![]() ![]() Tony needs this resolution.” Tony Blair’s problem was Admiral (Michael) Boyce, who was the head of the British armed forces was refusing to cross into Iraq from Kuwait without a clear, written document from the Attorney General saying that the war was legal and in accordance with international law, because he didn’t want his soldiers, his officers, and himself to risk being charged with a war crime if the war was illegal. On January 31, hours before the memo was sent, there was a meeting that’s now been documented between (George W.) Bush, (Tony) Blair, (Donald) Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice and (Dick) Cheney in the White House where Bush said, “We need to twist arms for this UN resolution. What the film prompts and what journalists like Martin Bright continue to ask is, “Who authorized (NSA operative) Frank Koza to send that memo. In England, especially, it has and it will. Hood: Yes, it is intended to prod going further. Your intention is to make a film that’s both entertaining and thought-provoking, right? So, I thought this was an extraordinary story about an ordinary person who happened to be placed in a “big world” context. In her case, not only did she risk losing her job but also her freedom. The question is: do you risk losing your job to say so. ![]() She’s an ordinary person who came across something at work that didn’t smell right. She’s not a classical hero although I think she is a hero. ![]() I’ve said this before and she’s not offended she says the same thing. What drew me to the film was the fact that Katharine Gun, especially when I met her, wasn’t some high-ranking political figure or superstar of the intelligence world, she was actually quite ordinary. What the film I hope does is deliver these material facts accurately with believable performances from Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes and Matt Smith. Hood: I’m always very wary of grandstanding and seemingly like I have some easy answer to this. Did you think about expanding the film to cover that part of the story? No one has been held accountable for the misinformation that led the U.S. Maybe that’s why I’m drawn to making these kinds of films. I don’t want to go too far with this but I just think, somehow, without meaning to, my life has thrust me into places where moral and ethical questions do have consequences, as opposed to being abstract. I felt the push and pull of that with the government in complete denial about HIV as a virus. I worked for the new Department of Health making educational videos on the HIV/AIDS crisis. Then, when Nelson Mandela was released, I was free to go back. That made me very angry and I left for America in 1989. ![]() I was drafted at 17 and I lost a close friend in the war in Angola. Hood: As a writer, you don’t consciously look something and go, “Aha! I’m drawn to this.” But I grew up in South Africa during Apartheid. With this and Eye in the Sky, your protagonist has to deal with the question of what’s morally right versus their duty to their government and job. So, I was very lucky to work very closely with everyone involved. God forbid if anyone had said, “This isn’t very good and it doesn’t represent us.” We would have been dead. So, there were challenges in terms of the conventional narrative structure. Thank God, we had Ralph Fiennes to take the baton in the third act. He passes the baton to someone else, which is Ben Emmerson. Bright doesn’t come in in the third act and give a great speech. She’s not the hero in the conventional sense. Unfortunately, it doesn’t fit into a conventional narrative in the sense that Katharine doesn’t win the day. I spent about three weeks in England just talking to all the key players, and then I thought there really is an interesting story here. I wasn’t sure about (directing the film) until I met everybody. I also interviewed Martin Bright (Matt Smith), Peter Beaumont (Matthew Goode), and the other journalists, and then the formidable Ben Emmerson (Gun’s attorney, played by Ralph Fiennes), which was quite a meeting. I’m used to being interviewed I’m not used to being the one interviewing someone else, trying to make sense of everything. I’ve never made a film about a living person. Gavin Hood: I spent five days with her, just talking for five or six hours each day, writing notes, finding myself like a journalist, which was a new thing for me. What was it like when you met Katharine Gun? unjust grounds for declaring war on Iraq in Gavin Hood's 'Official Secrets.' Classified films Ltd Keira Knightley plays a British intelligence analyst who turns whistleblower for what she views as. ![]()
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