‘The Interview’: The Ongoing Saga of Controversy

Sony’s The Interview is now the highest legally downloaded film of all time; no thanks to the North Korean hackers who released sensitive information from the company’s deep, dark vaults. This was all according to the FBI of course. No film in recent history, not least a comedy, has caused as much political tension as this. In the latest development, North Korea has denied involvement in the hacking and has hit out at the US for falsifying claims. Thrilling stuff.

The comedy has proven how provocative satirical content can be when aimed at certain people, even if it’s is only an average film at best. In fact the events caused by the hackings are so ridiculous they’ll probably end up being made into a film themselves. These stories have also overshadowed a real problem the film and the industry in general is facing: illegal downloading.

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In the film, long time collaborators Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen do their best job of making dictator Kim-Jong Un seem like a poor man’s version of  Sacha Baron Cohen’s General Aladeen. He likes Katy Perry, explosions and scantily clad women; it’s ironic then that the film’s portrayal of the US is perhaps more accurate than its Korean interpretation (even in spite of the uproar caused by Kim- Jong’s representatives).  It begins with news reports of the regime’s huge array of nuclear missiles and the film’s two stars eventually end up being convinced by the CIA to assassinate the North Korean leader by shaking his hand; all before he can carry out his vast nuclear attacks on the West.

So far in the real world the US have just imposed economic sanctions on several North Korean government agencies and president Obama is apparently considering placing the country on the terror list. All this was because the FBI said they they were behind the recent Sony hacking. In recent weeks it has turned out that it probably wasn’t starving North Koreans with limited access to mobile phones, let alone a computer; it was more than likely an inside job by some of Sony’s ex employees. Who would of thought?

What it really says though is  that the US is more than willing to threaten countries and start throwing around the big T word  without proper evidence or investigation. Their power and influence in world politics means that no one bar the small communist state will criticize them. They’ve got no reason to really. This isn’t to say that North Korea should be defended because their all controlling dictator is annoyed everyone knows he likes some good old fashioned American pop music, but it seems to me that the US are willing to use a very average comedy film to label a nation of starving people as terrorists. It’s astonishing, and the mainstream media are right behind them.

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Passing slightly under the radar because of this, Sony have capitalised on the media commotion caused by the intercontinental dispute and sales from The Interview have rocketed. It has flown up the all time legal downloads chart to the very top, making fifteen million dollars in its opening weekend and that’s without the profit made from the limited theatrical release. On the flip side, because of the early availability of the film to download on Google play and other platforms, it was also illegally shared an estimated two and half million times on torrent sites such as the Pirate Bay, that’s around half the number of paid downloads. Issues such as this are what the media could really be focusing on rather than overblown accusations of computer espionage with little evidence. Although the film isn’t great illegal downloading has taken a huge dent out of its potential profits, it’s something that’s crippling the entertainment industry and despite current efforts, there needs to be a bigger push to help prevent what’s happened here. If it isn’t prevented, online film releases, which look more and more like the future of cinema are bound to fail.

There probably won’t be another film released with as much controversy in a long time but it’s interesting to analyse some of the different aspects of the release and see what can be garnered from them. On another note a retired U.S. General talked about assassinating the real life dictator at a summit last year so who knows there could be a whole other angle we haven’t seen; or not.

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