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The Fifth Estate

Play trailer Poster for The Fifth Estate R 2013 2h 8m Drama Mystery & Thriller Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
35% Tomatometer 176 Reviews 36% Popcornmeter 10,000+ Ratings
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and a colleague, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, join forces to become watchdogs over actions of the privileged and powerful. Despite scant resources, they are able to create a platform for whistle-blowers to leak covert data anonymously, thereby exposing government secrets and corporate crimes. However, a major battle erupts when Assange and Berg gain access to the biggest cache of confidential intelligence documents in U.S. history.
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The Fifth Estate

The Fifth Estate

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Critics Consensus

Heavy on detail and melodrama but missing the spark from its remarkable real-life inspiration, The Fifth Estate mostly serves as a middling showcase for Benedict Cumberbatch's remarkable talent.

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Critics Reviews

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J. Hoberman ARTINFO.com 02/22/2019
Given its own aggressive attention deficit disorder, The Fifth Estate is the sort of movie that might induce a migraine. Go to Full Review
Deborah Ross The Spectator 09/05/2018
Those in the know say Cumberbatch's performance captures the physical Assange perfectly, but the film fails to get a handle on him as a personality, or offer any kind of insight into what his true motivation might be. Go to Full Review
Louis Black Austin Chronicle 10/25/2013
2.5/5
Tthe film finally falls short, an explosive beginning leading to a pedestrian end. Go to Full Review
Richard Crouse Richard Crouse 01/31/2021
2.5/5
A rather ham fisted look at the information wars, which contains some drama but takes too long to get to the good stuff. Go to Full Review
Richard Propes TheIndependentCritic.com 09/07/2020
2.5/4.0
It is less involving when we're forced to sit through ancillary storylines and conflicts that do little to advance the story. Go to Full Review
Allen Almachar The MacGuffin 07/23/2020
C-
Very few films this year have registered such a lack of an emotional reaction. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Alain E @AlainE 6d The script is very unfocused. Too much information about the Daniel character and minimal description of what happened after the disclosures. All we see are the different journalists debating what to do with the information. In the end people are protesting in favor of Assange, but we are not told why. After Daniel destroyed the equipment was the website restored? Not mentioned. Obviously this is a story that would need a miniseries to be properly narrated, but this movie does not approach a satisfactory presentation. Finally, the fact that Assange eventually was used by the Russians is immaterial. The documents Wikileaks disclosed were not manipulated. See more J T @Jason123 Feb 23 Cumberbatch does a pretty good job with Julian Assange's character and the work he put into developing Wikileaks, which is hard to do in a fast moving flick. Overall not bad, I enjoyed it and its definitely better than the 35% Rotten Tomatoes score. See more mark g @Mark_Alan_G. Aug 21 What a load of crap. This wasn't a champion of the 1st amendment, this was a stooge being used by Russia to smear the US. Hypocritical when you take into account the horrific atrocities he ignored from Russia. See more betty c @RT05525841 11/16/2024 The Fifth Estate only shares one side of the story they are airing!! Shame on them. They are definitely controlled by the powers that be. I believe they are funded by our government. Their story on the Coutts border blockade was totally one sided. They lied about the men that were charged and only showed one side of the situation. The RCMPs side and our corrupt government and legal systems side. They didn't bother talking to people who were actually at the blockade or others that know the people that were arrested. Why is that?? Who paid for this broadcast? Hmmm....were they biased by the people who control them? When they find out the whole truth and nothing but the truth, will they own up and apologize to those involved and unjustly accused? I doubt it very much. See more William T @RT27622449 07/17/2024 I enjoy the soundtrack and the performance of Daniel Brühl is excellent and i am in love of Alicia Vikander. See more Pacifist287 T @RT55739362 07/04/2024 A propaganada piece which paints Julian Assange, who is a true hero, as a villain....sad that Benedict Cumberbitch agreed to do this movie See more Read all reviews
The Fifth Estate

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Movie Info

Synopsis WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and a colleague, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, join forces to become watchdogs over actions of the privileged and powerful. Despite scant resources, they are able to create a platform for whistle-blowers to leak covert data anonymously, thereby exposing government secrets and corporate crimes. However, a major battle erupts when Assange and Berg gain access to the biggest cache of confidential intelligence documents in U.S. history.
Director
Bill Condon
Producer
Steve Golin, Michael Sugar
Screenwriter
Josh Singer
Distributor
DreamWorks SKG
Production Co
Anonymous Content, Reliance Entertainment
Rating
R (Some Violence|Language)
Genre
Drama, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Oct 18, 2013, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Nov 23, 2015
Box Office (Gross USA)
$3.3M
Runtime
2h 8m
Sound Mix
Datasat, SDDS, Dolby Digital