Movie Review - Snowden

SNOWDEN

Director - Oliver Stone

Cast :

Edward Snowden - Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Lindsay Mills - Shailene Woodley

Corbin O'Brian - Rhys Ifans

Glenn Greenwald - Zachary Quinto

Ewen MacAskill - Tom Wilkinson

Laura Poitras - Melissa Leo 

 

Snowden' is one of Oliver Stone's expertly made movies. It is a fairly tense drama with a few heartstopping moments. The movie follows the story of Edward Snowden -- a US intelligence analyst who exposed America's spying and data mining to the public in the year 2013. The film is based on a book by a Guardian journalist, Laura Poitras. While the movie was a sensation, it was no match for Laura Poitras's original documentary interveiw with Edward Snowden--Citizenfour. 

The narration is done through a series of flashbacks that Snowden experiences during his time in the Hong Kong hotel room, being interveiwed by The Guardians journalists -- Ewen MacAskill (played by Tom Wilkinson), Glenn Greenwald (played by Zachary Quinto) and Laura Poitras (played by Melissa Leo).

Following his rejection by the army (due to fragile bones), Snowden had entered the intelligence empire, building business, dealing with counter cyber warfare and spying. He met Lindsay Mills, a photographer, through an online dating app and fell in love. Snowden is seen to be in good terms with spy cheif Corbin O'Brian (played by Rhys Ifans) initially, however, later on, conflicts arise between the two.

Snowden's execution of leaking the data was a great indication of his intelligence and cunning. But had he not gotten inside help from that one individual he had formerly worked with, Snowden would never have been able to carry out his plan.

The movie concludes on a good note, where Snowden speaks about his time working in intelligence and what drove him to expose the United States Government. 

Snowden currenly resides in Russia along with Lindsay Mills.