Movie review: 'Snowden' takes early lead for Best Picture

Dear Carla,

Rafi will like this one, too!


I have admired this Whistleblower (capital "W") ever since his name became a household word in 2013. 

Thank you, Edward Snowden, Oliver Stone,
Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, Kieran Fitzgerald, all the writers, cast and crew of Snowden.

Bravo!

Snowden is a nerve-wracking thriller and although the outcome is known, still, you get chills watching what happens and wondering why the heck he didn't get out of  Dodge sooner in Hong Kong (?).   

It compares to the stress and anxiety experienced in Argo.  Or a Tom Clancy novel (which I've never read but hear they are pretty good). 

And it's brought to the screen by the same company, Open Road, which distributed Spotlight, the 2016 Oscar winner for 'Best Picture.'

Snowden is Oliver Stone at his best and lo, I am not going to make this a review of Oliver Stone a la so many others, since most moviegoers don't go to a movie because of the director, but we go because of what our friends say, to see a good film based on entertainment, acting, script, music, and all the other components which go into a great film. Who said anything about a director, except the reviewers who write for other reviewers?  They make the film?

 All we want to know:


1. Is the movie worth our time and bucks?  Snowden, yes!  And yes, again!

Due to filming in Munich ("a beautiful experience") where Stone took his menagerie to escape the confines and U.S. peeping, and due to the movie's importance to him, Stone skipped his mother's funeral in the U.S. (where the NSA probably would have wired him at the airport), and to ensure staff technological security, independence, and protection, he hired a cyber expert for the filming. (All these important facts, courtesy, Wikipedia.)


The star, Joseph Gordon-Levitt ("Snowden,"), (quoting again, Wikipedia) has pledged his salary from the movie "to 'help facilitate the conversation' about the relationship between technology and democracy." (Huh?  There's an organization for that?  Would that be the Clinton Foundation or a "Trump charity"? I say, give it all to The Nation.)

Craig Armstrong and Adam Peters's excellent music increases Snowden's drama and depth with the right amount of volume and composition.

The metallic, sterile industrial complexes of the CIA and NSA are exquisitely done, and the world of make-believe comes alive with Big Daddy Boss Man (Rhys Ifans).  He literally covers the Big Screen in magnificent, scary effect when he morphs into Tyrannosaurus Rhys ready to eat Snowden up. Roar and yeekers, yikers, he is one creepy dude nominated for Best Supporting Actor.


Sex?  Sex?  You want sex?  It's here and more than you'd think, not totally gratuitous and with sprinkles of the "F" bomb dropping every now and then, natch.  

Thanks to Glenn Greenwald (Zachary Quinto) and Laura Poitras (Melissa Leo) who have major roles and led the publication of the information Snowden possessed (possesses).

Ms. Poitras directed Citizenfour, the 2015 Oscar winner for Best Documentary, the predecessor to Snowden about the same subject, however, a little too wonky and technical for me, not nearly the "keep you on the edge of your seat" like Snowden. (The difference between a refrigerator manual and Lolita (I have read).)

Near Snowden's end are heard the shrill cries of Hillary in the background: Hang him!  Hang him high!  To the gallows!  Meanwhile, there is Donald J.Trump who would only execute the man. Sigh, our "leaders," one and the same. Some things never change. It's no wonder so many voters will stay home.

Speaking of, Snowden's hopes for President Obama were dashed early on when Snowden realized Obama was more of the "same ole, same ole," a difficult world to escape once he or she enters the lair.

Snowden said the government uses terrorism as an excuse to spy and pry on the people, and he shared the proof with us. Thank you, Edward Snowden, for the revelations, unlike national intelligence director James Clapper who, three months' prior to Snowden's release of data, lied to U.S. senators in a hearing when he denied that the U.S. collected information on citizens. Excuse me, isn't this what Nazi Germany did? 

Why hasn't Clapper been charged with perjury?  Oh, I forgot:  He's one of "the good old boys," a member of the Washington hierarchy which grants immunity from prosecution, depending upon position.

