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Oliver Stone might have made up the character of Edward Snowden if he hadn’t already existed. One could picture a film written and directed by Stone about a man who used to work for the United States government and becomes disillusioned with his homeland after discovering the extent to which it lies. In point of fact, the previous sentence could be used to describe more than one of Stone’s films, which is why “Snowden” has been highly anticipated as a return to form for the director who brought us such cinematic masterworks as “Platoon,” “JFK,” and “Born on the Fourth of July.” It’s been four years since his last film, “W.,” and it’s been almost a decade since his last film that was based on a true story.
Stone will go down in history as one of the most influential film historians when it comes to telling the stories of his country, from the Vietnam War to the assassination of Richard Nixon to the events of September 11th. As a result, it is not at all surprising that he would be drawn to the story of Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who exposed the full extent of how little privacy we have in a world that has been shaped by the events of 9/11. Stone made the very astute decision to hire a dedicated and underrated actor to play the challenging lead role, and as a consequence, the film thrives off of its central performance. There is an energy here that Stone hasn’t had in a few films, as if he’s been enlivened by a subject he was destined to document, and while some of the elements surrounding that performance are a bit lacking, especially the script, there is an energy here that Stone is delivering.
The scene in the beginning of “Snowden” that will be very familiar to viewers of the Oscar-winning film “Citizenfour” is actually the scene in which the director of “Citizenfour,” Laura Poitras (played by Melissa Leo), and journalist Glenn Greenwald (played by Zachary Quinto), are going to meet Snowden (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who then recounts the last few years of his life while living under extreme cover (cell phones go in the microwave, for example). The structure of the script that Kieran Fitzgerald and Stone wrote essentially alternates between three different stories: the story of Snowden’s discovery of his government’s highly intrusive and global surveillance; the story of Snowden’s romance with Lindsay Mills (Shailene Woodley) and how it was impacted by his top-secret jobs; and the story of the release of what Snowden knew, as documented in “Citizenfour.” The “JFK”-like tendency of having even the smallest roles occupied by well-known actors or actresses is present in all three storylines: A number of well-known actors, including Rhys Ifans, Tom Wilkinson, Nicolas Cage, Timothy Olyphant, Joely Richardson, Logan Marshall-Green, Keith Stanfield, and Ben Chaplin, appear at various points in the intricate narrative.
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And this tale is actually quite complicated, especially considering the approach that Stone and Fitzgerald have decided to take toward it. They give a brief glimpse into what they call “the early days of Edward,” but it isn’t long before Snowden is able to, shall we say, see how the sausage is made. Those viewers who have not seen “Citizenfour” or read many of the articles written about Snowden may find the middle section of Stone’s film to be extremely shocking. This may cause a trend in which people put pieces of tape over the camera on their laptops in order to avoid being recorded by the government. The fact that our government is capable of running covert operations that have the ability to turn on your laptop camera without your knowledge is just one of the revelations that can be found here. And as Snowden continues to fall further down the rabbit hole of privacy invasion, Gordon-performance Levitt’s continues to improve and become more remarkable. At first, it seems like something of an impression (although it’s a really good one, for the record), but the film succeeds in the way that Gordon-Levitt captures the conflicted inner turmoil of Snowden as the story progresses. This is the key to the film’s success. He has the remarkable ability to do something that the vast majority of other actors are unable to do, which is to look at a computer screen and take in the information on it as though he is seeing it for the first time. He provides stability to a convoluted narrative by placing a very human and reactive element at the story’s core.
Snowden Quiz
The relationship drama that takes place between Snowden and Shailene Woodley’s character, Lindsay Mills, is a weak point in Stone’s film. The two actors put in their best efforts to make these scenes flow together, but there are some parts that seem like they were taken from another film, and the pair doesn’t quite have the chemistry necessary to make the others successful. They just don’t work, partially because of the flat dialogue, but also because they don’t have the energy that the rest of the film has. I understand the intention behind them, which was to balance the excessive number of sequences that took place in front of computer screens with a flesh-and-blood dynamic, but they just don’t work. They almost feel like an obligation — a producer’s note to make the film more relatable — but it creates a herky-jerky pace that prevents “Snowden” from building steam as it should have. There were probably dozens of drafts that investigated the many different approaches that could be taken to this story, and I’m not entirely certain that they settled on the most effective one. The rhythm could have been improved with less relationship drama and perhaps by moving chronologically from the beginning to the end of the story rather than using a flashback structure.
Also, you will find out which character are you in this Snowden quiz.
Despite the problems I had with the overall structure of “Snowden,” the movie has a lot of successful scenes, and Gordon-Levitt is the one who carries the movie the whole way through. It is clear from his body language that he is struggling to decide what course of action to take in light of the new information that he has obtained. And that, in and of itself, is a fascinating angle from which to approach the Snowden story. In the days that followed the leak, and even today, a significant number of people continue to believe that Snowden is a malicious double agent. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Stone doesn’t feel that way, but what strikes me as particularly impressive about the film is how hard Stone works to humanize a figure who has become a symbol for privacy invasion in the United States and the requirement for more openness. Working with an actor who is easily recognizable, Stone is very careful to keep this story grounded in reality. To tell you the truth, this has been one of his gifts for many years; he has the ability to ensure that he does not lose sight of the human stories of individuals like Ron Kovic and Jim Garrison while at the same time painting a larger picture. It is wonderful to have him back working on the painting.
For more personality quizzes check this: Kevin Hart What Now Quiz.
