snowden movie introduction essay

If Edward Snowden didn’t exist, Oliver Stone might have invented him. One can imagine a Stone film about a former employee of the U.S. government who becomes disillusioned with his country when he learns the depth of its deceit. In fact, that last sentence could describe a few Stone films, and so “Snowden” has been widely anticipated as a return to form for the director of masterpieces like “ Platoon ,” “ JFK ” and “ Born on the Fourth of July .” It’s his first film in four years and his first with a true story behind it in almost a decade (“W.”).

History will recognize Stone as one of the most important cinematic historians when it comes to the stories of his country, from Vietnam to Richard Nixon to 9/11. And so it makes perfect sense that he would be attracted to the story of Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who revealed the scope of just how little privacy we have in a post-9/11 world. Stone made the very smart move to hire a committed, underrated actor to play the challenging lead role, and the result is a film that thrives off its central performance. Some of the elements around that performance are a bit lacking, especially the script, but there’s an energy here that Stone hasn’t had in a few films, as if he’s been enlivened by a subject he was destined to document.

“Snowden” actually opens with a scene that will be very familiar to viewers of the Oscar-winning “ Citizenfour ”—that film’s director, Laura Poitras ( Melissa Leo ), and journalist Glenn Greenwald ( Zachary Quinto ) are going to meet Snowden ( Joseph Gordon-Levitt ), who then recounts the last few years of his life under extreme cover (cell phones go in the microwave, for example). The structure of Kieran Fitzgerald and Stone’s script essentially alternates between three stories—the story of Snowden’s discovery of his government’s highly intrusive and global surveillance; the story of Snowden’s romance with Lindsay Mills ( Shailene Woodley ) and how it was impacted by his top-secret jobs; and the story of the release of what Snowden knew, as documented in “Citizenfour.” All three arcs have that “JFK”-esque tendency to have even the smallest roles filled by recognizable faces: Rhys Ifans , Tom Wilkinson , Nicolas Cage , Timothy Olyphant, Joely Richardson , Logan Marshall-Green , Keith Stanfield , Ben Chaplin and more pop up throughout the complex story.

And this story is truly complex, especially in the way Stone and Fitzgerald have chosen to tackle it. They offer a little bit of “the early days of Edward,” but it’s not long before Snowden is, shall we say, seeing how the sausage gets made. For those viewers who have not seen “Citizenfour” or read many of the articles written about Snowden, the mid-section of Stone’s film could prove incredibly shocking, and may force a trend of people putting pieces of tape over their laptop camera. That covert operations run by our government have the capability to turn on your laptop camera without you knowing it is only one of the revelations here. And as Snowden continues to get deeper into the rabbit hole of privacy invasion, Gordon-Levitt’s performance becomes more exceptional. At first, it feels like something of an impression (although a really good one, for the record), but the film works in the way that Gordon-Levitt captures the conflicted inner turmoil of Snowden as the story progresses. He has a remarkable ability to do what so many other actors can’t: look at a computer screen and take in its information as if he’s seeing it for the first time. He grounds a complex story by giving it a very human, reactive element at its center.

Stone’s film falters with the relationship drama involving Snowden and Shailene Woodley’s Lindsay Mills. Both actors do their best to make these scenes connect, but some moments feel like they came out of another movie and the pair doesn’t quite have the right chemistry to make them effective. I understand the intention—to balance the inordinate number of sequences in front of computer screens with a flesh and blood dynamic—but they just don’t work, partially due to flat dialogue but also because they don’t have the energy of the rest of the film. They almost feel like an obligation—a producer’s note to make the film more relatable—but it creates a herky-jerky pace to “Snowden” that keeps it from building steam. I’m sure there were dozens of drafts exploring different ways to tackle this story, and I’m not convinced they found precisely the right one. Less relationship drama, and perhaps going chronological from front to back instead of using flashback structure, might have helped the rhythm.

Despite my issues with the structure of “Snowden,” there are numerous accomplished scenes and the film is carried throughout by Gordon-Levitt. It’s in his body language, which captures a man truly conflicted about what to do with the information he’s discovered. And that’s an interesting approach to the Snowden story in and of itself. In the days after the whistleblowing, and even today, many people still want to villainize Snowden as a traitor. It’s not surprising that Stone doesn’t feel that way, but what I like about the film is how deeply he works to humanize someone who has become a symbol for US privacy invasion and the need for transparency. Working with a very identifiable actor, Stone is careful to keep this story specific. To be honest, that’s been a gift of his for years, making sure he doesn’t lose the human story of people like Ron Kovic or Jim Garrison as he’s simultaneously painting a bigger picture. It’s good to have him back at the canvas.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

• Zachary Quinto as Glenn Greenwald
• Scott Eastwood as Trevor
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Edward Snowden
• Melissa Leo as Laura Poitras
• Tom Wilkinson as Ewen MacAskill
• Shailene Woodley as Lindsay Mills
• Adam Peters
• Craig Armstrong
• Alex Marquez

Writer (book)