Please, don't come back, Edward Snowden. Move to St. Petersburg, if Moscow is too droll. Stay away. We don't want THEM to hang you high.

Academy Award nominations:

Best Picture, Snowden

Best Director, Oliver Stone

Best Actor, Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Shailene Woodley (the girlfriend)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Rhys Ifans

patricialesli@gmail.com

Glenn Greenwald and the NSA on book tour

Do you think the NSA will buy any copies of Glenn Greenwald's new book, No Place to Hide?/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 

Glenn Greenwald whose newspaper, the Guardian shared Pulitzer Prize honors last month with the Washington Post based on Mr. Greenwald's scoop about government spying, was in town last week at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue promoting his newest book, No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State.

At the ticketed event all 800 seats were taken and all copies of the book sold out, according to bookstore Politics and Prose.

When he was a contractor for the U.S. government, Edward Snowden downloaded NSA documents he found so disturbing he wanted to share them and educate the public about just exactly what it is the NSA does, Mr. Greenwald said.  Mr. Snowden could have sold the documents and made millions.  Instead, he chose public awareness and transparency.
 
He "unleashed profound change," said Mr. Greenwald.  The NSA motto is "collect it all," and the agency has billions of pieces of information about Americans, Mr. Greenwald said.

When he first met Mr. Snowden, 29 years old at the time, Mr. Greenwald was taken aback since he expected someone much older, in his 60s or 70s. Mr. Snowden came across online as "a little cynical, very sophisticated, a deep thinker."

"It took me about the entire day to recover" after they met a year ago in Hong Kong, and Mr. Greenwald remained skeptical of Mr. Snowden's motives for a while. Why would someone possibly give up his life for prison? Mr. Greenwald wondered.

For Mr. Snowden, the possibility of "the pain of prison" was better than "the pain of doing nothing."

Now Edward Snowden lives in Moscow where he fled to avoid the the U.S. government which has tirelessly tried to capture him. Mr. Greenwald said he could not picture any scenario that would bring Mr. Snowden back to the U.S. since he doesn't want to spend the rest of his life "in a cage" like another well known whistleblower, Chelsea Manning, whom the U.S. has "turned into a martyr."

The U.S. government is sending a loud and clear message that Chelsea Manning's punishment is a model for anybody else who may be thinking about revealing government secrets, Mr. Greenwald said.

Glenn Greenwald at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 

A persistent critic of the mainstream press, Mr. Greenwald said the press never fails to ask him one question as if it were the most important one: "What about Snowden's girlfriend?"
He talked about 30 minutes and gave lengthy answers to questions posed by the mostly male, mostly under age 40 (80%, according to an unofficial tally) audience, some who lined up six deep at two microphones to query Mr. Greenwald.  No one asked any hostile or negative questions.

Mr. Greenwald quoted one of his childhood heroes, Daniel Ellsberg, who says "they" are saying the same things about Mr.Snowden that "they" said about Mr. Ellsberg and Ms. Manning.  Nothing new.

The audience interrupted the author several times with applause, and some intermittently stood and clapped.

Mr. Snowden's "strategic sense has been remarkably vindicated," Mr. Greenwald said. He said there is a document which supersedes the Justice Department: "It is called the Constitution."

Greenwald is prepared. He has done his homework.   He ain't no slouch, and he makes no apologies for selling and making money on his books: It's the American way. He is a graduate of George Washington University where he majored in philosophy, and he earned a law degree from New York University. He lives in Brazil with his partner, David Michael Miranda, since the U.S. won't give Mr. Miranda a visa to live here.

Mr. Greenwald is working on something much bigger than the NSA story which will come out in due time, he said.

Movie rights to No Place to Hide have been sold to Sony Pictures, and producers will be Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli who produced the James Bond series.

Mr. Greenwald mentioned James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, who lied to the U.S. Congress in testimony about government spying, committing at least a felony, he said.

No one responsible for the destruction of Iraq, a nation with 26 million people, or the wounding and deaths of thousands of Iraq citizens and American troops has ever been held accountable, he noted.  I suppose it depends upon whom you know.

patricialesli@gmail.com