about the why of war. The worst thing is that "legal wars" continue happening.
You'd think the story of a government employee who leaked a document (proving that the US and UK were looking for dirt to blackmail countries into voting, at an UN Security Council meeting, for an attack on Iraq) to stop a war would be interesting.
Turns out, it'd probably make for a good documentary, but there's not enough drama there to fill out a 2-hour film, no matter how many stars you throw at it.
Official Secrets is a blatant piece of propaganda that attempts to rewrite history and deify the liberal media and their “whistleblower” allies. But if you can get past the politics, it’s a pretty engaging drama. The film follows an antiwar British intelligence analysis who leaks a top secret memo in an attempt to prevent the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and is subsequently charged with treason after being caught. Starring Keira Knightley, Matt Smith, Matthew Goode, and Ralph Fiennes, the casts is quite impressive and delivers solid performances. And the writers do a good job at building suspense and tension. The dialog however, is rather poor and is preachy as all get-out with sanctimonious speeches about whistleblowing and the usual liberal antiwar rhetoric (“Blair lied,” “illegal war,” blah, blah, blah). Yet while it’s a far cry from an objective depiction of events, Official Secrets is a fairly solid legal drama.
I was really enjoying this movie up until the end which was a tad disappointing. The events surrounding this movie were a sure thing for a successful movie and it mostly delivered.
Once the Pleas & direction hearing arrived the movie just ended with a "we no longer wish to prosecute" result and was over in minutes. Although this was the actual result of the real case it still felt very rushed and hollow with little development into why and what happened with her life after it was over.
All in all a good movie, just the ending dropped my rating from an 8 to a 7.
based on true events, the movie was ok / it built up and built up and you wanted some big amazing ending, but it was more of a- let the wind out of your sails without too much excitement or twist / was a good watch, just not super enthralling / would recommend
Shout by KhawlahVIP BlockedParentSpoilers2019-09-24T20:30:55Z
There’s not a single action sequence yet I feel like this is the most action movie I’ve seen in awhile. The edge of your seat kind of stuff. Totally loved and enjoyed it. And Keira was amazing. One of her top performance, if I dare say.