• Anatoly Kucherena
• Luke Harding

Cinematographer

• Anthony Dod Mantle
• Kieran Fitzgerald
• Oliver Stone

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Review: ‘Snowden,’ Oliver Stone’s Restrained Portrait of a Whistle-Blower

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By A.O. Scott

• Sept. 15, 2016

Oliver Stone’s “Snowden,” a quiet, crisply drawn portrait of the world’s most celebrated whistle-blower, belongs to a curious subgenre of movies about very recent historical events. Reversing the usual pattern, it could be described as a fictional “making of” feature about “Citizenfour,” Laura Poitras’s Oscar-winning documentary on the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden. That film seems to me more likely to last — it is deeper journalism and more haunting cinema — but Mr. Stone has made an honorable and absorbing contribution to the imaginative record of our confusing times. He tells a story torn from slightly faded headlines, filling in some details you may have forgotten, and discreetly embellishing the record in the service of drama and suspense.

In the context of this director’s career, “Snowden” is both a return to form and something of a departure. Mr. Stone circles back to the grand questions of power, war and secrecy that have propelled his most ambitious work, and finds a hero who fits a familiar Oliver Stone mold. Edward (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, leaning hard on a vocal imitation) is presented as a disillusioned idealist, a serious young man whose experiences lead him to doubt accepted truths and question the wisdom of authority. He has something in common with Jim Garrison in “J.F.K.” and Ron Kovic in “Born on the Fourth of July,” and also with Chris Taylor and Bud Fox, the characters played by Charlie Sheen in “Platoon” and “Wall Street.”

Movie Review: ‘Snowden’

The times critic a. o. scott reviews “snowden”.

Like those young men in a hurry, Edward falls under the sway of two antithetical father figures, a silky apparatchik played by Rhys Ifans, and an unbuttoned renegade played by Nicolas Cage. Drawn to intelligence work out of a sincere desire to serve his country, Edward is not immune to other attractions of the job. He likes the intrigue, the money (especially after he becomes a private contractor) and the feeling of being part of a select group of insiders who know how things really work.

But he is not a figure of operatic, tragic ambition in the mold of Richard M. Nixon, Jim Morrison or Alexander the Great (at least as Mr. Stone imagined them). Nerdy in aspect and phlegmatic in manner, Edward never takes a drink or chases a skirt. (His girlfriend, Lindsay Mills, is played by Shailene Woodley.) And “Snowden” is, by Mr. Stone’s standards, a strikingly sober film. Restraint shows in both the filmmaking and the politics. There are very few wild, bravura visual flights and not much in the way of wild conspiracymongering. Edward is a rational, ethical creature — “responsibility” is one of his favorite words — and the movie takes pains to be reasonable. Its basic argument about government data-collection would not be out of place on the Op-Ed page of this or any other newspaper. And its dialogue and pacing would work just fine on television.

Maybe Mr. Stone has mellowed, or maybe the world has caught up with him. What used to be paranoia — the idea, say, that your electronic appliances are spying on you — looks nowadays like blunt realism. It can also seem as if the physical world, that bloody, sex-infused battleground of the self where previous Stone heroes have raged and fought, had been displaced by a more abstract zone of codes and algorithms. Edward passes from one realm to the other when an injury ends his career as a United States Army Ranger. “There are lots of ways to serve your country,” the doctor tells him, and soon enough, his bosses at the C.I.A. and the N.S.A. are explaining that the real war is being waged on computer and cellular networks.

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• Cinema, series and psychology

Snowden, A Film About Spying Over the Internet

Movie Review: Snowden (2016)

• Greg Eichelberger
• Movie Reviews
• 5 responses
• --> September 20, 2016

Whether one thinks Edward Snowden is a patriot or a traitor for revealing CIA and NSA (National Security Agency) secrets will probably not depend on this movie, Snowden , as those who believe one way or the other will still hold those opinions after this 2-hour, 15-minute presentation.

Still, director Oliver Stone (“ Savages ,” but better known for his Academy Award-winning efforts “Platoon” and “Born on the Fourth of July”) attempts to present both sides as fairly and accurately as he can and he equally criticizes both Republican and Democratic presidents (unlike, say, his 1991 film, “JFK,” where he was so slanted in his conspiracy theories even those who had doubts about the Warren Commission Report thought he went too far). Stone also wrote (along with Kieran Fitzgerald, “ The Homesman ”) the screenplay, which was based on books by Anatoly Kucherena and Luke Harding.

The title character, competently played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt (“ The Night Before ”), is given the opportunity here to prove he was only trying to protect his nation by stealing these secrets and then releasing them to the press in 2013. Since that time, he has been living in Moscow (and this lifestyle choice has buttressed the feelings of those who believe he was simply a spy who was in league with the Russians, Chinese or even worse). The events of the picture takes place from 2004, when Snowden is shown training with the U.S. Army Reserve Special Forces, through 2013, when he reveals that the government is not only using its highly-sophisticated and technologically-advanced intelligence agencies to spy on possible terrorists and lawbreakers, but ordinary American citizens, as well.

