I did not see 2015’s Citzenfour documentary about Edward Snowden. Had I, I might not have appreciated Oliver Stone’s (Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July) biopic as much as I did. Part of the reason I was such a big fan of Snowden was that I knew very little about it before my viewing. I knew of Wikileaks and learned much from the news but didn’t pay. Snowden went from your everyday no-name to one of the most controversial figures of this century. If you think this movie will be completely neutral, you don’t know Oliver Stone very well. Heck, this was the same man who directed JFK.

His approach has always been very anti-government, and it’s no different with Snowden. While I haven’t loved all of his movies (Nixon, W., Alexander, Savages, even JFK wasn’t my thing), there are certainly more than I like. Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July are incredibly impressive, while other movies such as Natural Born Killers and Wall Street were revolutionary. Snowden might be my third favorite. Snowden was softer in tone and, maybe even the scope, but was, by no means, less controversial. I don’t have a lot of complaints about the movie itself. Some people said it was too long. I did not feel that way. My only problem is that it didn’t make Ed Snowden as controversial as he was. Instead, it made whistleblowing in his country seem right and noble. For some, maybe most, it may have been. But we weren’t shown the “other side” of the story. Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable film that gave an excellent backstory for why he did what he did.

Every day good guy Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays the title role, and we see him in a way we’ve never seen before. His voice is entirely recognizable, even though he appeared in every scene. He was by no means the same jovial guy we’ve grown accustomed to seeing. In Snowden, we see him as a character with the blandest personality of all the characters we’ve seen him play. But he still is JGL, and he’s an actor who we’ve grown used to seeing as the good guy. So, for the story that Stone was trying to portray, he picked a guy we could root for.

If Edward Snowden hadn’t been a real-life character, Stone could still have made this movie. Stone tends to create films based on once-patriotic characters who become embittered with the country after learning about its fraud and deception. He did in Platoon. He did it in Born on the Fourth of July. He did it in Heaven & Earth. He did it in JFK. He even did it in a movie like Natural Born Killers. Snowden was his wheelhouse from the start and did an excellent job with his take on the story.

By definition, a whistleblower is a person who exposes any information or activity deemed illegal, unethical, or incorrect within an organization that is either private or public. The information on alleged wrongdoing can be classified in many ways: violation of company policy/rules, law, regulation, or threat to public interest/national security, as well as fraud and corruption. So why wouldn’t we want to have more of those people? Don’t we want the companies we pay money to and the organizations we support to do legal and ethical things? I certainly do. I remember when I was a cashier at Safeway. A fairly decent percentage of the other checkers who worked the late afternoon/evening shifts were letting their friends come in and pay hundreds of dollars worth of stuff for pennies on the dollar either by abusing the instore coupon system or simply not scanning items and instead just putting them in a bag. It bothered me immensely. If they were doing it so often and blatantly, I worried who else at that store or who else in the division or else at other grocery stores was doing the same thing. We all know that theft is one of the things that cause the prices at stores to rise. While I thought it was wrong, I was just a 19-year-old college kid who worked at the store during the summer and on holiday breaks. I certainly wasn’t going to say anything. However, when I returned to college that fall, I learned many of these employees had been caught and fired.

While I wanted to tell management, if nothing else through an anonymous note, to pay closer attention to some of these employees, I didn’t. I didn’t think it was my place, and I was scared. I can’t imagine what Edward Snowden thought when he blew the whistle on the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013 by releasing thousands of classified documents without authorization to a trio of journalists working for The Guardian. The story begins and ends with flashbacks, which help tie together loose ends. The movie is mainly told through flashbacks, which can be outstanding. When a movie director doesn’t, it can be a disaster. Fortunately, Stone was the former throughout the storytelling of this movie.

Snowden had one desire in life. And that was to serve his country as a member of the United States Army. So, when he was medically discharged due to a degenerative issue with his legs, he decided to use his mind to help defend the country he loved. First, hired by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and later the NSA, he learned more and more about computer networks, hacking, and, most importantly, protecting confidential information. And the more he excelled at his job, the more he was needed and the more he was filled in on how our country operated post-911. Because of his position and skill level, he quickly learned more about United States intelligence than 99.999% of Americans will ever know. Being just a geek with good intentions, Snowden was surprised to see the level of surveillance these organizations conducted domestically and abroad. He believed, naively like many of us, that the United States government was following its laws and not conducting illegal searches and seizures. Little did he know about The Patriot Act (signed into law by then-President George W. Bush in 2001) that allowed the US to provide appropriate tools required to intercept and obstruct terrorism as a result of the acts on 9/11. It allowed the US Government to do whatever it wanted and protect itself behind this act.

