"Snowden Live" Reviewed | The Odyssey Online
Start writing a post
Entertainment

"Snowden Live" Reviewed

An exclusive event including a live Q&A with Oliver Stone and Snowden himself.

21
"Snowden Live" Reviewed
CCTV

This past Wednesday, September 14, thousands of moviegoers all over the country flocked to the 700 lucky theaters that were allowed to present an early screening of the movie "Snowden", directed by Oliver Stone. The movie came out nationwide two days later, on Friday, September 16. The early screening on Wednesday was part of an exclusive event called "Snowden Live" (sponsored by Fathom Events). Viewers were shown the whole film first and then live coverage of an Q&A session with director Oliver Stone, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, and Edward Snowden himself (he was video-chatting from Moscow instead of attending the event in person, for obvious reasons). Luckily for my readers, I was able to attend the showing of "Snowden Live" at the Patton Creek Carmike in Birmingham, mostly thanks to my History and Film professor, who made seeing the movie a class requirement. But I think I would have gone anyway, had I known about it without having the class.

The movie itself was pretty good, but not fantastic. I'd probably give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars (there are only three or four films that I would give the full 5, to be honest). I was impressed with Joseph Gordon-Levitt's acting, but I felt that he looked more like the "let's-play" YouTuber Markiplier than Snowden. Nicolas Cage shows up for, like, a minute, playing a washed-out intelligence agent, which cracked me up because I kept mentally hearing his screams from "Wicker Man" ("NOT THE BEES! NOT THE BEES!"). Some actors you can't see in other roles without cracking up. There was too much of a focus on Snowden's relationship with his girlfriend Lindsay Mills (played by Shailene Woodley), but that was probably Oliver Stone's way of adding some dramatic spice to the movie. Sex sells, and many people would be bored just watching a nerdy guy uncover jarring secrets regarding the government's surveillance of everyday citizens. The movie is definitely more of a biopic, focusing on Edward Snowden as a person rather than on his cause, which is ironic since Snowden has constantly said that this issue is bigger than him.

We watch as Snowden is discharged from the Army Special Forces after breaking both his legs, we revel when he finally gets the chance to serve his country by being in the CIA, and then we share in his shock when he discovers that the NSA is able to use programs like Xkeyscore to collect metadata on people and even turn on personal webcams to spy on them. Throughout the movie, Snowden finds work with the CIA, NSA, the CIA again, and then a government contractor called Booz Allen Hamilton in Hawaii. The jobs and groups he works with begin to blur together in what he refers to as the "revolving door of the intelligence industry," but technical details like how the different computer programs worked are easily explained so that even the most technologically-challenged of the audience can understand. Finally, he steals the data from work and takes it to Hong Kong to present it to journalist Glenn Greenwald and filmmaker Laura Poitras, both of whom Snowden has picked to be the bearers of the bad news.

The actual scene where Snowden steals the documents is pretty funny; he puts them all on a chip and hides the chip inside his Rubik's Cube. As he goes through security on the way out of the building, he hands the Rubik's Cube to a security guard to solve it as he himself is going through the detector. Since the Cube is never put through the detector, the chip is never found, and Snowden gets off without a scratch. Remember this scene, because I'm going to come back to it later.

So the movie was pretty decent, but my favorite part was definitely the exclusive Q&A afterward. As cool as it was to see Oliver Stone and the two actors, the real Edward Snowden was the selling point for me. Seeing Snowden livestreaming from the tundras of Russia, where he has been granted asylum, was a huge deal. Here he is: probably the most wanted man in the world, and he's communicating with people in the country that wants to severely punish him via webcam. There's something ridiculously bold about doing that, and of course we all know Snowden is ballsy in general, whether we think of him as a patriot or a traitor. To see such a geeky, normal guy do such fantastic things has definitely inspired me (I've always seen him as a hero, by the way). Oliver Stone even compared him to his former film subject, Ron Kovic, whose commitment to protesting Vietnam (a war both he and Stone fought in) inspired Stone's Born on the Fourth of July. Snowden is special, according to Stone, because "young people don't [take a stand]; they tend to think along with the group."

During the Q&A, the interviewer brought up many great questions, such as what is the responsibility of the actor when he or she is playing a real person who is still alive. Most impertinent to the History and Film class was the question of how true is a movie like this. History is a construction, be it in books or film; we can never truly capture the reality, only interpretations of it. Stone creates stand-in characters and events in the movie that point to larger themes, but is that a crime? The interviewer asked Snowden about the Rubik's Cube scene. Snowden wryly responded by saying that he can't say if it actually happened or not (he can't be admitting stuff like that when his enemies are watching), but he said, "I gave all my colleagues Rubik's Cubes, so they were always coming in and out." We can never know for sure, but now we have fodder for speculation.

