I saw “The Interview” a month ago. Here’s what the world was missing.

I saw “The Interview” in a theater a month ago. I’m not a film critic or a studio head or an intelligence agent or a hacker, I’m just a guy who got a ticket to a pre-screening where Seth Rogen and his writing/directing partner Evan Goldberg were interviewed before the showing. I thought it would be a fun way to spend a few hours. That was back when “The Interview” was just a goofy comedy starring Seth Rogen and James Franco slated for a Christmas Day release. Now it’s apparently a matter of national security, free expression and the American Dream, depending on who you ask.

What’s been surreal and unique, and the reason I’m writing this piece, is knowing the content of the movie before the Sony attack and seeing the events of the past month unfold. Countries and companies, from North Korea to Sony to the US Government to movie theater chains, have behaved weirdly and immaturely, increasingly so, as each gets a chance to react to a previously-made move, starting with the movie itself. It’s been mindblowing. But as with anything, there’s (hopefully) more to their actions than at first it seems.

Can you see it now? As of yesterday, you’ll be able to see it at select theaters in cities starting Christmas Day but still not at the big movie theater chains. As of an hour ago, Sony is offering the movie on YouTube and Xbox. I’m here to let you know if it’s worth your $5.99 ($14.99 to own!).

So, I figured I’d give you my take and let you know whether I think it’s worth all the hoopla since the movie has caused a linear chain of incredible cause and effect events that should result in greater changes in security, communication and even relationships than any Hollywood release I can think of.

Spoiler alert—yes it’s worth the hoopla, but not the movie specifically. Rather the change it will cause. And who doesn’t love lists at the holidays? So, here are:

10 thoughts regarding “The Interview”

1. The movie itself — thumbs up?

“The Interview” is like a modern day “Stripes” meets “Anchorman” but funnier than either of those movies. It’s hilarious, immature and sophomoric, though elevating itself by taking on a current event. Still, it’s not thought-provoking. It’s a slapstick buddy caper with a not-subtle message that we already know: North Korea is an out-of-touch, oppressive dictatorship that shoots nukes into the ocean while its people are starving.

Here at home, we have given ourselves the right of freedom of speech and so the movie was an acceptable and peaceful way to shine a tiny, comedic spotlight on North Korea in front of the world, and to send a message to the people of North Korea: “You’re being oppressed.”

One thing to keep in mind: North Koreans probably didn’t get the message. There are just over a thousand IP addresses in North Korea, while there are over a billion in the US alone. Only the elite in North Korea have access to the internet. Basically all internet activity in North Korea is equal to what’s going on in a typical city block in New York City.

But back to the movie. While not thought-provoking, the movie is surprising, for one reason….

2. In the movie, Kim Jun Un gets killed. Is that cool?

You know about it by now. In the movie’s climax, North Korea’s Supreme Leader is in a helicopter, trying to shoot our heroes while simultaneously ordering a nuclear missile launch. James Franco’s character saves the day, shooting Kim’s helicopter with a bazooka. The resulting explosion is played out with joyful attention to detail as the coup de grace of a well-produced, big budget comedy with expert special effects — Kim dies by slow motion, close-up, fiery, high definition bodily explosion set to symphonic music. (Er, spoiler alert.)

It was ballsy and surprising even in an over-the-top comedy and felt inspired by Quentin Tarantino rewriting history in “Inglourious Basterds” where he portrayed Hitler getting killed off in a fiery explosion early in WW2. However, “The Interview” carried a whiff of ill-will rather than Tarantino’s day dream because we don’t have historical perspective on Kim Jong Un yet and also, he’s still alive in real life.

It’s just a slapstick movie but when you see it you DO wonder, “They’re allowed to do that?”

Is this bad taste? Rogen has gone on record saying that he doesn’t think Kim Jong Un deserves to die, but still, when you put yourself in Kim Jong Un’s position (how often will you say that?), seeing someone create a realistic moving representation of your death might make you feel like you’ve been violated. It’s flat-out offensive to North Korea and yes, in bad taste.

A parallel would be flag desecration, which is a crime in some countries. Burning a country’s flag — a representation of nationhood — hurts no one, but if offends some. As I saw it, “The Interview” created a representation of something more offensive than flag burning.

The U.S. is the superpower on the planet — only China is barely in the same ballpark. The best empathetic analogy that can be made is: how would we here in the US feel if China made a mainstream, big budget movie where Obama were killed with joyful verisimilitude? Or where US flags were burned with mainstream Chinese acceptance? We’d scratch our heads and say, “WTF? What are you trying to say, China?”

