Review of Snowden (2016) by Sportello — 15 Nov 2016

Oliver Stone’s Snowden is a story about an NSA whistleblower who’s revelations about the Government’s secret surveillance programs have shaken the public to it’s core. It is a story of a man who willingly went against his country to initiate a change projected by the freedom of speech and information. During the summer of 2013 when all the information came to light, Ed’s case was widely publicized as the vast majority of news channels and papers headlined his stories and discovery’s. In 2014 Laura Poitras’ oscar-winning ‘Citinezfour’ carefully documented Snowden’s account. Poitras, just like Greenwald, MacAskill & Gibson played an integral part in making Snowden’s story come to life.

All of these characters feature in ‘Snowden’ and possibly through great acting as well as the relevance of the story, they are able to project the realism and tension that make this film demanding. Joseph Gordon-Levitt looks so much like Edward Snowden it’s uncanny at times. He does an incredible job of replicating the person we see in all the documentaries and actual footages of Edward, yet his character still feels mechanic and robotic. It’s not however Joseph’s fault as Oliver Stone’s script seems too shallow at times. Rather then portraying Ed’s emotions and feelings, Stone’s ‘Snowden’ looks a lot like a Hollywood version of ‘Citizenfour’. Throughout the movie Stone uses extensive crosscutting between various important events from Edward’s past and the final days with the reporters in the infamous Hong Kong hotel room. The events that Stone shows act as a good summary of how Snowden has come to make the decisions he has made. However this feels repetitive at times. I’m afraid that ‘Snowden’ will not get much credit mainly due to the amount of information already made available by ‘Citizenfour’. While Oliver Stone is undoubtedly a great storyteller, this story could have been told from a more human angle. There is no subjectivity in Stone’s character. I have very similar thoughts about Robert Zemeckis 2015 movie ‘The Walk’ and James Marsh’s documentary ‘Man on Wire’. Funnily enough it also involves Joseph Gordon Levitt.

Anthony Dod Mantle’s cinematography is stunning and very fitting to how Stone tells the story. Employing mainly mid-range shots and taking time to establish the scenes, he gives the characters room to move around and act, while the ‘mood’ of the scenes differs drastically as we are guided through secret Government Intelligence locations, Hong-Kong hotels & Hawaii landscapes. Anthony knows exactly how to achieve impact and tension, employing similar techniques he used in ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, ‘Rush’ & ‘127 Hours’. While Oliver Stone does an honest job showing some of the main pieces of Edward Snowden’s story as well as projecting the ‘Architecture of Oppression’ that he faced, his script feels empty. In one of the scenes Snowden says that a lot of people cruise happily through life, why can’t he? Unfortunately, we never get a chance to explore this question.