These thoughts are far from the conservative young American in ’04, where, after an accident precludes him from further military service, he gains employment at the Central Intelligence Agency (because, he says, “It would be cool to have a Top Secret clearance.”) Despite such a cavalier attitude, he is nonetheless accepted into that organization because his superior, Corbin O’Brian (Rhys Ifans, “ The Amazing Spider-Man ”), sees something special in him. This is confirmed when Snowden completes a five-hour simulation test in about 38 minutes. Sent to Geneva to ostensibly work on a back-up system, he asks for field operation experience, but quickly sours when he learns how far the agency (especially his boss, Timothy Olyphant, “ Mother’s Day ”) will go to recruit an asset, including blackmail and possibly even worse.

After resigning from the CIA, he gets work (because he is an obvious computer whiz kid) as a subcontractor for Dell, stationed at the NSA facility in Tokyo. There he lives seemingly happy with girlfriend, Lindsay Mills (Shailene Woodley, “ The Divergent Series – Allegiant ”), but continues to discover that there are programs in which the lives of everyday Americans (as well as those throughout the globe) are subjected to spying on their supposedly private calls, chats and Internet communication. During his years with Dell, he moved from overseeing system upgrades for the NSA to working as what he referred to as a “cyberstrategist” and an “expert in cyber counterintelligence” at several U.S. locations, including a short stint in Maryland before taking a position in Hawaii as a lead technologist for the NSA’s information-sharing office, which focuses on the electronic monitoring of China and North Korea, the last three years of which were with consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton.

While here and after seeing the Director of National Intelligence flatly tell Congress there was no covert spying activity against American citizens, Snowden reaches a breaking point and decides to go to the press with his findings. He copies files onto a card reader (which in reality took months, although Stone accomplishes it in just one scene) and gives it to journalist Glenn Greenwald (Zachary Quinto, “ Star Trek Beyond ”), Oscar-winning documentarian Laura Poitras (Melissa Leo, “ London Has Fallen ”) and the Manchester Guardian, among others.

The files in question, as told to the House Armed Services Committee by Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, “. . . [T]he vast majority had nothing to do with exposing government oversight of domestic activities. The vast majority of those were related to our military capabilities, operations, tactics, techniques and procedures.”

And according to some government sources, when retired NSA director Keith Alexander was asked in a May 2014 interview to quantify the number of documents Snowden stole, Alexander answered, “I don’t think anybody really knows what he actually took with him, because the way he did it, we don’t have an accurate way of counting. What we do have an accurate way of counting is what he touched, what he may have downloaded, and that was more than a million documents.”

Nevertheless, if Stone takes just a tad bit more dramatic license with this story, it’s nothing he has not done in the past and he certainly has a right to his side of the story. As filmcraft, it is often well done and despite the controversial subject matter, is topical and quite alluring. Gordon-Levitt does a decent job in the titular role, but seems to sleepwalk at times, while his scenes with Woodley have about as much chemistry as O.J. and Nicole Brown Simpson.

Speaking of this actress, it’s amazing Stone could not have found a more competent representation of this character as her onscreen time takes far too much away from the really compelling storyline. Quinto and Leo acquit themselves nicely in their limited, somewhat reactive roles, while Scott Eastwood (“ The Longest Ride ”) and Olyphant get to chew some scenery as CIA and NSA bosses, respectively.

Also, in his effort to capture all of the minutia of America’s espionage technology, the director often gets bogged down in confusing computer-speak and puts the human and more dramatic elements on the back burner, which also slows the pacing of Snowden down considerably and adds at least 25 minutes which could easily have been excised with no loss to the project.

This isn’t to say that Snowden is not an interesting movie and certainly one which will get some Oscar buzz, it’s just bloated in many places — unnecessarily so.

Tagged: government , novel adaptation , secret , traitor , true story

I have been a movie fan for most of my life and a film critic since 1986 (my first published review was for "Platoon"). Since that time I have written for several news and entertainment publications in California, Utah and Idaho. Big fan of the Academy Awards - but wish it would go back to the five-minute dinner it was in May, 1929. A former member of the San Diego Film Critics Society and current co-host of "The Movie Guys," each Sunday afternoon on KOGO AM 600 in San Diego with Kevin Finnerty.

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'Movie Review: Snowden (2016)' have 5 comments

September 20, 2016 @ 11:46 am Title94-a

Burn down the house. Everyone within it are the real traitors to the American people.

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September 20, 2016 @ 2:55 pm Burstain

Oliver Stone has become a cynical lefty crackpot like Michael Moore. The only separation of the two is Stone manages to acquire heftier budgets and acting talent for his decidely biased films.

September 20, 2016 @ 6:34 pm Sobering Thoughts

I don’t need the unnecessary personal fluff or Stone’s obvious political slant–Citizenfour does the job of presenting the Snowden story nicely.

September 22, 2016 @ 2:18 pm Howard Schumann

“(unlike, say, his 1991 film, “JFK,” where he was so slanted in his conspiracy theories even those who had doubts about the Warren Commission Report thought he went too far).”

Can you name anyone or provide a link to “those who had doubts about the Warren Commission Report but thought he went too far?”

