Review of Snowden (2016) by Trailesque — 11 Oct 2017

Here is a good dramatization of the Edward Snowden story. Gordon-Levitt is excellent in the title role - he really embodies the guy (who can be seen interviewed for real in Citizen Four, the documentary film about him, the making of which is portrayed here.

) The equally protean Ifans is just as good as Snowden's wiley CIA mentor. Here Snowden is portrayed as a good-hearted, decent man who came across some US government espionage skullduggery and felt morally bound to reveal it to the world.

He is also portrayed as a devoted, loving boyfriend, an up and coming young NSA/CIA insider, and a gifted, world class programmer. I am not sure how true all of that is. He was a temporary contract employee for the government, and this is the first I'm hearing of how he personally designed software that transformed the intelligence game.

And the romantic relationship between Snowden and Mills will probably not go down in cinematic history. But this is a Hollywood picture after all, and if you are interested in the Snowden story or in Oliver Stone's work, it is worth seeing.