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Secrecy (2008)

tomatometer

100

Average Rating: 7.5/10
Critic Reviews: 11
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 0

No consensus yet.

audience

55

liked it
Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 278

My Rating

Movie Info

The "classification universe" is invisible to most of us, yet the production of governmental classified secret documents involves millions of people. And government secrecy is growing, vastly outpacing the circulation of open information. The statistics, as much as can be gathered, are staggering. In a single recent year, the United States government classified about five times the number of pages added to the Library of Congress; the cost is about eight billion dollars a year--just to keep

Sep 29, 2009

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All Critics (17) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (16) | Rotten (1)

A documentary that illuminates, entertains and inspires -- a timely triple feat given the stakes in the presidential election.

October 24, 2008 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
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Smart and unexpected, SecrecyM combines thoughtful interviews with an elegant visual look to produce an incisive examination of some of the key issues of our time.

October 17, 2008 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
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A stimulating, somewhat ambiguous new documentary about the changes in intelligence gathering since Sept. 11, 2001.

October 10, 2008 Full Review Source: Seattle Times
Seattle Times
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This one is not about secrecy per se, but about the strangely compelling people who fight for or against it.

September 19, 2008 Full Review Source: Boston Globe
Boston Globe
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In this age of political docu mentaries, it's always nice to come upon one that strives to be even-handed.

September 12, 2008 Full Review Source: New York Post
New York Post
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If the movie follows no single thread of inquiry, nor sustains any argument or research in depth, it nevertheless explores some chilling corridors of the clandestine.

September 12, 2008 Full Review Source: New York Times
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A messily structured look into the hidden world of national security policy and the 'classification universe,' Secrecy comes off as not much more than an aperitif.

May 15, 2012 Full Review Source: Shared Darkness
Shared Darkness

Its a neat balancing act that no doubt required some serious juggling in the editing room.

October 4, 2009 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis
Movie Metropolis

Secrecy may sound like the latest grade-B horror flick, but it's a horror movie of another kind: a documentary exploring the history of U.S. government clandestiness.

October 21, 2008 Full Review Source: Film Journal International
Film Journal International

This exceedingly "fair and balanced" (in the true meaning of the phrase), densely layered scrutiny of the nation's "disappeared" knowledge warrants viewing--even repeated viewing.

September 12, 2008 Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine
Boxoffice Magazine

Secrecy might have had a different kind of resonance, for I grew up with the understanding that there is much that is not my place to know. Some questions are not to be asked.

May 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

A sharply produced, thought-provoking documentary that makes compelling arguments on both sides.

March 29, 2008 Full Review Source: EricDSnider.com
EricDSnider.com

Audience Reviews for Secrecy

A very scary and almost disgusting look at what are goverment handles behind closed doors without our knowledge.
January 13, 2009
princessqtpl
kristine wegner
Unlike most recent political docs, which almost always have a set predisposition toward certain ideas that it will try and persuade you to adopt over the course of an hour and a half, [i]Secrecy[/i] is structured like an intellectual debate. To watch it is to feel as if you're viewing an exceedingly important conversation about a very complex topic, in this case, government secrecy and covert operations in the post-9/11 age. It is not a cospiracy theory doc, nor is it a history lesson, but rather a mature and balanced inquiry into how far is too far for the government to utilize its executive authority, and how much does the public have a right to know in these tumultuous times. Clearly, the film has few answers, and that's a refreshing dose of curious objectivity. Much of the style of the film is directly influenced from Errol Morris, from the hypnotic, oscillating score to the stylistically edited interviews, but the film does an admittedly great job at emulating Morris' distinct cinematic voice, so even though it is a rip off, it's certainly not boring to watch. This is a probing and thought-provoking piece that contributes to an increasingly robust list of docs this year about high-level protocol in the war on terror, the other two being the incendiary Morris film [i]Standard Operating Procedure [/i]and the fantastic Alex Gibney doc [i]Taxi to the Dark Side[/i].

[center][img]http://fest08.sffs.org/i/stills/main/films/secrecy.jpg[/img][/center]
September 14, 2008
Fireball_1
Matthew Farler
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Foreign Titles

  • Secrecy (2009) (DE)
  • Secrecy (2009) (UK)
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