Over the last few weeks I've found myself watching an interesting trio of films: The Internet's Own Boy, Citizen Four, and The Fifth Estate.
More and more I'm finding that my heroes are people that I follow on Twitter, or who are doing the kind of serious work that gives us Tor, and GnuPG, and all of the other important tools, and the people who are actually putting their necks on the line to tell us things that the overlords don't want us to know.
So Soylentils, what other good films about your heroes should I be checking out?
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(Score: 4, Interesting) by Freeman on Wednesday March 04 2015, @04:46PM
Pirates of Silicon Valley. ;-)
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 04 2015, @06:19PM
My favorite Internet related documentary is "Ethanol-fueled: Too Manly for the Internet".
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Marneus68 on Wednesday March 04 2015, @04:50PM
TPB AFK - The Pirate Bay Away From Keyboard, an excellent documentary on the Pirate Bay trial. Really dark but interesting watch. I consider it to be a must see.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by mr_mischief on Wednesday March 04 2015, @04:50PM
Okay, so some of these are pretty predictable.
The Imitation Game
American Experience: Silicon Valley (on PBS, available on Netflix)
Pirates of Silicon Valley
Milk
Schindler's List
Hawking (TV movie)
The Theory of Everything
(Score: 1) by anti-NAT on Wednesday March 04 2015, @05:09PM
The Imitation Game is not factual.
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/nov/20/the-imitation-game-invents-new-slander-to-insult-alan-turing-reel-history [theguardian.com]
(Score: 1) by mr_mischief on Thursday March 05 2015, @12:41AM
It's entertainment based loosely on him. It was never claimed to be a documentary. My girlfriend is a computer layman and is more interested after having seen the film, which we both found entertaining.
With the caveat that there's a lot of license taken, I'll still recommend it as a good film that is based on a hero of mine.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by MrGuy on Wednesday March 04 2015, @04:51PM
is not like the others.
The Internet's Own Boy and Citizen Four are documentaries made by serious journalists who want to tell a story fairly and accurately.
The Fifth Estate is a corporate Hollywood "based on a true story!" film that values entertainment and narrative cleanliness over accuracy. Assange has denounced the film as a hack job. It's not clear his perspective is the only one that matters on this, but it's definitely the case that it's a very different kind of film, and should be taken with a very different amount of salt.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 04 2015, @09:59PM
Let's not go too far.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday March 04 2015, @10:18PM
Let's not go too far.
Oh, let's do and just say we didn't! I mean, at least it is not "Fair and Balanced". (Or is that "fairly unbalanced"? Fox Entertainment, the real whistleblowers that everyone hates them for just telling the truthiness!)
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 04 2015, @05:00PM
Hacking when the Internet was still a dream.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by VLM on Wednesday March 04 2015, @05:30PM
Question as stated needs some refinement.
So strict documentary is allowed, or just hollywood style historically inspired fiction?
How about subject matter, does it have to be strictly computer network politics related or "generally kinda science-y"
How about truth? "A Scanner Darkly" is excellent commentary about the civil war on drugs, all of the summary and analysis and gist is true, but none of the details are true.
How about format, must it be released in movie theaters or ...
In summary I'm not sure if Cowboy Bebop would fit the requirements or not.
A fun, simpler question might be "if you're here, you'd probably like the following movies:" (and no 2G1C allowed, and no links to rickrolls allowed, thank you)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Wednesday March 04 2015, @05:47PM
And a followup question / story request / poll request to the "list yer favorite movies" I also propose "favorite books". There's a classic journal entry here where Yog accuses Ethanolfueled of being Bukowski reincarnated because of his Ubuntu parody (or was it a documentary?), or something like that.
I've read and like Bukowski but I'm more a Mencken fan, or at least a fan of his best quotes. "Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good" and all that. I read "with the old breed" in one day last week, its a quick simple read, pretty amazing story.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 04 2015, @05:51PM
31c3 especially was excellent
http://cdn.media.ccc.de/congress/ [media.ccc.de]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by hemocyanin on Wednesday March 04 2015, @05:52PM
Maxie Marlinspike is a pretty interesting character who's worked on some useful tools: http://www.thoughtcrime.org/software.html [thoughtcrime.org]
... and made a cool movie about no budget cruising (of the sailing variety): https://vimeo.com/15351476 [vimeo.com]
(Score: 2) by pnkwarhall on Wednesday March 04 2015, @06:17PM
(It's "Moxie" Marlinspike and the part of that movie about dropping anchor under sail was **awesome**.)
Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Wednesday March 04 2015, @07:27PM
yeah -- terrible typo in the body. In my defense, I got it right in the subject. ;-)
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 04 2015, @07:57PM
Movie name: "23" from the year: 1998.
About hacker culture in Europe in the 1980's, and hackers fight against the Illuminati.