As a result, Snowden saw many things he didn’t want to see, including killing innocent lives of foreigners who were even remotely connected to those threatening national defense. It is absurd to think that other countries aren’t doing the same thing or wouldn’t be doing the same thing if they had the same resources. Nonetheless, where is the line drawn between what we can and should be allowed to do? Capable that with the fact that we were connecting thought to be terrorists with their contacts and sooner than you can say, “Hey, wait for a second,” half the planet is being watched illegally. Long story short, this didn’t sit well with Snowden. He agonized over it, and it weighed on his conscience until it got to the point where he had to do something about it.

Shailene Woodley (The Descendants, The Spectacular Now) has since arrived. She already has a moneymaking franchise (Divergent), and she’s not quite Jennifer Lawrence, but she’s not as far behind as people think. While she wasn’t perfectly cast for this film (just as Nicolas Cage, Tom Wilkinson, Melissa Leo, and Timothy Olyphant weren’t either), Lindsay Mills’ relationship with Edward was important. This carefree liberal he quickly fell in love with and had some tumultuous times while living in different parts of the world was one of the main reasons he ultimately leaked his information. Finally, a guilty conscience could weigh on him no longer. He thought of the NSA’s actions on innocent people worldwide, and though he knew he’d be labeled a traitor by many, it was worth it to him for the world to know what illegal activities were being conducted.

Again, this is just Stone’s take on the story. In his version of the story, Snowden comes across as a sympathetic character who risked his life to do what he thought was right. And, as mentioned earlier, Gordon-Levitt (who everyone likes) was the right man to play the lead. I was glad to see on Rotten Tomatoes that this movie was listed as a drama and biopic. There were moments where I couldn’t tell if we were supposed to have suspense in some of the scenes, but if we were, they weren’t there. This was a gentler and more personable Stone film we haven’t seen from this accomplished actor before. I appreciated the detail and the development of characters who had to make tough decisions, how some were deeply affected by what they did or didn’t do, and how some weren’t affected.

The film’s not for everyone. You’ll probably be angered if you know the story and deem Snowden a traitor. However, I was deeply impressed by how involved I became with it. I was worried it might be dry or be so over my head that I wouldn’t like it. Neither of those happened. It made me want to go back and learn more about the infamous WikiLeaks of 2013. It was worth my $12 to see it in the theater. It might be for you as well.

Plot 7.5/10 (an important story to be told despite the well-received documentary Citizenfour, which had just been released a year before…this was just one take on the story…and it was a very anti-government approach that focused on the lead character’s actions and the way that the director chose to tell his story…a story that was controversial but always made it seem like Snowden was doing the right thing)
Character Development 9/10
Character Chemistry 9/10 (I’ve seen quite a few critiques bash the relationship aspect between Edward and Lindsay wasn’t needed and that it took away from the story and made it longer…I don’t see it this way…I thought it was integral to the storytelling and was needed, among other things, to help justify his decision)
Acting 9/10 (As much as I just said Lindsay was needed in the storytelling, the talented Woodley was a little overmatched by Gordon-Levitt here…and many other well-known actors (lesser characters could have played Wilkinson, Leo, Cage, Olyphant…Gordon-Levitt could have done this with a bunch of C-listers.
Screenplay 7.5/10 (again…it was just way too one-sided for me…if you don’t know his story at all, you’d call Snowden a hero after this movie…if you did know the whole story in all its details, you might be more likely to call him a traitor…I really, really liked the movie, but it wasn’t a complete representation of everything that could have been shown, in my opinion)
Directing 10/10 (never dull…and it could have been in the wrong hands…so props to Stone)
Cinematography 8.5/10
Sound 8.5/10
Hook and Reel 10/10 (I was into it the entire time…it never felt like it was too long)
Universal Relevance 10/10
89%

B

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