The Silk Road Film has been released - shows what happened on this forum 2 catch

[slaman29]

I don't know why I sense that bitcoin will be shown as an evil in this movie! Probably yes! Probably not! I can see only one mention of Bitcoin in the trailer but I really hope it doesn't show bitcoin in negative light.

Don't get your hopes up lol.

If it shows the main character in a badlight, then surely it has to show Bitcoin in a bad light? You can't be talking about one guy and make him the sort of villain but who uses good tools;)

And yeah I know this is hollywood so don't believe 90% of what you see portrayed on the screen. It's all for drama and making money, truth is not really important;)

[1715402666]

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[mk4]

If it shows the main character in a badlight, then surely it has to show Bitcoin in a bad light? You can't be talking about one guy and make him the sort of villain but who uses good tools;)

And yeah I know this is hollywood so don't believe 90% of what you see portrayed on the screen. It's all for drama and making money, truth is not really important;)

They may or may not be intentionally putting Bitcoin in the bad light, but from one of the main quotes from the trailer alone: "Amazon, but for drugs" and bitcoin being one of the main currencies of the platform? It's almost guaranteed lol. Not to mention that putting bitcoin/crypto as a hacker/drugs thing is what's going to mostly make people interested I assume. Probably only a minority would be interested in "bitcoin for payments/SoV" in a movie.

[Rikafip]

I already watched the movie and I talked about it few days ago in other SilkRoad topic, that means imdb release date is wrong
Not a bad movie to watch especially if you are interested in Bitcoin history, but I think they added to many fantasy elements and they presented Ross character as some kind of lunatic.

Release date was not wrong, as always movie leaked few days before that on torrents, but official release was indeed February 19th.

I watched it too, and it's kinda meh. As you said, too many fictional things added, but that was kinda expected since this is not documentary. The only good thing about the movie is that some people may dig deeper and check what really happened. Imho, this whole subject deserves much better film, with bigger budget and more serious director. Someone like David Fincher would do much better job, and would fit this perfectly. What we got is essentially made-for-TV low budget film with zero character development.

If it shows the main character in a badlight, then surely it has to show Bitcoin in a bad light? You can't be talking about one guy and make him the sort of villain but who uses good tools;)

They didn't really mention bitcoin much so I don't think that will have any impact on people's perception. Maybe if movie was released 5 years ago, but not now when everyone and their grandma knows about bitcoin.

[larus]

Hope that this will be documentary film more or less

[dkbit98]

I watched it too, and it's kinda meh. As you said, too many fictional things added, but that was kinda expected since this is not documentary. The only good thing about the movie is that some people may dig deeper and check what really happened. Imho, this whole subject deserves much better film, with bigger budget and more serious director. Someone like David Fincher would do much better job, and would fit this perfectly. What we got got is essentially made-for-TV low budget film with zero character development.

Well movie was ready and finished in 2020 for Tribeca Film Festival but it was postponed because of covid pandemic, and I would not say it is low budget movie but I don't know exactly what was the actual budget.
Lionsgate released it and they have some solid actors like Jason Clarke and Jimmi Simpson, there are some ok reviews on imdb and rotten tomatoes and I would say movie is watchable, and interesting for people who don't know anything about SlikRoad.
Like I said before, funny part in movie for me was when they create Bitcoin wallet with mobile phone and ID card for DEA detective  

Just an idea of mine, maybe Roger Ver could be sponsor for some better and more realistic movie and do something good with his money, and we know he still supports Ross very much.
Other Bitcoin whales could also do the same and paint more realistic picture of Ross, Silkroad and Bitcoin.

[coolcoinz]

Hope that this will be documentary film more or less

There will be some action and suspense to make it interesting for people who don't know what it's about and decide to see it because it's a new release.
Makes me wonder if they'll show that agents who caught him were dirty. Not many filmmakers show things as they are and rather prefer to add their own biased views.

[rdbase]

I don't know why I sense that bitcoin will be shown as an evil in this movie! Probably yes! Probably not! I can see only one mention of Bitcoin in the trailer but I really hope it doesn't show bitcoin in negative light.

Don't get your hopes up lol.