How would you feel if someone were to make a movie where you meet a joyfully grisly death? You’d feel justifiably worried to know that people are able to watch your fictional assassination at any time. Thinking about how “art imitates life” would keep you up at night. Or, on the other hand, it might be side-splittingly hilarious to see how much effort and imagination went into the stage play of your expiration.

Looking past the bad taste, Kim’s imaginary onscreen death is a positive for two reasons. First, the boundary needed to be pushed and explored because literally anything we imagine can be recreated onscreen with CGI. The dialogue about reality in fiction and what’s okay or not okay to represent is bound to happen more and more. And second, North Korea is a Hermit Kingdom that oppresses it’s people and brandishes nukes. We’ve tried sending messages that they need to change, but sanctions aren’t working and war would be far worse. Why not a movie?

This was bad taste with a purpose.

Nice, provocative work, Mr. Rogen.

3. North Korea had an opportunity here. They missed it.

North Korea’s grades in this series of events: Globally — D-. Domestically — A. They are a world villain and if they had reacted more maturely and less insecurely (it’s a frikkin movie!) by starting a dialogue instead of attacking, they might’ve come out with a PR victory. But let’s not forget — they tried taking the high road.

Earlier this year, North Korea filed a formal protest to the UN saying “The Interview” was an insult to Kim Jong Un and urging the US to ban the movie, calling it an act of terrorism. This was the only thing keeping them from an F grade. Unfortunately for them, their protest was covered in the press, but was otherwise ignored.

So they moved to plan B. The Hermit Kingdom attacked (allegedy), hacking into Sony Pictures and releasing tons of personal and private information and threatening Sony with further terrorizing action if the movie was released in theaters. (At this point, the evidence points to North Korea, but some experts have cast doubt on that finding.)

We remember “Team America: World Police” a scathingly funny puppet movie by the creators of South Park that skewered Kim Jong Il, who was a cinephile of the first degree, having written a book called “On the Art of the Cinema” — available on Amazon. True story.

So perhaps they were scarred by “Team America.” Rogen and team definitely hit a sensitive spot. But what was North Korea’s goal in attacking Sony?

My take is that their main goal was for Kim Jong Un to appear strong before his people. The greater fail for North Korea are the global effects their attack will precipitate.

Here’s what’s going to happen:

—On the world stage, North Korea appears more immature and out of touch than ever, overreacting to a silly movie.

—The US and other countries will now further fortify cyber defenses which will make any advantage North Korea had obsolete.

—The US retaliation will put North Korea in further distress

—More people will see the movie because of the incredible publicity the attack has generated.

Strategically, North Korea could’ve used some help.

4. Seth Rogen makes a bad first impression.

For years, I’ve been annoyed by his space-filling fake laugh and chalked him up as a schlubby non-factor, a generation’s less-magnetic Adam Sandler.

But at the prescreening, listening to him answer questions unprepped, off-the-cuff in front of an audience made me love the guy. He’s quick-witted, unassuming, insightful and blunt, as grateful and relatable as you or I would hopefully be if we became mega-famous. He spoke as he often does about smoking weed, but also shared anecdotes from a life starstruck at itself. For example, he touched on his various Twitter feuds with people like Nancy Grace and Justin Bieber, saying something like, “I’m sitting at home reading about something mean some famous asshole has done, and I want to be able to say ‘Fuck you’ to that person, and then I realize, ‘Oh shit, I can say fuck you — with Twitter.’” He never graduated from high school and has supported his parents since teenage years, preserving friendships along the way.

He conveys an intelligent why-not ethos for making a comedy about North Korea — an injustice disguised as a country. Confronting a real world issue deepens the movie’s humor in higher stakes truth.

He’s got fire, principles and a lack of entitlement.

I’m in. And because his comedies are among the top dollar grossers proportional to their budgets, so is Hollywood. He’s killing it right now, by using an intelligent formula.

Rogen extensively tests his scripts before going into production, rewriting jokes, beats and scenes based on audience feedback. His test audience includes comics that come to readings of his script drafts, including Sasha Baron Cohen. Rogen and James Franco discussed the method in this recent interview with Howard Stern (start at 23:00 until 24:00 and then 29:15 to 31:25).

5. This is the best way we could’ve received our Cyberwarfare wake up call.

Our first positive. Cyber warfare is on the horizon and scary as heck. We started it with Stuxnet, a computer virus that actually made mechanic apparati in Iran’s nuclear powerplants malfunction, destroying the viability of the plant, attributed to Israel but chiefly the US. To see how easy it was for North Korea to hack into Sony’s systems and release so much sensitive information has been revelatory. It should result in corporations and nations investing billions more in cybersecurity. That’s good for everyone.

