Snowden
Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Edward Snowden - a former member of the
military who was discharged after an injury made it impossible for him
to serve. However, he is a smart, patriotic guy with the aptitude to
master computer programming and more, which makes him valuable to the
CIA
As he makes his way through the intelligence world via the CIA via the
NSA and via private contractors, Edward sees the dirty underbelly of
fighting terrorism, and his conscience no longer will allow him to
stand by idly. When confronted by the reality of how the government is
spying on Americans instead of terrorists or enemies, he decides to
reveal all to the world. Now, Snowden is considered to be a traitor and
Public Enemy #1.
 The movie Snowden
is flatter than Gordon-Levitt’s monotone vocal impression of
the title subject.
Writer/director Oliver Stone brilliantly tries to add visual flair to
make it more interesting as he attempts to show us concepts and how all
of this works. He even makes Snowden’s ultimate showdown with
his longtime mentor epic as the evil teacher appears on a screen bigger
than life with actor Rhys Ifans using the character to taunt and
control his student.
But, if you don’t know the Snowden story, much of this comes
off like gobbledygook. It’s hard to make an exciting movie
out of people typing at keyboards, even if we are debating the right to
privacy versus the need for security in a dangerous world.
To remedy this, Stone attempts to add a personal drama between Snowden
and his hippie, artist girlfriend, Lindsay (Shailene Woodley), but it
feels like a forced gambit to humanize him and introduce some more
relatable element to his personality and the story. If the movie is
well told, the audience would be engrossed in the more serious story
about a guy trying to do the right thing and standing up to forces more
powerful than he could ever be.
Instead, we get some story, some weak relationship drama and a telling
of Snowden’s escape tagged on to the end like an
afterthought.
Snowden
is rated R for language and some
sexuality/nudity.
134 Minutes
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