If it shows the main character in a badlight, then surely it has to show Bitcoin in a bad light? You can't be talking about one guy and make him the sort of villain but who uses good tools;)
And yeah I know this is hollywood so don't believe 90% of what you see portrayed on the screen. It's all for drama and making money, truth is not really important;)

This is exactly what they have in full print on the screen for the opening scene:
"This was made of a true story... except for the parts we made up."

So of course they added and replaced some parts of what happened to make it more appealing to the general audience which are not into crypto or technical in what was involved.

For Christ's sake, they even took out that Ross used Bitcointalk forums to get caught by the fbi agent pretending to be another forum user.
They showed them using the forum of silkroad as that's what was from my previous screencap of that agent with the earpiece but they replaced the interactions he have had with the agent on this forum with just a messenger type platform instead.

Here are the screencaps of those pm's from the fbi declassified documentary they had released on this case at the beginning of the year.

[eaLiTy]

Anyone knows what is Ross Ulbricht bitcointalk account?
Maybe silkroad?

Ross Ulbricht had multiple accounts here in the forum and altoid was one of his main account and from what i understand some of the posts are deleted .
Will watch the movie, i wish everyone can sign the petition for his release Freeross because the sentence he got cannot be justified considering he never sold drugs, all he did was host a site and the biggest drug sellers on the site got a maximum sentence of 10 years and below.

[bryant.coleman]

Just started watching this move around 30 minutes back, and so far it looks pretty unbiased. It is really surprising. The FBI would have wanted the movie makers to paint Ross as an evil individual who cared only about money. But the producers are trying to be as honest as they can with the subject. Still, some 1 hour 20 minutes remaining in the movie, and I don't want to make my final judgment yet.

Here are some of the quotes from the movie:

Silk Road is about something much bigger than thumbing your nose at the man. It's about taking back our liberty.

And as corny as it sounds, I just wanna look back at my life and know that I did something that helped people.

Ross: "Well, until 1967, it was illegal for a white man to marry a Black woman in the state of Virginia. In 14 other states, including the great state of Texas, mind you, it was illegal for two people to have consensual sodomy until 2002. America has lost its compass, man. If you wanna fall in love with someone who doesn't look like you or have sex with somebody who does, that is your inalienable right. The state cannot legislate what the person can and can't do. It is un-American."

[woh0dly]

I watched this movie last night. I guess I'm a bit let down because American Kingping (the book about Ross, and Silk Road) really focused more on the relationship between Ross and Variety Jones.

I'm really not sure the movie is all that great tbh.  Between Variety Jones and the IRS agent who found Ross' email using a google search about Silk Road both missing. It makes it hard to really enjoy it.

#freeross

[yazher]

This will help us explain bitcoin to other people who have been remained ignorant until this time. You know, movies like this would be beneficial if they don't cherry-pick about a certain bad incident,s or else this movie won't help at all. I mean, If it's all about the bad side of Bitcoin which we all know it's not totally that bad, then this will add gasoline to the fire of their ignorance. I need to add this film later to my next watch list so that I can post some honest reviews about the movie. After all, we need to give them some compliments if they do the job right this time.

[percy_tc]

I already watched the movie and I talked about it few days ago in other SilkRoad topic, that means imdb release date is wrong
Not a bad movie to watch especially if you are interested in Bitcoin history, but I think they added to many fantasy elements and they presented Ross character as some kind of lunatic.

Release date was not wrong, as always movie leaked few days before that on torrents, but official release was indeed February 19th.

I watched it too, and it's kinda meh. As you said, too many fictional things added, but that was kinda expected since this is not documentary. The only good thing about the movie is that some people may dig deeper and check what really happened. Imho, this whole subject deserves much better film, with bigger budget and more serious director. Someone like David Fincher would do much better job, and would fit this perfectly. What we got is essentially made-for-TV low budget film with zero character development.

If it shows the main character in a badlight, then surely it has to show Bitcoin in a bad light? You can't be talking about one guy and make him the sort of villain but who uses good tools;)

They didn't really mention bitcoin much so I don't think that will have any impact on people's perception. Maybe if movie was released 5 years ago, but not now when everyone and their grandma knows about bitcoin.

There is a documentary about SilkRoad called Deep Web (2015). I do enjoyed that one.

