Zero Days (15.)
Directed by Alex Gibney. 116 mins
“'I can't wait for 2016 to be over', say people who have not considered implications of 2017,” was a recent headline in Private Eye. In this century New Year's Day has become the moment when we bid good riddance to the previous 12 months of catastrophes in the belief that the following year has got to be better. It never is, and this New Year opens with an Alex Gibney documentary about the Stuxnet virus and the age of cyber warfare that does a very thorough job of persuading us not to get our hopes up for 2017.
The Stuxnet virus was a piece of malware that America and Israel used to infect the Natanz nuclear facility in Iran, in the hope of slowing down their uranium enrichment programme. It didn't work, got leaked and now every government in the world has been able to study it and, possibly, have the ability to close down another country's infrastructure. It is, as one speaker put it, “our worst fears, our worst nightmare.”
The idea started, as bad ideas often do, during the Dubya administration, after he was told by Condoleeza Rice that, “I think you've invaded your last Muslim country.” It was then continued and implemented under Obama. As a film Zero Days is just a bunch of talking heads, which is ironic as at least half of them are there to say that they aren't allowed to talk about the subject of film. The film has an agenda: now that the weapon has been unleashed, and has backfired spectacularly, the time for secrecy is passed and we should address the situation and begin the process of negotiation that some decades down the line might result in the kind of treaties we have for nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Even Michael Hayden, a former CIA and NSA boss says it is over classified.
The film begins with cyber security experts at Symantec explaining what Stuxnet is, then there is a history of the Iran nuclear programme, and the story of the attack. Gibney has found some Deep Throats to expose what it is like inside the United States Cyber Command, the agency created to run virtual offensives. Apparently the warriors of the cyber age sit at their desks with Star Trek action figures and Lego constructed models of the Death Star.
Or so we are told, I think any viewer should watch this with the constant monitor that some of this could be misinformation. At the end an informant tells us about Nitro Zeus, a scheme that has completely infected Iran's infrastructure. The implication is that the States could crippled Iran at any time. Who knows if that's true? Gibney rattles through his work, and over the last decade averages around two full length documentaries a year. Some are on pop culture topics – Sinatra, Hunter S. Thompson, James Brown – but the others are on topics that must have need heaps of research. You have to wonder about the quality control when he is banging them out at such a rate. Obviously he must have two or three or four films on the go at any one time but some of these would seem to be projects that deserve a year or two of devoted research.
Because this is the first week of the new year I'm going to try to end on a positive note by offering up a straw to clutch at. If you are worried about President Trump let me tell you that this petulant pantsonfire orangutan isn't nearly as scary a prospect as Reagan seemed in 1980, when Armageddon really did seem inevitable. But we made it through Reagan and we even made it through W, just. Zero Days iss a vision of an Ugly New World, but in many ways it is all very familiar: secret nuclear facilities, horrible new weapons, Mossad assassinating nuclear scientists, enhanced uranium; brave insiders who agree to speak out anonymously. I've been seeing and being terrified by this film all my life. And we are all still here.
Directed by Alex Gibney. 116 mins
“'I can't wait for 2016 to be over', say people who have not considered implications of 2017,” was a recent headline in Private Eye. In this century New Year's Day has become the moment when we bid good riddance to the previous 12 months of catastrophes in the belief that the following year has got to be better. It never is, and this New Year opens with an Alex Gibney documentary about the Stuxnet virus and the age of cyber warfare that does a very thorough job of persuading us not to get our hopes up for 2017.
The Stuxnet virus was a piece of malware that America and Israel used to infect the Natanz nuclear facility in Iran, in the hope of slowing down their uranium enrichment programme. It didn't work, got leaked and now every government in the world has been able to study it and, possibly, have the ability to close down another country's infrastructure. It is, as one speaker put it, “our worst fears, our worst nightmare.”
The idea started, as bad ideas often do, during the Dubya administration, after he was told by Condoleeza Rice that, “I think you've invaded your last Muslim country.” It was then continued and implemented under Obama. As a film Zero Days is just a bunch of talking heads, which is ironic as at least half of them are there to say that they aren't allowed to talk about the subject of film. The film has an agenda: now that the weapon has been unleashed, and has backfired spectacularly, the time for secrecy is passed and we should address the situation and begin the process of negotiation that some decades down the line might result in the kind of treaties we have for nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. Even Michael Hayden, a former CIA and NSA boss says it is over classified.
The film begins with cyber security experts at Symantec explaining what Stuxnet is, then there is a history of the Iran nuclear programme, and the story of the attack. Gibney has found some Deep Throats to expose what it is like inside the United States Cyber Command, the agency created to run virtual offensives. Apparently the warriors of the cyber age sit at their desks with Star Trek action figures and Lego constructed models of the Death Star.
Or so we are told, I think any viewer should watch this with the constant monitor that some of this could be misinformation. At the end an informant tells us about Nitro Zeus, a scheme that has completely infected Iran's infrastructure. The implication is that the States could crippled Iran at any time. Who knows if that's true? Gibney rattles through his work, and over the last decade averages around two full length documentaries a year. Some are on pop culture topics – Sinatra, Hunter S. Thompson, James Brown – but the others are on topics that must have need heaps of research. You have to wonder about the quality control when he is banging them out at such a rate. Obviously he must have two or three or four films on the go at any one time but some of these would seem to be projects that deserve a year or two of devoted research.
Because this is the first week of the new year I'm going to try to end on a positive note by offering up a straw to clutch at. If you are worried about President Trump let me tell you that this petulant pantsonfire orangutan isn't nearly as scary a prospect as Reagan seemed in 1980, when Armageddon really did seem inevitable. But we made it through Reagan and we even made it through W, just. Zero Days iss a vision of an Ugly New World, but in many ways it is all very familiar: secret nuclear facilities, horrible new weapons, Mossad assassinating nuclear scientists, enhanced uranium; brave insiders who agree to speak out anonymously. I've been seeing and being terrified by this film all my life. And we are all still here.
