[Infowarrior] - ‘Blackhat,’ Michael Mann’s Cyberthriller

[Richard Forno]

(x-posted)

(I wonder who TA's the film?  Perhaps someone competent for a change? --rick)

Hacking Reality: When Art Imitates Technology

‘Blackhat,’ Michael Mann’s Cyberthriller

By BROOKS BARNES and MICHAEL CIEPLYDEC. 22, 2014

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. — At a critical moment in Michael Mann’s cyberthriller, “Blackhat,” a naïve security guard slips a young woman’s thumb drive into his corporate computer.

The camera lingers on the drive’s all-uppercase brand name: SONY. A few covert keystrokes later, the system is penetrated — one hacker, a good guy, is within reach of an illicit fortune stolen by another.

If this is not exactly cinematic art imitating life, the release of “Blackhat” by Universal Pictures next month will at least show spooky synchronicity with the very real hacking attack on Universal’s crosstown competitor, Sony Pictures. Set to open on Jan. 16, Mr. Mann’s movie is one of the most authentic film treatments of malicious hacking in memory — and it has been given added cultural urgency by inadvertently crossing paths with the Sony assault.

Hollywood has always had a hard time turning computer code and venomous software into captivating cinema. But Mr. Mann, who wrung three Oscar nominations from “The Insider,” his 1999 story of a tobacco company whistle-blower, has spent years on “Blackhat,” partly in an effort to bridge the gap between film and what he saw as an underappreciated mass threat posed by hackers.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/23/movies/blackhat-michael-manns-cyberthriller.html

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Just because i'm near the punchbowl doesn't mean I'm also drinking from it.