Many people consider Edward Snowden to be an American traitor who deserves severe punishment for exposing our nation's classified intelligence against other nations and their leaders. Others consider him a hero for exposing how the CIA and the National Security Agency illegally monitored the phone records of millions of citizens, while telling Congress they did not. Oliver Stone's 'Snowden' fully embraces the latter point of view, making the movie difficult for people who have already made up their minds about Snowden's guilt. For those interested in learning more about Snowden, the film offers a slanted but powerful portrait of a young man who joined the military after 9/11 to fight terrorism and gradually began to fear the surveillance power of his leaders. We see the process of how someone apparently in debt to his country might finally decide to reveal to the press shameful secrets that sparked a national outcry and ensured privacy laws were enforced.
The movie begins with Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), hiding in a Hong Kong hotel to deliver files to journalists that he stole from the government. There are lengthy flashbacks, beginning with Snowden's time in training ground, that explain the long journey Snowden took as he attempted to serve his country. In the interview to join the CIA, he names Ayn Rand as one of his influences, and his future mentor prophetically repeats a quote from one of his books to gauge his reaction: “A man can stop the engine. of the world”.
I recommend this movie with some strong caveats because I think it is prudent for Christian viewers to reflect on our submission to government authority and when it is generally appropriate to question deception under the guise of broad national authority and mostly reject security. It's basically scary to see American hackers employed by the CIA breaking into a teenager's social media account, particularly to manipulate his father in any way, and it's definitely alarming to see that most Americans have seen so much more control by our own government since 9/11 than people living in countries subtly hostile to the United States. I don't like the fact that someone who is paid by the government is basically watching me as I write this review with my laptop's webcam, which is actually quite significant.
I consider this movie to be only for adults who are curious enough about Snowden's actions and motivations to outweigh the rest of the material, including a lot of swearing. At the end of the movie, when we see the real Edward Snowden coming out of the shadows (now he's supposed to be hiding in Russia), it's hard not to recreate some of the choices he made in obedience to his own conscience. You could walk out of the theater and ask yourself, ‘What would I do if I found out that my employer was doing something illegal and at the same time justifying it for the benefit of American citizens? Would I stop? Registration and risk of persecution and unemployment? Head down and keep working?’.
Edward Snowden is essentially saying that he definitely wants a fairly fair, very fair trial in the US, but he also claims that our espionage act would basically prevent that from happening, so he is generally still a refugee, or so he is. they definitely thought. Whatever the facts of the Snowden case, the movie forces me to live with much more courage overall to act on my strong beliefs, rather than remaining quiet and fearful in a subtle way in a way big enough to stay. For this reason, I believe in every way that the story of a complicated man who made questionable decisions out of a sense of duty has value, and at a rather high price for his own freedom to show somehow more how of this.