In what way was the film JFK “slanted in his conspiracy theories?”

There are no conspiracy theorists. There are people doing research on the implausibility of the conclusions reached by the Warren Commission. Evidence points in the direction that Oswald could not have acted alone. Oliver Stone offered no conspiracy theory in the film, all purpose or otherwise.

He presented incidents of Lee Harvey Oswald’s stay in New Orleans which have been well documented and his associations with both the right-wing anti-Castro Cubans and the left-wing Fair Play for Cuba Committee. Stone’s dramatizations of the characters of Guy Bannister, Dave Ferrie, and Dean Andrews use their own words as documented in the Warren Commission Report and Garrison’s own investigation.

Stone proposed the reason behind the assassination as continuing the Vietnam War and asked who had the most to gain from JFKs death. Other than that, he offered no theory as to who did the killing, who planned the murder, or who covered it up.

September 25, 2016 @ 1:01 pm eyes ohallon

Money corrupts absolutely. Get the money out of politics and the elected officials will listen to the voice of the people again. Until then government will run amok no matter how many people blow their whistles.

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Snowden: Is the Movie Based on a True Story?

‘Snowden’ is the story of the eponymous character who works for the CIA. He eventually becomes a whistleblower after leaking some confidential information regarding mass surveillance by the government that implicates the National Security Agency. Directed by Oliver Stone, the cast includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt , Shailene Woodley , Melissa Leo , and Zachary Quinto. In this article, we take a look at which events inspired the story.

Snowden: A Story of Mass Surveillance Leaks

Yes, ‘Snowden’ is based on a true story. In fact, it is about the former CIA employee and subcontractor who, in 2013, started copying and leaking extremely confidential and private information about mass surveillance being carried out by the National Security Agency. The event wreaked havoc globally, with many questioning the practices of the United States government. The public was, nonetheless, divided between calling him a traitor or a patriot.

To say that he was, and still is, one of the most controversial figures of the decade is not an understatement. When he was 29-years-old, Snowden gave the top-secret documents to journalists Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, Barton Gellman, and Ewen MacAskill, who then published the information on platforms like The Guardian and The Washington Post. He was working for Booz Allen Hamilton in Hawaii when he became paranoid about the programs he was involved in.

Although he had tried to take this ethical issue up with his superiors, his requests were ignored, following which he downloaded close to 1.5 million files before leaving for Hong Kong. There, Snowden proceeded to hand over the precious documents to the media personnel, and we all know what happened after that. But the whistleblower was charged with violating the Espionage Act of 1917 and theft of government property by the United States Department of Justice.

Following that, Snowden’s American passport was cancelled. Eventually, Russia gave him asylum. (As of 2020, he has been granted permanent residency). Talking about the aftermath of the leaks, Snowden said , “I was very much a person the most powerful government in the world wanted to go away. They did not care whether I went away to prison. They did not care whether I went away into the ground. They just wanted me gone.”

‘Snowden’ is actually based on two books – The Snowden Files (Luke Harding) and Time of the Octopus (Anatoly Kucherena). The latter is authored by Edward Snowden’s lawyer from whom the director received a call. Then, a meeting was set up. Going into more detail about the inspiration behind his vision, Stone said , “But it was a fictional book. He had fictionalized it. And it was an interesting Russian novel. Very Dostoevsky. Really it’s about a young man from America who comes over and reveals a 1984 world.”

He added, “I didn’t know at that point in time whether we were going to make a fictional movie with an unnamed character, or else we would make the story as realistic as possible about Snowden, because I didn’t know if Snowden would cooperate.” It is also noteworthy that Stone was right, as initially, the former CIA subcontractor was hesitant about the movie.

However, the director also recalled that over the course of a few meetings, his subject started opening up a lot more to the idea – “And he said that it was sort of an inevitability about a movie getting made, that he doesn’t have any rights because he’s in exile, and so forth and so on.”  Edward Snowden did not receive any monetary compensation from the movie and was not given script approval either. 

The production met with many challenges from its inception to the end. For one, no studio wanted to finance such a politically driven project. Stone said , “We live in that climate – this is definitely, I believe, self-censorship.” Furthering this sentiment, he added, “I don’t believe the NSA called anybody and said ‘don’t do this,’ Who knows? But the truth is … you either join the club or you’re excluded.”

Eventually, however, the film received funding and the rest is history. Many criticize Snowden and feel as though his intentions were not patriotic by a long shot. In fact, they think that he has hindered efforts pertaining to national security and that he is just a glorified conspirator when all is said and done. Chris Inglis, who is the former Deputy Director of the NSA, seemingly agrees with some of these claims, although he is not as rigid as many of Snowden’s opposers.

Talking about the movie, he said , “Dramatization to me means you add the occasional exclamation point. You bring in a musician to perhaps add some background music. But you don’t tell a story that is fiction.”   Although Inglis accepted that the motives of the protagonist are definitely nuanced, he also stated, “But broadly, when I stood back, the story that was told [in the movie] was a gross mischaracterization of what NSA’s purposes are.”