[ene1980]

Just started watching this move around 30 minutes back, and so far it looks pretty unbiased. It is really surprising. The FBI would have wanted the movie makers to paint Ross as an evil individual who cared only about money. But the producers are trying to be as honest as they can with the subject. Still, some 1 hour 20 minutes remaining in the movie, and I don't want to make my final judgment yet.

If you think it is unbiased then i will watch the move, usually these kind of theme usually will be boring and mostly fictional but if it is an almost accurate portrait of Silk Road then i will watch the movie.
Let me ask you this, how to watch this movie, is it available in Netflix or other similar apps.

[pixie85]

I watched this movie last night. I guess I'm a bit let down because American Kingping (the book about Ross, and Silk Road) really focused more on the relationship between Ross and Variety Jones.

I'm really not sure the movie is all that great tbh.  Between Variety Jones and the IRS agent who found Ross' email using a google search about Silk Road both missing. It makes it hard to really enjoy it.

#freeross

How would you rate it? Worth watching or a waste of time? From 1 to 10?

I read a lot about the case but I need to find some time to take on the book. That's going to be a must read for me, but I'm ready to skip the movie if the reviews aren't good enough.

[woh0dly]

I watched this movie last night. I guess I'm a bit let down because American Kingping (the book about Ross, and Silk Road) really focused more on the relationship between Ross and Variety Jones.

I'm really not sure the movie is all that great tbh.  Between Variety Jones and the IRS agent who found Ross' email using a google search about Silk Road both missing. It makes it hard to really enjoy it.

#freeross

How would you rate it? Worth watching or a waste of time? From 1 to 10?

I read a lot about the case but I need to find some time to take on the book. That's going to be a must read for me, but I'm ready to skip the movie if the reviews aren't good enough.

read the book. movie is prob 6/10 tbh.

[Vishnu.Reang]

If you think it is unbiased then i will watch the move, usually these kind of theme usually will be boring and mostly fictional but if it is an almost accurate portrait of Silk Road then i will watch the movie.
Let me ask you this, how to watch this movie, is it available in Netflix or other similar apps.

I don't think that it is available in any of the OTT platforms yet, since the producers went for a theatre release. From what I have heard, the movie was released in a total of 100 theatres within the US and the weekend collection was a modest $47,000. Silk Road managed to beat second week collections of Fear of Rain in terms of collection, although the latter was released in 120 theatres.

I you really want to watch the movie legally, then you can visit VOD websites such as Vudu or Redbox.

[bryant.coleman]

Took me 2-3 days to find enough spare time to complete watching this movie. I am impressed with the filmmakers for giving an accurate picture of Ross Ulbricht. Ross was not a drug peddler or a scammer. He never cared about money. All he wanted was to stand up for his Libertarian political beliefs and create marketplace where anything can be purchased anonymously. This is not the picture FBI want you to believe. The FBI want you to believe that Ross was a hardcore criminal, who wanted to flood the US with drugs.

One inaccuracy I noticed was that the rogue FBI agent (Shaun Bridges, depicted as "Rick Bowden" in the movie) is being portrayed as a family man, who stole money from Ross to fund the school education of his daughter. A robbery is a robbery, no matter what. But tell me who need $800,000 for the payment of school fees? Tell me the name of the school which charges this much as tuition fee.

But apart from a few minor inaccuracies, the movie was more or less unbiased.

[Wind_FURY]

Took me 2-3 days to find enough spare time to complete watching this movie. I am impressed with the filmmakers for giving an accurate picture of Ross Ulbricht. Ross was not a drug peddler or a scammer. He never cared about money. All he wanted was to stand up for his Libertarian political beliefs and create marketplace where anything can be purchased anonymously. This is not the picture FBI want you to believe. The FBI want you to believe that Ross was a hardcore criminal, who wanted to flood the US with drugs.

I was worried that the movie would miss this important aspect of the “DPR persona”. Here’s an interview with him published in Forbes Magazine, https://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/08/14/an-interview-with-a-digital-drug-lord-the-silk-roads-dread-pirate-roberts-qa/?sh=6d2562b05732

He was a believer of a true free market, with very minimal state interference.

At it's core, Silk Road is a way to get around regulation from the state. If they say we can't buy and sell certain things, we'll do it anyway and suffer no abuse from them. But the state tries to control nearly every aspect of our lives, not just drug use. Anywhere they do that, there is an opportunity to live your life as you see fit despite their efforts.

