Snowden (2016)- BFI London Film Festival 2016

134min

Genre:       Fact-based, Drama

Director:    Oliver Stone

Cast:         Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, Rhys Ifans…more

Writers:     Kieran Fitzgerald, Oliver Stone, Luke Harding… and more

-Synopsis-

Oliver Stone directs and Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars in a biographical drama about former CIA/NSA analyst and infamous whistleblower Edward Snowden; seen as a hero by some and a traitor by others, wanted by the American government for leaking thousands of classified documents to the media, which exposed the alarming extent to which the US conducts surveillance globally and on its own citizens.

Himself a military veteran turned activist and filmmaker, Oliver Stone has been cultivating his own brand of cinematic patriotism for decades; a divisive one which exposes the people and systems which rule his country, and by proxy the world, often by subverting America’s own founding principles.

‘Snowden’ is a clear continuation of Stone’s filmmaking ethos, an eye-opening drama based on extraordinary events surrounding a divisive figure in his own country; to pragmatists and self-professed “patriots” he is a villain who compromised American lives with borderline treasonous actions, yet to idealists and equally self-professed “patriots” he is a hero whistleblower who exposed the extent to which the US government will violate its own citizen’s rights in the name of perceived security. Whichever side you stand on, it makes the film a contemporary and depressing reflection of a deeply divided United States.

The film begins by depicting the 2013 meeting between Ed Snowden, “The Guardian” journalist Glenn Greenwald and documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras in a Hong Kong hotel, just before the secret documents were published and all hell broke loose, and thus begins the untangling of the man’s life.

What follows are detailed and compelling flashbacks to key moments in Snowden’s life and career; from his short-lived time in the military, to his stints as a globe-trotting employee and high-level security contractor at the CIA and NSA (National Security Agency), as well as other work. And Stone balances all this with his personal life and relationships, all meant to paint a very personal picture of the individual and his motivations to commit a life-changing and history-making act.

‘Snowden’ also has the task of breaking down the technical intricacies of technological surveillance and cyber-espionage for a general layman audience, no mean feat, and something which it does very well with the help of concise dialogue and flashy imagery, while avoiding being bogged down by cold technical jargon. And this is most vividly and disturbingly brought to life by exposing how the CIA can activate any webcam in the world and spy on you without you ever noticing, even if the computer is off!

However like every other piece of Oliver Stone work, ‘Snowden’ is at its most gripping and effective when contextualising all the information and drama into a moral and political standpoint, and putting across his very clear message of what this all means for ordinary people and the country as a whole. And in this case it’s the age old debate about the balance between privacy and security, but thrown into the 21st century and given a shot of adrenaline which brings it into the realm of questioning the very notion of American democracy.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt delivers a restrained but quietly commanding performance as Snowden himself; portraying an even-tempered introvert and self-confessed computer Whiz-kid and super-geek, wrestling with personal convictions and a belief in his government which gets shaken by his experiences… and actions. Ironically Gordon-Levitt’s faithful characterisation of the man, down to his monotone speech patterns, actually undermines the drama slightly; but it hardly matters because the human story, which Stone is so reliant on to flesh out his flawed but noble hero, is by far the weakest element of the film, coupled with the relationship drama which drags the whole movie down.

Way too much of ‘Snowden’ is spent on an unconvincing and rather dull love story between Ed Snowden and his girlfriend Lindsay Mills, played by Shailene Woodley. Understandably Stone is trying to humanise his subject and present a view of what he risked losing through his whistleblowing, the result though not only breaks up the momentum of the film but feels like a clichéd Hollywood relationship drama, something we never thought we’d see from an Oliver Stone picture.

Indeed the overall tone of the film resembles a run-of-the mill spy thriller, but without any real energy or urgency and certainly not enough thrills to classify ‘Snowden’ as a thriller, which makes us wonder whether they should have avoided that route in the first place. Maybe Stone is mellowing with age, but the righteous indignation and moral outrage don’t really come off the screen here, despite clear political convictions; and the film feels more like a martyr-making biopic than a complex and balanced historical socio-political masterpiece like ‘JFK’, while not quite having the personal impact of the Oscar-winning Edward Snowden documentary ‘Citizenfour’, whose filming is depicted in this movie.

Nonetheless despite its many shortcomings, ‘Snowden’ is still a very well-crafted and sobering factual drama from a master filmmaker, and by far the best Oliver Stone film of the last slightly disappointing decade. The film manages to expose the US security apparatus as just as much of a business as it is a public service, like most of American society, feeding the bloated military-industrial complex and keeping the many billions of dollars flowing to security and military contractors.

But most importantly ‘Snowden’ tries to debunk the assertion that the actions of US security agencies are justified in the name of security and the presence of a terrorist threat, by exposing how they infiltrate and undermine the infrastructures of countries all over the globe, including American allies, giving credence to the notion that much of what they do is actually to maintain economic and political control in the world, and America’s position in it.

So it should leave US citizens asking themselves this question; if you believe it’s worth giving up your privacy and some of your rights for the sake of security, and are willing to let the government of the day trample on your constitution, would you change your mind if you knew they were exaggerating the threat and taking advantage of it, or using it as an excuse? Because one day it might be too late for the people to hold their government accountable in a so-called democracy, but hey, maybe that’s being naive and idealistic, you decide.

The Bottom Line…

While it may not have the energy and zeal of previous Oliver Stone historical dramas, and is hamstringed by an imbalanced narrative and a poorly executed relationship drama; ‘Snowden’ is still a gripping and eye-opening dramatisation of extraordinary events which shook the world, answering questions but raising so many more, about the world we live in and this man who changed our perception of it… for better or worse.

‘Snowden’ is out now in the US, and on the 9th of December in the UK.

Similar films you may like (Home Video)

Citizenfour (2014)

Oscar-winning documentary chronicling the 2013 meetings between Edward Snowden and filmmaker Laura Poitras in a Hong Kong hotel, as he blows the lid off the alarming extent of US government surveillance on the world and its own citizens, just before the massive fallout when it’s exposed to the world.

Directed by Laura Poitras and starring Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald and William Binney among others.

Comments

comments

Comments are closed.