He added, “And a gross exaggeration of Edward Snowden’s own particular role in that. To the point where you could come away from looking at that movie, saying why are 50,000 people at the NSA dead wrong? And one is absolutely correct?” On that note, we would just like to say that it is necessary to remember that even though the movie is based on a true story, it is still a dramatized version of what really transpired.

Read More: Where Was Snowden Filmed?

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Snowden film review: a fawning depiction of an otherwise incredible story

Snowden is a divisive figure. Either, you see him as a freedom-fighting American putting his life at risk or he’s a low-down ex- NSA /CIA employee who risked important information for media attention. Oliver Stone’s new biopic, featuring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, Rhys Ifans and Nick Cage is firmly in the former camp.

The film follows the gripping real-life story of Edward Snowden – the whistleblower who released huge swathes of info about his country's programme to hack private information from anywhere in the world. Much like the 2014 documentary CitizenFour by Laura Poitras, the film follows the footsteps of Snowden locked away in a hotel in Hong Kong after meeting with Poitras and Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald to hand over evidence of the programmes. The film also shows us what the documentary couldn’t: dramatisations of Snowden’s relationship with long-term girlfriend Lindsay Mills, as well as his roles within the CIA and NSA.

Whilst the narrative is engaging, the hero-worship of Snowden, problematic portrayal of Mills/Woodley, hammy dialogue and CSI-esque visuals detract from the incredible story. It’s irritating to watch a dynamic character be portrayed in such a one-dimensional way (let us not forget he worked in these organisations for years before coming forward), but what’s even worse is the voyeuristic depiction of his girlfriend. Her character seems to serve no purpose other than the conventional ‘martyr woman’ figure - always willing to move and support her long-suffering partner. What’s more, Woodley is often kitted out in tight-clothing or shown naked (there’s a highly gratuitous sex scene that makes for uncomfortable viewing). The purpose of this ogling is unclear.

The film is just another depiction of a single-minded man, expecting those around him to suffer at the expense of his very important mission. Snowden’s role is uncovering the shocking nature of the NSA’s reach into our personal data (pressing when the UK has just passed the Investigatory Powers Bill ) but from the film you’d think he’d saved the world from total disaster. Clips of important CIA executives swooning over his intelligence, constant visual reminders he’s got a hot girlfriend, and an entire scene dedicated to showing how genius he is make this more hero worship than biopic.

The scenes in the Hong Kong hotel room - taken almost directly from Poitras' brilliant documentary – are slightly better than the dramatised elements, but still contain cheesy moments of explanation and musing. Of course, we can’t tell how realistic the film is in depicting the relationship between Snowden and his partner, and perhaps Snowden isn’t as self-righteous and selfish as the film depicts him, but Stone’s interpretation is one-dimensional, hammy and with a heavy dose of misogyny. It’s an engaging film, but the cold lens of a documentary serves it better than the rose-tinted spectacles of this fawning depiction.

This article was originally published by WIRED UK

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The NSA's illegal surveillance techniques are leaked to the public by one of the agency's employees, Edward Snowden, in the form of thousands of classified documents distributed to the press... Read all The NSA's illegal surveillance techniques are leaked to the public by one of the agency's employees, Edward Snowden, in the form of thousands of classified documents distributed to the press. The NSA's illegal surveillance techniques are leaked to the public by one of the agency's employees, Edward Snowden, in the form of thousands of classified documents distributed to the press.

• Oliver Stone
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• Trivia To make sure the screenplay was not hacked or leaked, Oliver Stone wrote the script on a single computer with no Internet connection.
• Goofs Despite being portrayed as an extremely skilled hacker, Snowden uses drag-and-drop to copy the files to his microSD card in the Hawaii NSA base, exposing himself to being found due to the tens of file copy dialogs that pop up on the screen. Any sort of power user, let alone a hacker, would have used the command line, and would have minimized the window so it wouldn't stay visible on the screen.

Edward Snowden : Terrorism is just an excuse.

• Connections Featured in The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Michael Strahan/Zachary Quinto/James Cameron/Vince Staples (2016)
• Soundtracks Secret Downloading Written and Produced by Craig Armstrong Programming by Craig Armstrong and Scott Fraser Remixed by Boys Noize Additional Production and Programming by Boys Noize (as Alex Ridha)

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Platoon director Oliver Stone’s 2016 biopic Snowden paints a fairly accurate picture of the titular NSA whistleblower, but where did the movie diverge from the true story and why? Released in 2016, Snowden was a rare fusion of historical biopic and techno-thriller which followed the life of the titular whistleblower Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor who leaked confidential files that proved US government agencies were spying on their own citizens.

As portrayed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt , Snowden is depicted as a put-upon hero standing up for what’s right in Stone’s movie, and his revelation of the NSA’s clandestine spying operation is framed as a tense heist narrative. The truth is a bit more mundane, but Stone’s movie deserves commendation for how rarely it strays from the facts of the case despite occasional dramatic embellishments and necessary elisions.

