Oliver Stone is known for his controversial cage-rattling biopics…The Doors, Larry Flynt, Nixon, Heaven & Earth, JFK…so it’s no wonder he’d tackle Edward Snowden, who in real life, actually shows up in the film’s final scene. [At the NYC premiere, Snowden’s appearance received massive applause.]
Edward Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) the American Whistle Blower, is held up in Moscow. His story pretty much sucks us into a vortex of what Oliver Stone does best: Controversy. Snowden is a masterpiece ‘thinking’ movie. While Stone loves his compelling anti-establishment heroes, if Platoon and Wall Street were emotional movies, this one is cerebral.
Snowden grew up in Maryland, enlisted in the army and ended up at the CIA. It was there that he became a technology specialist for the NSA. The summer of 2013, he downloaded thousands of documents from an office in Hawaii. In Hong Kong he met with Glenn Greenwald (Zachary Quinto) and Laura Poitras (Melissa Leo) to divulge his smuggled findings. They remained locked up in a hotel room spending most of their time in paranoia. Snowden was headed to Ecuador when the United States revoked his passport midflight. That brings us to present day and his life in Moscow.
As the true story unfolded, every living Journalist wanted access to him, and publishers wanted his book rights. “The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World’s Most Wanted Man’ and “The Snowden Operation: Inside the West’s Greatest Intelligence Disaster” tried to give us an inside look
Poitras went on to release Citizenfour – a documentary that won the Oscar in 2015. Only a limited number of folks saw that film so it’s only fair that Stone should expand with his own version to a mainstream audience. Stone decided he would make this movie with or without Snowden’s cooperation. Snowden did agree to meet with the director just to be sure the story was accurate. Whether accurate or not, Stone is the master of weaving fact and fiction in such a way, that in this case, has us cheering for ‘team Snowden.’
The interesting angle of the film is the emotional behind-the-scenes. Stone is used to tough guys (Scarface, Gordon Gekko) but for this, the real-life Snowden is a mere light weight computer nerd. Stone said that Snowden is “like an old soul in a very young body.”
Joseph Gordon-Levitt was chosen, because as Stone said, he has a “boyish neutrality” which allows his character to grow on us. He gives an earnest and committed performance. But while Gordon-Levitt mirrors Snowden in looks and vocals, it’s difficult to listen to his monotone when we know his performances are usually witty and energized. Case in point…his vibrant performance as Phillipe Petit in The Walk.
Melissa Leo takes on an almost maternal side as Poitras. It’s too bad she’s so underused these days. Lindsay Mills (Shailene Woodley) is the supportive but tortured girlfriend who follows him around with a camera – she’s a photographer – while Ewen MacAskill (Tom Wilkinson) is a reporter who works for the New York office under The Guardian’s, Janine Gibson (Joely Richardson.). Collectively the performances are as good as they can get.
Anthony Dod Mantle helms the cinematography with pure wizardry. (He’s responsible for Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours, a film that had to go very cinematically small, zeroing in on a man with his arm stuck in a boulder.) In this he goes small again (giving grit to a man behind a keyboard.) David Fincher made ‘coding’ exciting in The Social Network but this film feels like more of an earnest education of history in the making.
In less than 54 days the crew flew from Munich to Washington to Hawaii and to Hong Kong, often substituting Munich for the suburbs of Maryland or Virginia. Because of the high stakes subject matter the film had a code name “Sasha” and the script was kept under lock and key. All of that tension and thought-provoking content is apparent in the film. (Undoubtedly someone is my computer’s web eye even as I write and post this, right?)
In the end we learn that Congress has since passed the U.S.A. Freedom Act. Now living in Russia, Snowden makes appearances via live video against Russia’s human rights violations.
It’s only a matter of time before we hear the words “Oscar nomination” for Stone. On a personal note, this might make for a great 70th birthday gift. The Director turns 70 the day before the film opens nationwide.