Directed by Oliver Stone
In cinemas now
How often in real life do people stand
up to the behemoth that is the mighty US spy/war apparatus and get
away with it? Not often enough. But if you count living in limbo in
Russia – unable to fly to asylum in a third country once his
passport was cancelled, unable to return home to the USA without fear
of a rigged, secret trial on espionage charges – as getting away
with it, Edward Snowden not only did that, but in a massive leak of
classified information, gave the US and world public information
about the unprecedented surveillance of US and global citizens,
information essential for public discussion about privacy and the
reach of government and corporate data collection.
Oliver Stone's newly released film
“Snowden” recounts the story in a dramatisation that takes us on
a journey from Snowden's administrative discharge from the military
with fractures in both shins in around 2004, into his career in the
CIA and then as an intelligence contractor, up to the momentous
events of 2013 when he passed information about the PRISM program and
other surveillance activities to journalists Laura Poitras, Glen
Greenwald and Ewen MacAskill.
The information is publicly available,
so it's no spoiler to speak of Snowden eluding capture in Hong Kong
and being granted first one then three years' asylum in Russia, where
he remains now.
The film is well made, acted and
scripted. It portrays Snowden's transition from a patriot who
believes in the rightness of his country and his commander-in-chief's
decisions, to one deeply troubled by the impact of surveillance
activities justified in the name of counter-terrorism but in reality,
designed to ensure US government supremacy. The final straw for
Snowden is the realisation that unimpeded data collection by US
federal spy agencies and their contractors is primarily focused, not
on the USA's rivals or enemies, but on US citizens.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as a
convincing Snowden, and Shailene Woodley, as Lindsay Mills, Snowden's
partner. Their political differences (she's a liberal who signs an
anti-war petition; he's a conservative who is sure the Iraq war is
right) make for an amusing foil to show that Snowden was no radical,
intent on harming US security. It pitches him to a US audience as
someone who simply takes seriously the US constitution's fourth
amendment (against unreasonable searches and seizures), and who was
prepared to defend it at great personal cost. The impact of the life
of a spy and even more, of a spy who becomes convinced his government
is doing something fundamentally flawed is played out in the strain
on their relationship and in Snowden's decision not to tell Mills
what he has found or what he is going to do, in order to protect her
from being an accomplice in his data breach.
Snowden's relationships with others in
the spy community add another interesting, and personal dimension,
though it's the nature of the biopic genre that we're left wondering
where creative license begins and ends. The portrayal of macho
culture in the military and casual sexism in the spy community seems
undoubtedly realistic. How Snowden copies and smuggles the
all-important files out makes for great drama and suggests loyalty of
like-minded friends.
This film has already begun to have an
impact on audiences. It is likely to be more powerful for those not
already familiar with the story, particularly those who haven't
watched Laura Poitras' documentary, Citzenfour and perhaps other
films. But even those who've seen Citizenfour may enjoy the
background provided by “Snowden,” and the personal dimension it
provides, even as it breaks down what's wrong with what the spy
agencies are doing, in ways that non-geeks can understand.
Towards the end of the film, news
headlines are used to indicate the extent of legal reform triggered
by Snowden's leak. It would be too much to ask the film to delve into
how much these laws are window dressing for public consumption and
whether they have resulted in any changes in mass surveillance in
practice, and it really doesn't go there. But what is clear is that
Snowden's brave actions triggered a global discussion. And a US
federal appeals court finding that the surveillance program was
illegal is certainly vindication of his rationale for his leak.
In an unusual twist, Edward Snowden
appears as himself at the end of the film, responding to questions in
a forum connecting him by videolink to a live audience. It provides
an extra dose of realism: it's a dramatic story, but true, and still
being played out by a person still at risk from the secret government
he exposed.
The release of the film is well-timed
for the campaign for Snowden's pardon. Obama came to power promising
whistleblower protection, but instead has made history as the US
president whose administration has prosecuted more whistleblowers
than any other. As the campaign gears up to call on Obama to use his
last days in the presidency to pardon the best-known US whistleblower
of the 21st century, “Snowden” has potential to
entertain, inform, and call to act.
More information about that campaign
can be found at PardonSnowden.
In song: Prism