Related: Yes Man: Is The Movie Based On A True Story? How Much Is Real

Snowden was met with audience indifference upon release and failed to break even at the box office, despite its high profile subject and an impressive cast, including Shailene Woodley as Snowden’s girlfriend Lindsay Mills, Rhys Ifans as his former boss, and Zachary Quinto as former Intercept journalist Glenn Greenwald, one of few media figures willing to help Snowden break the story internationally. The movie suffered from unfortunate timing with America’s public perception of Snowden starting to sour circa 2016, as unsubstantiated rumors of “Russian hacking” led whistleblowers to be viewed less as countercultural heroes and more as potential electoral hazards. It’s unfortunate as Snowden offers a compelling, intense, and largely accurate portrayal of the title character’s work and its impact. So with so much of  Snowden  being accurate, what are the areas where Stone’s movie does stray from the truth?

Snowden’s Army-Career-Ending Injury

Bizarrely, one of the biggest differences in Stone’s movie is one which makes the eponymous character look a lot less tough than he was in reality. Like most Army recruits, Snowden was in solid physical shape when he enlisted way back in 2004, so Snowden ’s depiction of him breaking his legs by hopping off his top bunk isn’t quite true to life. In reality, Snowden broke his legs (thus inadvertently beginning his path toward a career in the NSA) during an Army training exercise. Maybe Stone felt that Snowden’s goofier backstory would make the titular hero more relatable, but regardless this switch up makes for a mostly superficial change to his story.

The "Heist" Duration

Like a lot of techno-thrillers, even a movie from a director as technically adept as Oliver Stone struggles to make computer hacking interesting onscreen. As a result, Snowden depicts the process whereby Edward Snowden accessed and disseminated confidential documents from the NSA as a tense, brief heist that takes place over about five minutes. It’s all told in real-time, and it’s one of the movie’s most exciting scenes. And of course, it’s hokum.

Related: Comey Rule True Story: What's Fact & Fiction About Trump, Clinton, & Russia

Like a lot of hacking, the real-life Snowden’s accessing and copying of documents took many months of painstaking work. The timeline is contested, as Snowden claiming that NSA director James Clapper’s false March 2013 testimony inspired him to obtain and leak the documents, which conflicts with the US government’s account that he had been siphoning information from their systems since mid-2012. In any case, it’s understandable that Snowden opts to compress the complicated process into a short sequence for increased drama and intensity, as the essential facts of the case (Snowden used confidential access to leak these documents and reveal the NSA’s spying campaign) remain the same whether it took minutes or months to achieve.

The Rubik’s Cube

Admirably, Snowden opts not to alter or misconstrue any of the information revealed by the whistleblower’s leaks. The revelation that the NSA was illegally spying on US citizens was huge news and the movie accurately portrays this, although it does change the method of Snowden’s information curation. In Snowden , Levitt’s roguish hero slips the SD card full of incriminating files out of the NSA’s offices in typically slick heist movie fashion, hiding them inside a Rubik’s Cube (an idea Snowden himself suggested to Stone when they were working together on Snowden ).

In reality, the information collation not only took many months, but it also occurred across numerous private networks and devices and was never as simple as sneaking a specific SD card out of a specific building. Unlike the time frame of Snowden’s leaks, though, the reason for this change was not purely aesthetic. Edward Snowden has still never revealed the methods he used to obtain the files in question and, with Chelsea Manning still imprisoned by the US government for leaking similarly damning documents and Wikileaks’ Julian Assange being similarly persecuted for his reporting, it’s understandable that Stone’s movie opts not to risk the lives and safety of future whistleblowers by revealing actual techniques used against agencies such as the NSA.

Snowden's NSA Days

Snowden may keep to the facts for much of its runtime, but one pivotal figure introduced to the movie's plot during Snowden's early days in the NSA is a purely fictional creation added for the sake of giving Gordon-Levitt's character a compelling dramatic arc. Although Rhys Ifans puts in a typically superb performance as the primary antagonist of Snowden , his character Corbin O’Brian doesn’t have a specific real-life counterpart. The movie portrays O’Brian as a recruiter and eventual CIA director who takes a shine to Snowden, and his character (named after Orwell’s classic dystopia 1984 ) is a composite of numerous prominent figures employed by the CIA and NSA during Snowden’s tenure there. He’s invented because Snowden needs an obvious antagonist and the NSA and CIA have hundreds of thousands of employees and no recognizable public figurehead, and most likely also as an excuse to let Stone add in an allusion to the literary classic.

Why Snowden Made These Changes

Like Stone’s earlier, equally controversial hit Platoon , Snowden mostly sticks to the facts when retelling its real-life story. It sticks a little too close to the truth for some critics such as former NSA deputy director Chris Inglis, who complained that the movie made Snowden out to be a hero. Of course, the source of this anger may have had less to do with the movie's accuracy and more to do with Stone depicting the NSA’s higher-ups (such as Inglis) as both incompetent and amoral, thus necessitating Snowden’s revelation of the NSA’s spying program. Where the movie does mess with the facts it’s usually to protect Snowden himself, Lindsay Mills, and future whistleblowers, although some changes are added purely for aesthetic reasons, such as the highly dramatic and highly inaccurate heist sequence.

