Katharine Gun was a 27/8 year old analyst attending work on a normal day when she got the email that caused her to start questioning the war. I was six years old when my country decided to go to war thanks to the decisions of Tony Blair and George W Bush. I didn't know anything about this war other than that the world had been lied to about Sadaam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction.
Keira Knightley took on the role of Katharine Gun and let's start with the normal differences. The real footage from the trial is shown at the end and Katharine Gun has blonde hair. Knightley has brown hair. Now that we've got that tiny difference out in to the air let's actually talk about the events in this movie.
Since watching this movie I have started studying this war and trying to learn as much as I can about it. The movie opens with Katharine Gun being presented at her trial and then goes back to opening with setting the scene. She lives in Cheltnham with her husband. She sits there watching the news on the tensions between Iraq and other UN nations and argues against what is being said. She then goes to work and we learn that she is working on the Chinese analysis. She receives an email which makes her uncomfortable and she doesn't know what to do about it so she goes to see a friend who is part of the Anti-War movement. She says that she wants to give them the email so that they can look in to it and then regardless of what happens, her conscience is clear.
We see her copy the email to floppy disk and then print the email and sneak it out. She cuts off the head of the email and passes it on. We watch her become nervous and look anxiously for any signs that something has been done with her information until she goes to meet her friend again to enquire about it.
The email was about forcing the smaller countries in the UN to vote for war. Eventually the email gets handed to a journalist writing for 'The Observer' called Martin Bright ( Matt Smith) and after a lot of digging he manages to obtain that there could be genuine truth to the email and publishes a story on it.
GCHQ start interviewing everyone and whilst Katharine survives her first interview, she becomes increasingly paranoid and decides to own up to prevent her colleagues and friends from having to continually go though these interviews. She risks her job, her freedom and even her husband who is facing deportation to make the public aware but she does just that and she captures our hearts whilst we are watching, She is defended by Ralph Fiennes as her lawyer from Liberty and he is utterly fantastic as a lawyer. He shows passion and determination to obtain all the information that he needs to argue that the war was an illeagle war and therefore Katharine is not guilty.
These are probably the best performances I have seen from both Knightley and Fiennes. I thought that his performance in 'The Constant Gardener' was outstanding and this is just as good, if not slightly better. This time as a supporting role, he really shines and shows qualities that are often missed in Hollywood portrayals of lawyers. Keira Knightley really has become a much better actor as she has grown older. There was a lot of passion in this performance but also a really measured performance from her. She didn't become overly emotional and gave a really moving performance.
I spent the entire film moving around. I was determined to not take my eyes off the screen and I felt myself being pulled in to the movie at times. There were moments of laughter but I didn't want to miss anything that this movie had to offer. I absolutely love films that have historical relevance to them and having done some research in to this movie, I can see that the script spent about five years not being picked up. It seemed like this movie was never going to be made and that would have been a huge shame. This movie needed to be made to educate and to also show the strength of Katharine Gun. This is a woman who has moved out of the UK because she struggled to work after leaking this email. The events were historically accurate and that made me happy. I was angry with the British government for forcing her to appear in court and spend one entire year in total unrest before announcing that they had decided not to prosecute her; a decision that they had made one year earlier.
I am personally very glad that Matt Smith left Doctor Who. It is good to see him showcase his talent on the big screen. I think that he has a bright future ahead of him. If anyone has seen 'The Post' that was released a few years ago then they will see the similarities with this movie. Smith's character is similar to that of Tom Hanks in 'The Post' but Matt Smith is better in this movie than Tom Hanks was in that movie.
This movie is a movie of determination. Katharine is determined, Martin is determined and Ben (Fiennes) is determined. Without their determination it could have been a very different story. Martin and Ben did most of the work after Katharine had been charged. Katharine Gun broke the official secrets act but she did it to make sure that the British people were not being lied to and that is something to be admired. Ben and Martin tracked down everyone that they needed to and called for questionable documents to be brought to light and by doing so they forced the government to cancel the trial and left Katharine walk free.
Wherever you are, make sure that you see this movie. Knightley deserves an award for this film. I know that I said the same about Renee Zellwegger in 'Judy' and even though I am a huge fan of musicals, I actually think that this performance from Knightley is better and more deserving of the award. I have never thought much of her as a leading lady before now but my opinion of her has changed.
Watch it, learn about it and appreciate it for a fantastic script and fantastic casting. This movie will help you learn about a very important and forgotten figure in British Political History. I respect you Katharine Gun and thank you for doing what you did.
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