Review of Citizenfour (2014) by Walter M — 14 Dec 2014

In his 1961 novel "Catch-22," Joseph Heller asked the question, 'Where have all the Snowdens of yesteryear gone?".

Last year we got an answer. Boy did we ever!

What the documentary "Citizenfour" does in the tense intimacy of a hotel room in Hong Kong(and through e-mails before and after) is to not only explore who Edward Snowden is and why he did what he did, but also to put those actions in a wider context by showing how much certain government officials lied when they said there were no NSA programs to monitor its citizens that go beyond simply the stated aims of protecting them against terrorism which it failed to do so in the case of the Boston Marathon bombings.(At the same time, this documentary also serves to dispel any number of nerd stereotypes.) Where this may lead is anybody's guess but some hints are implied, namely not blindly relying on technology anymore but returning to older means of communications like a Rubik's Cube and pen and paper.

While journalist Gleen Greenwald and assorted allies do their best to get behind and ahead of this story(including director Laura Poitras who does her simple best to remain off-camera), the real tragedy is President Obama not acting proactively when he had the chance, considering he had five years to do so before Edward Snowden's heroic actions. And that is assuming Obama's good intentions, of course.