When asked about the importance of his actions, Snowden launched into a passionate polemic regarding privacy. He brought up the Nazi origins of the phrase "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." He didn't technically say that our government is exactly like the Nazi regime, but he juxtaposes them in such a way that it should make us all feel uncomfortable. "Privacy," he continued, "isn't about something to hide. It's about something to protect...Privacy is the fountainhead of rights." In true Libertarian fashion, Snowden promoted the rights of individuals to be able to have a sense of self, which he claimed could only be possible with the right to privacy.

Snowden then started to explain how we, the audience, can fight back against government surveillance. He encouraged us to cover our webcams with Band-Aids or masking tape. In the middle of this spiel, however, his communication link to the live event in NYC breaks, and we are unable to see or hear him. Video-chatting is always a pain, but the way it cut out when he began to instruct people on protecting privacy was just plain eerie. Luckily, Snowden's connection resumes, and he picks up where he left off. The most important thing we can do about privacy is to have conversations about it. "Don't be silent," Snowden pleads with the audience, eyebrows knit with urgency.

Other interesting things happened at the NYC stage where the session was filmed. Fellow NSA whistleblower, Thomas Drake, was in the audience, and Oliver Stone–whose birthday was last Thursday–was presented with a cake while the audience sang "Happy Birthday." All in all, it was a cool event, and I was lucky to be able to witness it.

I definitely encourage my readers to go see the movie, not because it's a fantastic movie, but because I think it gives a great perspective on Snowden. In the media, he has been cast as a millennial villain for what he has done. The movie raises questions about how we label people based on political bias. But most importantly, it exposes a terrifying truth which should bother us more than it seems to. I have started taping over the webcam of my computer after learning this lesson.



Report this Content
This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
two women enjoying confetti

Summer: a time (usually) free from school work and a time to relax with your friends and family. Maybe you go on a vacation or maybe you work all summer, but the time off really does help. When you're in college you become super close with so many people it's hard to think that you won't see many of them for three months. But, then you get that text saying, "Hey, clear your schedule next weekend, I'm coming up" and you begin to flip out. Here are the emotions you go through as your best friend makes her trip to your house.

Keep Reading...Show less
Student Life

Syllabus Week As Told By Kourtney Kardashian

Feeling Lost During Syllabus Week? You're Not Alone!

645
Kourtney Kardashian

Winter break is over, we're all back at our respective colleges, and the first week of classes is underway. This is a little bit how that week tends to go.

The professor starts to go over something more than the syllabus

You get homework assigned on the first day of class

There are multiple group projects on the syllabus

You learn attendance is mandatory and will be taken every class

Professor starts chatting about their personal life and what inspired them to teach this class

Participation is mandatory and you have to play "icebreaker games"

Everybody is going out because its 'syllabus week' but you're laying in bed watching Grey's Anatomy

Looking outside anytime past 8 PM every night of this week

Nobody actually has any idea what's happening this entire week

Syllabus week is over and you realize you actually have to try now...or not

Now it's time to get back into the REAL swing of things. Second semester is really here and we all have to deal with it.

panera bread

Whether you specialized in ringing people up or preparing the food, if you worked at Panera Bread it holds a special place in your heart. Here are some signs that you worked at Panera in high school.

1. You own so many pairs of khaki pants you don’t even know what to do with them

Definitely the worst part about working at Panera was the uniform and having someone cute come in. Please don’t look at me in my hat.

Keep Reading...Show less
Drake
Hypetrak

1. Nails done hair done everything did / Oh you fancy huh

You're pretty much feeling yourself. New haircut, clothes, shoes, everything. New year, new you, right? You're ready for this semester to kick off.

Keep Reading...Show less
7 Ways to Make Your Language More Transgender and Nonbinary Inclusive

With more people becoming aware of transgender and non-binary people, there have been a lot of questions circulating online and elsewhere about how to be more inclusive. Language is very important in making a space safer for trans and non-binary individuals. With language, there is an established and built-in measure of whether a place could be safe or unsafe. If the wrong language is used, the place is unsafe and shows a lack of education on trans and non-binary issues. With the right language and education, there can be more safe spaces for trans and non-binary people to exist without feeling the need to hide their identities or feel threatened for merely existing.

Keep Reading...Show less

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Facebook Comments