10 “True” Movies That Glossed Over Major Controversies

4. The Fifth Estate

The Lie: The rape allegations against Julian Assange are almost completely ignored. Despite its commercial failure and the relative kicking it came in for from critics, Bill Condon's The Fifth Estate was actually a rather engaging look at the life of polarising WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Benedict Cumberbatch disappeared into the role completely in an outstanding piece of mimicry, alongside Daniel Brühl as Assange's partner in crime Daniel Domscheit-Berg. The film focused primarily on the rise of WikiLeaks and the increasingly difficult personality of its enigmatic founder. Unlike many of the other biopics on this list, The Fifth Estate didn't shy away from creating a flawed protagonist, but notably avoided the biggest controversy around Assange. The film ends with Assange holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he still resides to this day, but there's very little exploration in the film of the circumstances that led him there. In The Fifth Estate, Assange is painted as something of an anti-hero, leaving no room for the fact that he is currently wanted for questioning surrounding sex crimes. Given that the allegations against Assange are such a major part of his recent history, it's remarkable that they were barely mentioned in The Fifth Estate.