‘Snowden’ movie review

The first thing that gets your attention about ‘Snowden’ is Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s voice.  He nails the flat tone and appearance of the NSA whistleblower.  At first it feels like a distraction but as the events unfold, Gordon-Levitt’s performance grows into a profound character study.  For those who believe Snowden is a traitor, this film will not change their minds.  Writer-director Oliver Stone delivers a relatively straightforward biopic using flashbacks and techie graphics to explain the magnitude of cyber-surveillance post 9/11.  The biggest hurdle that faces ‘Snowden’ is how filmmaker Laura Poitras’ 2014 Oscar-winning documentary ‘Citizenfour’ already brilliantly chronicles Edward Snowden’s story through riveting interviews holed up in a Hong Kong hotel room.

Stone’s master stroke was in the casting.  Gordon-Levitt embodies the young computer whiz.  Through flashbacks, it shows an idealistic and conservative Snowden.  When a training injury sidelines his aspirations to be in the Special Forces, he applies to work at the CIA to fulfill his patriotic duty.  This is where he first meets his new boss and eventual mentor Corbin O’Brian (Rhys Ifans).  As he works his way up the ranks, he is rewarded with top-secret clearances and highly secretive surveillance programs.  Stone humanizes him through Snowden’s relationship with his girlfriend, Lindsay Mills (a superb Shailene Woodley).  This could have easily been a throw-away role but Woodley’s intricate performance shows the constant moral anguish Snowden faced with every new assignment and how it put a strain on their romance.

Stone is effective in showing Snowden’s disillusionment with the U.S. government’s intrusiveness on our daily lives.  Many Americans may feel that giving up some of their privacy is worth the trade off for national security.  The concern the film raises is how the NSA’s data collection can lead to “turnkey tyranny” whereby a future malevolent government could create an authoritarian state with the flick of a switch.  Why would a 29-year-old employee of a national security contractor leak top-secret documents related to the NSA’s electronic surveillance? Snowden was living with his girlfriend, Lindsay Mills in Hawaii and making a salary of about $200,000 a year.  Stone illustrates his growing unease with the massive government surveillance programs and how he felt it was destroying the basic liberties of American citizens.  His mistrust got so bad that he puts pieces of tape over his laptop’s camera.  It turns out to be true.  The government has the capability of turning on built-in webcams on your computers.

So who is the villain and who is the hero?  Stone paints the picture that Snowden is a hero.  The opening shot flashes the text “a dramatization of actual events.”  It’s obviously not a documentary.  Stone has an obvious love for making historical films.  He believes his artistic license allows him to blur fact with fiction for Hollywood.  His 1991 film ‘JFK’ is based on a conspiracy theory that has been proven false.  Another example of this is his 1995 biopic ‘Nixon’ that Henry Kissinger came out and wrote “the film is a disappointment because it distorts and misrepresents.” There is no denying that Stone is a talented filmmaker but he goes to great lengths to make Snowden a hero.  Perhaps it was Snowden’s intent to do something noble.  Maybe the National Security Agency should have been more transparent after the Sept. 11 attacks.  The bottom line is that Stone puts a melodramatic spin on ‘Snowden’ to give it a more Jason Bourne feel.

There is a frightening scene that feels straight out of George Orwell’s novel ‘1984.’  It’s where Snowden’s CIA mentor speaks to him remotely on a huge screen.  The close-up of Rhys Ifan’s face is haunting as he warns his protégé about abusing his top-secret privileges.  With that said, ‘Snowden’ is a very watchable film with two outstanding performances from Gordon-Levitt and Woodley.  Unfortunately, it never reaches the thrilling heights of the award-winning documentary ‘Citizenfour’ that already told the story so perfectly well.

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