More:  The 25 Best Films on Netflix Right Now

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Common Sense Media Review

Oliver Stone biopic brings emotion to controversial story.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Snowden is director Oliver Stone's biopic about Edward Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who leaked classified information in 2013 proving that the U.S. government was using technology to spy on American citizens. The movie has some fairly graphic sexual material, including a sex…

Why Age 16+?

Fairly graphic sex scene; a woman straddles a man and is viewed from the side. T

Several uses of "f--k." Also "s--t," "bitch," &quo

Explosions from drone strikes. Men hunt, shoot, and kill birds. Painful injured

Social drinking and smoking by secondary characters. Snowden announces that he d

Any Positive Content?

The movie champions standing up for what's right, even at the risk of person

Edward Snowden is a controversial figure in real life, which the movie touches o

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Fairly graphic sex scene; a woman straddles a man and is viewed from the side. Topless photos on computer screen. Reference to a young man "banging" several women. A woman undresses on a webcam; black underwear shown. Women dance on poles in an adult club (no nudity). Sexual reference written in an email. Women take a pole-dancing class.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Several uses of "f--k." Also "s--t," "bitch," "damn," "hell," "ass," "dick," "boob," "Jesus" (as an exclamation), and "whorehouse."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Explosions from drone strikes. Men hunt, shoot, and kill birds. Painful injured leg, falling from a top bunk. Epileptic seizures.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Social drinking and smoking by secondary characters. Snowden announces that he doesn't drink or do drugs. Reference to a young woman taking too many sleeping pills.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

The movie champions standing up for what's right, even at the risk of personal comfort or safety. It suggests that, if we find ourselves in that position, it's the right thing to do, and we won't be alone.

Positive Role Models

Edward Snowden is a controversial figure in real life, which the movie touches on a bit. But the bulk of it portrays him as a hero who becomes alarmed at what he sees and eventually reaches a breaking point at which he risks everything to do the right thing.

Parents need to know that Snowden is director Oliver Stone 's biopic about Edward Snowden ( Joseph Gordon-Levitt ), who leaked classified information in 2013 proving that the U.S. government was using technology to spy on American citizens. The movie has some fairly graphic sexual material, including a sex scene, topless photos on a computer screen, and pole dancing. There's also strong language ("f--k" and "s--t"), and Snowden is shown having epileptic seizures. Other scenes show drone strikes and explosions, and there are sequences of hunting (birds are shot with rifles) and a character breaking his leg. Secondary characters smoke and drink socially, but Snowden declares that he doesn't drink or do drugs. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (3)
• Kids say (3)

Based on 3 parent reviews

Some scenes do portray straight up sex

What's the story.

SNOWDEN begins in 2013, as filmmaker Laura Poitras ( Melissa Leo ) and journalist Glenn Greenwald ( Zachary Quinto ) meet Edward Snowden ( Joseph Gordon-Levitt ) in a Hong Kong hotel room, preparing for the interview that will become one of the biggest news stories of the modern era. Snowden tells the story of his brief military career and his various jobs with the CIA and NSA, his relationship with Lindsay Mills ( Shailene Woodley ), and his slow discovery that the U.S. government was spying on ordinary citizens without their knowledge. Eventually the guilt and outrage become too much, and Snowden decides to risk his own future and safety to try to bring about change.

Is It Any Good?

In Oliver Stone 's biopic, the controversial Snowden is definitely portrayed as a hero, shown in a soft, emotional light that inspires hope, even if it lacks the righteousness of Stone's early work. Through skillful filmmaking, Snowden tells both the biographical and emotional journey of its main character (played convincingly by Joseph Gordon-Levitt ). He starts out as an idealistic believer in his country but becomes more and more alarmed, disillusioned, and guilty -- all of which leads to action.

Many of the details of Snowden's story were already covered in Laura Poitras' essential, Oscar-winning documentary Citizenfour (2014), which is a much more powerful movie. But in that film, the real Snowden is all business, while Stone's version at least offers a warmer side to the whistleblower. Together, the two movies could provide a more complete picture of who he really is. Stone finishes Snowden with a coda that's designed to inspire, but it feels a little light and perhaps not as relevant as it once might have been.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about whether Edward Snowden is a role model . Was what he did illegal? Heroic? What do you think you'd have done in his position?

How does this movie compare to Citizenfour , the documentary about Snowden? What does it show that the documentary couldn't? What did the documentary show that Snowden couldn't?

How is sex portrayed in the movie? Is it gratuitous? Parents, talk to your teens about your own values regarding sex and relationships.

The movie brings up issues related to privacy and U.S. citizens' rights. How important is privacy to you?

Have you ever been punished for doing something that you felt was the right thing? Why? Would you do it again?

