Underground: The Julian Assange Story

Whenever a movie has some political agenda or seems to, the reviewer votes divide into haters and lovers, ten stars vs one star and so on. I am an admirer of Wikileaks, but I can't view this movie so singlesidedly. Instead, I have to compare it to similar movies like Operation Takedown or even Hackers. Also, I have to take into account that this is not a big budget American movie, but an Australian TV drama.

On that scale, Underground is surprisingly good. I wouldn't know how factual it is, but take into consideration that it is based on a book (that is freely available online) about the hacker culture, written when Julian Assange was a nobody. It has no connection to Wikileaks at all and none of the Assanges consulted on the movie (even though Julian himself said he liked it when he saw it).

The actors were well chosen, the boy looks like Assange a bit, and they all acted pretty well. There are two known names in the cast: Rachel Griffiths as the mother and Anthony LaPaglia as the cop chasing him. As for the story, it was eerily similar to Operation Takedown: the morally driven hacker that raises a middle finger to authority in his quest for truth. Unlike Mitnick, though, he only paid a 2100$ fine allegedly because the judge sympathised with his family's "nomadic lifestyle".

As for the main complaint, that the movie doesn't explain the motivations of Julian Assange, that is a good thing. Several pieces of the puzzle are presented: his obsessive personality, his cult leader step dad, his morally outspoken mother, his discovery of American misdoings in the first Gulf War. They all are just pieces. Many other exist and it is the role of the viewer to get or not interested in putting them together.

My conclusion is that for people not interested in the hacker culture or specifically Assange, the movie will seem pointless. For the others, though, it is a good watch. There is, of course, some dramatization, changes of perspective and so on, but in the end it does well what it set to do and that is why I recommend it wholeheartedly.

How much 'fact' is involved with this story of Julian Assange early life I do not know. But the movie as itself stands as great entertainment, perfectly cast and with a fantastic script!

Alex Williams as the young Assange gives a powerhouse performance of a young man focused and driven by his wanting to expose 'the truth' and not cause damage in the process. And he achieves his goal even with the dial-up internet of the late 1980's and early 1990's.

The 'authorities' are full of disdain and envy for this group of geniuses and their knowledge of up and coming technology. Assange laid the groundwork for the digital oversight 'the press' has failed to utilize in their mission as the fourth estate to keep an eye on corruption in the state and corporations.

This movie shows that Assange is a 21st century hero!

close to truth, excellent biography movie and no matter how low the budget for the movie was the acting was so strong that after first 15 minutes you start not to notice the lacking of resources invested in the project. The story itself is inspiring fact that there are much more brilliant causes in this life than creating apple or face-book. He is our Che Guevara of the modern internet era. Love this movie. Unfortunately enough its not a Hollywood production, and will never gain the popularity of our facebook generation, and many mainstream thinkers will simply vote this down. I would classify this on the ranking list above pirates of the silicon valley with respect to screen shot and acting as well as historical value and society importance. Bravo for our fellows Australians that have made such a wonderful movie four digital hero of the century for our digital robin hood.

The actor playing Julian is riveting.

The storyline about early hacking attempts and Woz' "blue box" used to intercept the old phone company mechanical relay system by spoofing tones was interesting to see.

The movie was heavy on technology specifics without giving short shrift to the storyline of Julian's life.

I loved the review of emerging Computer technology and the realistically portrayed old hardware.

I was amazed how often the "white hats" were forced to play catch up with the techniques of the early hacker culture.

This film left me with the reminder of how little Australians know about the largeness of the characters in our countries history. Loved the simple outline of Assange's formative years, which I had little knowledge of. Was very enjoyable seeing IT in the time frame in which his international involvement started. The reality of period IT equipment, home pieces, telephone exchange, cheap city student housing, police structure was entertaining as well as a reminder of we're this fitted in my background. Was also enjoyable fitting Assange history into the news events of the day that I recalled, The Family. The 'one liner' written across screen at end, about custody battle, single parent child raising, leaves me hanging for the rest of the Bio. Very enjoyable documentary, would recommend to all, for both entertainment in terms of Australian 'period' piece & understanding were Assange comes from.