Cybersecurity will be dramatically improved based on this event, and in my opinion it’s the most benign wake up call that could’ve happened.

Better an entertainment company than Wall Street or the Pentagon.

No offense to Sony or those employees affected — it clearly isn’t fun to have your private emails, salary or social security numbers leaked. But still. Speaking of which, let’s talk about what was leaked.

6. Sony’s emails contained racist, cruel and petty content and are now public — this is a huge positive.

The people at Sony clearly never thought their emails would become public. They wrote private, truthful thoughts. Reading a person’s email can be like glimpsing into someone’s thoughts or words not meant for you. It’s like a form of telepathy. And here it is laid out before us like the guiltiest of pleasures. The effect it will have I hope will be radical — there’s a real opportunity here.

You’ve heard about the content by now. In one email, Angelina Jolie, one of the biggest stars in the world, period, was called a “brat.” From everything I’ve heard, Hollywood is notoriously passive aggressive and non-direct. No one knows how you really think, everyone loves you to your face but easily throws you under the bus when you’ve left the room — or on email. But the big reveal was the thread from Head of Sony Pictures Amy Pascal joking that Barack Obama might like movies made by black people with black leads. Jokes and comments like these made behind closed doors are cowardly and propagate a racist way of thinking—and show a window into how and why Hollywood, notoriously white, remains that way.

For sure, it will change the way we write corporate emails. Some people will decide it’s prudent to hide more, careful not to leave evidence of how they think. But holistically, it will change the way we think and treat each other. Let’s keep sharing. Hopefully Sony has learned from this, but hopefully we can too.

7. Sony could have stood taller

Sony also had an opportunity. They could have stepped forward and own the hacked email content and take pride that they were targeted. Yes, some of the emails were disgusting. But they were honest. If we can’t give them a chance to learn and improve, how can we give ourselves that chance? That’s what a civilized, first world society allows and that’s why we have the progress we do.

In fact, Sony had had an opportunity to show real leadership here, across the board, on how to respond to a hacking. Mostly, they seemed to cower and do nothing. Even the streaming of the movie only happened because the President threw them some support. That’s not exactly leadership. Better in 2015, Sony. But bravo for green-lighting this movie in the first place.

8. The most shocking thing that happened

The most shocking thing that occurred was the fact that movie theater chains gave into the threats and decided not to show the movie. My first reaction was, “Wait, what?!” I just couldn’t believe they did that, especially knowing that the movie was just a juvenile comedy.

The United States would react to any attack as a sign of war. The US doesn’t give in to terrorists, right? But on second thought…

North Korea’s leadership is insane. The theory is that they hired some hackers to do the Sony job, and while not taking responsibility for it, took responsibility for it. It was like a nation playing a prank. They’re insane.

They might think they could sponsor a terrorist attack anonymously on a theater in the US and that it wouldn’t be attributed to them, because again, the leadership of North Korea is insane. If movie theaters showed the movie and a terrorist attack happened because North Korea’s leadership is insane, well, what does that mean? Does that mean we need to respond with violence and go to war with them? No one wants that. The US responded well and Obama executed the second most shocking thing that happened.

9. The US showing of cyber-strength was jaw-dropping

Our third positive. Apparently, North Korea’s internet got shut down for a few hours. Twice. The entire country. Granted, they don’t have much in the way of internet — apparently it’s one cable that runs into China. But, hearing that a country had their internet shut off was stupefying. And that was probably just a flexing of muscles that was executed in a few days or weeks. I’m glad I live here.

10. Clooney’s petition trumped by dirty laundry

This is our last huge positive, for what it exposed.

George Clooney is a heavyweight, perhaps the biggest star in Hollywood. And yet, when he circulated a petition to heads of studios and major players in Hollywood asking them to show support for Sony, no one signed it. Huh?

This is a head scratcher, but here’s a theory. The other studios paused for a second and thought about their internal corporate emails, and data, social security numbers, etc, but most of all their internal corporate emails and how easy it was for them to be hacked and exposed. Sony’s business, reputation and relationships have been severely damaged. The other studios decided to keep their heads down, not risk attack because they have some dirty, dirty laundry in those emails.

The right thing to do would’ve been to show support, even though I don’t think the petition would’ve done much other than make Sony feel better, make the public respect George Clooney even more and showed that Hollywood has a backbone against those who would repress freedom of speech.

In summation, thanks for all these gifts.

The potential for change that has come from this event and the reactions from both countries and companies have been both inspiring and alarming, and impossible to ignore. This is a huge milestone. Warfare, corporate communication and Hollywood will never be the same, and thank goodness it was all over just a stupid, funny movie rather than something more important.

Thanks to: incredible editor Rachel Sklar