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ON THE SCREEN: SNOWDEN TAKES A LOOK BEYOND THE SCENES AT A STORY THAT SHOOK THE WORLD

DAVID ADAMS finds some great acting in a timely film about ‘whistleblower’ Edward Snowden, albeit a little heavy-handed in its bias… 

Snowden

Snowden (M)

In a Word: Scary

Snowden

HERO OR VILLAIN? Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Edward Snowden in Oliver Stone’s Snowden.

Edward Snowden made headlines around the world in 2013 when the former US intelligence officer and subsequently contractor met with journalists from the Guardian and handed over leaked NSA documents concerning the United States’ massive and secret global information gathering systems.

This film, directed by Oliver Stone with Joseph Gordon-Levitt starring as Snowden, tells how that story broke and how Snowden, who started out trying to get into the US marines before an injury led him into the complicated US intelligence apparatus, got to that point.

It’s a sharply put together movie – based on Luke Harding’s book The Snowden Files – and tackles head-on some of the key questions about the line between ‘national security’ and individual liberty against the backdrop of a world confronting terrorism. Those familiar with Stone’s work won’t be surprised to hear it comes down heavily on one side.

Gordon-Levitt successfully transforms himself into a reserved and somewhat inaccessible geek as Snowden, while Shailene Woodley plays his long-term (and long suffering) girlfriend Lindsay Mills.

The journalists who broke Snowden’s story – The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald and Ewan MacAskill – are played by Zachary Quinto and Tom Wilkinson both of whom put in weighty performances along with Melissa Leo as documentary film-maker Laura Poitras. Rhys Ifans shines in a different role as Snowden’s somewhat sinister mentor, Corbin O’Brien.

It’s fast-paced and tense and despite its exploration of the issues at stake, we never really come to grips with why Snowden did what he did. His initial comment when asked why he wanted to join the CIA was that he thought it would be ‘cool’ to have high level clearance to read secret information but we don’t get much more insight into his motivations apart from that. Perhaps learning some more of Snowden’s background prior to him joining the marines may have helped in that regard.

The movie, which is perhaps a little too long, does descend into outright hero worship at its end which is to its detriment (one way to shorten it would have been to cut those end scenes) but even given that, Snowden, with a strong storyline and an impeccable performance by Gordon-Levitt, is an interesting and timely movie about issues that remain live in the world today and should concern us all.

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