I'm hesitant to specifically declare the direction we'll take next but let me give you a couple of examples. Firearms and ammunition are becoming more and more regulated and controlled in many parts of the world. We actually had a site up called "The Armory" at one point that specialized in the sale of small arms that ultimately was unsuccessful, but if we can find a model that works where people can get the equipment they need to defend themselves and their families despite what the state wants and often in defense of the state itself, I would be more than happy to provide that. Also, any place the State places large tariffs or taxes, there is an opportunity to circumvent their blockades. Consumer electronics are much more expensive than they need to be in many parts of the world, for example.

One inaccuracy I noticed was that the rogue FBI agent (Shaun Bridges, depicted as "Rick Bowden" in the movie) is being portrayed as a family man, who stole money from Ross to fund the school education of his daughter. A robbery is a robbery, no matter what. But tell me who need $800,000 for the payment of school fees? Tell me the name of the school which charges this much as tuition fee.

But apart from a few minor inaccuracies, the movie was more or less unbiased.

For drama, and to not make the Man of the State look like a typical fiend. Haha.

Where/how did you watch the movie? Online?

[kryptqnick]

Anyone knows what is Ross Ulbricht bitcointalk account?
Maybe silkroad?

Ross Ulbricht had multiple accounts here in the forum and altoid was one of his main account and from what i understand some of the posts are deleted .
Will watch the movie, i wish everyone can sign the petition for his release Freeross because the sentence he got cannot be justified considering he never sold drugs, all he did was host a site and the biggest drug sellers on the site got a maximum sentence of 10 years and below.

I've signed the petition a while ago. I don't do drugs, it's just not my thing. But I don't think people should get imprisoned for doing or distributing them either. Especially Ross seems like a good human being who just wanted to make an engaging use case for cryptos and wanted people to enjoy their freedoms which they, I believe, deserve to enjoy. I really hope they release him soon...
As for the movie, the trailer doesn't look like it's going to dive deep into the character of Ross Ulbricht, Austrian school of Economics and all that. And the top review on imdb is currently the one that gives this movie 1/10 for inaccuracies and unfair treatment of the situation.

[Ucy]

Took me 2-3 days to find enough spare time to complete watching this movie. I am impressed with the filmmakers for giving an accurate picture of Ross Ulbricht. Ross was not a drug peddler or a scammer. He never cared about money. All he wanted was to stand up for his Libertarian political beliefs and create marketplace where anything can be purchased anonymously. This is not the picture FBI want you to believe. The FBI want you to believe that Ross was a hardcore criminal, who wanted to flood the US with drugs.

I was worried that the movie would miss this important aspect of the “DPR persona”. Here’s an interview with him published in Forbes Magazine, https://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/08/14/an-interview-with-a-digital-drug-lord-the-silk-roads-dread-pirate-roberts-qa/?sh=6d2562b05732

He was a believer of a true free market, with very minimal state interference.

At it's core, Silk Road is a way to get around regulation from the state. If they say we can't buy and sell certain things, we'll do it anyway and suffer no abuse from them. But the state tries to control nearly every aspect of our lives, not just drug use. Anywhere they do that, there is an opportunity to live your life as you see fit despite their efforts.

I'm hesitant to specifically declare the direction we'll take next but let me give you a couple of examples. Firearms and ammunition are becoming more and more regulated and controlled in many parts of the world. We actually had a site up called "The Armory" at one point that specialized in the sale of small arms that ultimately was unsuccessful, but if we can find a model that works where people can get the equipment they need to defend themselves and their families despite what the state wants and often in defense of the state itself, I would be more than happy to provide that.
Also, any place the State places large tariffs or taxes, there is an opportunity to circumvent their blockades. Consumer electronics are much more expensive than they need to be in many parts of the world, for example.

...

I regards to the bolded part, I think there are certain places where the use of dangerous weapons should be limited or prevented.. places where there is high possibility of abuse of such weapons especially for mass killings/destructions and serious crimes. In places where they are allowed, the users should be willing to take responsibility for their misused/abused
By the way, I would prefer a society where non-lethal weapons that are as effective and fast as certain lethal weapons are mostly allowed.