Movie Details

• In theaters : September 16, 2016
• On DVD or streaming : December 27, 2016
• Cast : Joseph Gordon-Levitt , Shailene Woodley , Melissa Leo
• Director : Oliver Stone
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Open Road Films
• Genre : Drama
• Topics : History
• Run time : 134 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : language and some sexuality/nudity
• Last updated : May 26, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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• The Snowden Files

• See all credits
• "The big problem with 'Snowden' (...) is that it’s earnest, decorous, and — dare we say — a tad dull."  Stephen Farber : The Hollywood Reporter
• "'Snowden' could have been a character portrait, but instead it's like 'The Bourne Identity' minus the chases and fights, which is like a ham and cheese sandwich minus the ham and cheese (...) Rating: ★½ (out of four)"  Kyle Smith : New York Post
• "['Snowden'] sticks to the surface and buries the provocation (...) Stone strands us in biopic territory, which is no place for his rabid gifts as a filmmaker (...) Rating: ★★ (out of four)"  Peter Travers : Rolling Stone
• "'Snowden' isn’t just the director’s most exciting work since 'Nixon' (1995) — it’s the most important and galvanizing political drama by an American filmmaker in years (...) The movie has a deep-focus perspective, and a spine-tingling immediacy."  Owen Gleiberman : Variety
• "'Snowden' is a superbly crafted, engrossing film that, while making no bones about admiring the central character’s actions and motivations, doesn’t go to visual or psychological extremes to make its case (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of four)"  Ann Hornaday : The Washington Post
• "For viewers who never saw 'Citizenfour', and perhaps have only a vague idea of who he is, what he revealed, and why he did it, then it's quite likely that 'Snowden' will provide an eye-opening experience."  Alonso Duralde : The Wrap
• "Mr. Stone has made an honorable and absorbing contribution to the imaginative record of our confusing times. He tells a story (...) discreetly embellishing the record in the service of drama and suspense."  A. O. Scott : The New York Times
• Show 3 more reviews
• 86 My Top 10 Movies from 2016 (38)

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Edward Snowden: Traitor or Hero?

Was Edward Snowden’s release of confidential government documents ethically justifiable?

In 2013, computer expert and former CIA systems administrator, Edward Snowden released confidential government documents to the press about the existence of government surveillance programs. According to many legal experts, and the U.S. government, his actions violated the Espionage Act of 1917, which identified the leak of state secrets as an act of treason. Yet despite the fact that he broke the law, Snowden argued that he had a moral obligation to act. He gave a justification for his “whistleblowing” by stating that he had a duty “to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them.” According to Snowden, the government’s violation of privacy had to be exposed regardless of legality.

Many agreed with Snowden. Jesselyn Radack of the Government Accountability Project defended his actions as ethical, arguing that he acted from a sense of public good. Radack said:

“Snowden may have violated a secrecy agreement, which is not a loyalty oath but a contract, and a less important one than the social contract a democracy has with its citizenry.”

Others argued that even if he was legally culpable, he was not ethically culpable because the law itself was unjust and unconstitutional.

The Attorney General of the United States, Eric Holder, did not find Snowden’s rationale convincing. Holder stated:

“He broke the law. He caused harm to our national security and I think that he has to be held accountable for his actions.”

Journalists were conflicted about the ethical implications of Snowden’s actions. The editorial board of The New York Times stated, “He may have committed a crime…but he has done his country a great service.” In an Op-ed in the same newspaper, Ed Morrissey argued that Snowden was not a hero, but a criminal: “by leaking information about the behavior rather than reporting it through legal channels, Snowden chose to break the law.” According to Morrissey, Snowden should be prosecuted for his actions, arguing that his actions broke a law “intended to keep legitimate national-security data and assets safe from our enemies; it is intended to keep Americans safe.”

Discussion Questions

1. What values are in conflict in this case? What harm did Snowden cause? What benefits did his actions bring?

2. Do you agree that Snowden’s actions were ethically justified even if legally prohibited? Why or why not? Make an argument by weighing the competing values in this case.

3. If you were in Snowden’s position, what would you have done and why?

4. Would you change your position if you knew that Snowden’s leak would lead to a loss of life among CIA operatives? What about if it would save lives?

5. Is there a circumstance in which you think whistleblowing would be ethically ideal? How about ethically prohibited?

Related Videos

Causing Harm

Causing harm explores the types of harm that may be caused to people or groups and the potential reasons we may have for justifying these harms.

Bibliography

Whistle-Blowers Deserve Protection Not Prison http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/06/11/in-nsa-leak-case-a-whistle-blower-or-a-criminal/whistle-blowers-deserve-protection-not-prison

Eric Holder: If Edward Snowden were open to plea, we’d talk http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/eric-holder-edward-snowden-plea-102530.html

Edward Snowden: Whistleblower http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/02/opinion/edward-snowden-whistle-blower.html?_r=0

Edward Snowden Broke the Law and should be Prosecuted http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/06/11/in-nsa-leak-case-a-whistle-blower-or-a-criminal/edward-snowden-broke-the-law-and-should-be-prosecuted

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Watch Snowden with a subscription on Max, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

What to Know

Snowden boasts a thrilling fact-based tale and a solid lead performance from Joseph Gordon-Levitt, even if director Oliver Stone saps the story of some of its impact by playing it safe.

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