Based on true story.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Yog-Yogguth on Wednesday March 04 2015, @08:31PM
It took me a while to write this so I apologize if some thread got going (too rushed to check).
I would recommend Citizen Four to everyone no matter what. It can be very hard to watch, as in unpleasant and unsettling, too much like a clean and orderly bloodless nightmare draped in beautiful scenery. It needs captioning (at least the one I saw didn't have any except briefly for locations). It is what it is.
The first hour up until the exit from the hotel is perhaps a bit slow but gives a glimpse into the first days in Hong Kong. For better or worse one can make ones own thoughts and impressions of those bits of film, and in terms of mentality at what location those people were at during those moments. Without getting into detail I think it's the biggest difference between the first and second “half” and it (both parts) in my mind raises questions about where they and everyone else “are” and “should be” (the two are not necessarily the same, maybe never) at various points in time including afterwards and now. Particularly the rest of us which gets personal and maybe that explains the difficulties/nightmarish quality mentioned in the previous paragraph.
The movie/documentary is not complete and probably couldn't be. Some things are not mentioned like the “hijacking” of the Bolivian president's plane over Europe. In other ways the movie/documentary is more complete than anything but video could be: study the body/facial language of those being filmed/talking, one would hope some of that really jumps out at anyone watching. Some of it is a damning verdict on our present and most likely also our future.
Maybe the new one in the second half is the one that was blackholed/disappeared in the US last year, although I kind of have my doubts thinking it might have been a fall guy or disinformation. Whoever it was —if anyone— would easily “confess” to anything considering the methods being used by the US. No information available anywhere.
Anyway please watch Citizen Four and suggest to others that they should watch it, it's as good a starting point as anywhere else no matter what you think of Snowden and his actions or any of the topics or how much or little anyone knows about computers or technology. A starting point for those who haven't paid attention but also a starting point for looking back over the past two years and forward to now.
It's only an internet search away. Watch it even if you can't pay for it.
There is a lot we don't know yet and in this case I'm not even talking about any details required to build something one could possibly trust but about the big picture. It is obvious Snowden didn't either. Most likely no one has a full view. “I wonder what they're looking for” is perhaps the most appropriate quote, worthy of some thought about assumptions.
Bite harder Ouroboros, bite! tails.boum.org/ linux USB CD secure desktop IRC *crypt tor (not endorsements (XKeyScore))
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 04 2015, @10:02PM
Historically I've tended to like DC Heroes over Marvel, but it isn't a hard and firm line.
(Score: 2) by Appalbarry on Thursday March 05 2015, @01:19AM
Followup to my own question:
1) Much downloading happening as we speak.
2) Imitation Game and Fifth Estate are obvious examples of how Hollywood never tells a story close to the truth. Still, I liked them both very much, and it's kind of fun to see Cumberbatch playing two important tech people from entirely opposite ends of the computer era. Absolutely loved his version of Assange, even though I know that the story is one highly biased version. It may be an entirely fictional character, but boy did he nail it.
3) I'm generally looking for stuff that can be found on NetFlix, YouTube, Pirate Bay, or maybe via the library.
4) Max Headroom!!! Yes!!!!
5) CCC Conferences! Yes again! (actually there are a lot of great conference videos out there.
6) Documentary or fiction? Don't care. Each has biases and points of view.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 05 2015, @02:38AM
Kill the Messenger is a 2014 American crime thriller film directed by Michael Cuesta and written by Peter Landesman. It is based on the book of the same name by Nick Schou and the book Dark Alliance by Gary Webb. The film stars Jeremy Renner (in his first film as a producer), Michael Sheen, Andy Garcia, Ray Liotta, Barry Pepper, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Rosemarie DeWitt, Paz Vega, Oliver Platt, Richard Schiff, and Michael K. Williams. The film was released on October 10, 2014.[4]
His book "Dark Alliance" is better than the movie, but you asked about movies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_the_Messenger_(2014_film) [wikipedia.org]
Webb is best known for his "Dark Alliance" series, which appeared in the Mercury News in 1996. The series examined the origins of the crack-cocaine trade in Los Angeles and claimed that members of the anti-government Contra rebels in Nicaragua had played a major role in creating the trade, using cocaine profits to support their struggle. It also suggested that they may have acted with the knowledge and protection of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The series provoked outrage in Los Angeles, particularly in the African-American community, and led to four major investigations of the series' charges.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Webb [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 1) by TLA on Thursday March 05 2015, @03:02PM
and it's not casual viewing. WARNING: this will fuck your head up.
"Sun, Sea And Satan" and "Adam Rickwood And The Medomsley Heroes" both by Bill Maloney, a survivor of institutional child abuse and continuing the fight back against those who seek to silence him by murdering his family. If you want a hero, Bill is it.
Excuse me, I think I need to reboot my horse. - NCommander