Review of Snowden (2016) by Kromem — 18 Sep 2016

I was really impressed by this film. Great pacing, excellent acting on the part of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and though I typically don't enjoy Oliver Stone's filmmaking, the directing was much stronger than I was expecting.

I'm not really sure what some of the negative reviews were expecting from the film. Seriously, "Jason Bourne without the action"?? This is a biopic. This is the story of Snowden's journey from gung-ho "I want to go kill terrorists in the middle east" to the revelations that made his name famous (or infamous, depending on your take).

Some have criticized that the film takes "liberties" with the facts; however, the cited examples of this are largely pointing out discrepancies between Snowden's accounts of the facts regarding his life story, and the US Government's statement of facts regarding those claims. It's not like Stone was just making stuff up himself for dramatic tension. Pretty much all relevant claims in the film are based on things Snowden has claimed or documentation he's previously provided. Perhaps the only claim I saw that seemed to have been substantial and fabricated was the implicit approval from Snowden's colleagues hinted at in the film. I seriously doubt that any of Snowden's co-workers had any idea what he was planning, and while many in the agencies were dissatisfied with broad surveillance, few from the IC would approve of going public as Snowden did. However, this "fabrication" only accounts for about 20 seconds of screen time, so it's really not a big deal.

As for the complaint that Stone's film played it too "safe" - I can't disagree more. If the film was Stone's typical outlandish and over-the-top preachy filmmaking, the core substance of the film would have been lost. By taking a step back and letting the narrative build the case on its own, the result is an exponentially stronger film.

Whether you agree with his actions or not, Snowden is a person who went from a conservative point of view, who wanted revenge after 9/11, to someone who leaked information to the press because he believed what was taking place behind the scenes was morally inexcusable. That's quite the 180, and by simply presenting the story fairly close to how Snowden himself tells it, without trying to over-embellish it, we as an audience experience the transformation in its rawest sense.

I can't think of how I would have changed the approach to the film to improve it. For me, this hit the perfect balance, and I highly recommend the film on the merits of the filmmaking alone, no matter which side you're on regarding the political aspects.