Snowden (2016)

Directed by: Oliver Stone

Written by: Kieran Fitzgerald, Oliver Stone, Anatoly Kucherena (book), & Luke Harding (book)

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt




If you haven't heard about Snowden, he is a man in which the government hates.  From my understanding he revealed to the public that the government has been secretly spying on us through our phones, computers, and more.  They have their own database that can reveal everything about a person.  Crazy stuff, but I believe it.

Anyway, that's what the film is about.  Based on a true story, Snowden (Gordon-Levitt) goes through life starting in the army to various government agencies such as the FBI, CIA, etc...  He learns an enormous amount of information and has to decide on his own morals whether to reveal to the public what he has learned or to keep going with his highly stressed life in the government.

I thought the concept of the film was very interesting.  I was intrigued to know more, but the way it was put together was boring.  I fell asleep at least twice and so did the person I went with.  We had to go get a soda, it was that bad.  I think the main thing about why I fell asleep is because there was a lot of talking and repetition of Gordon-Levitt deciding if he should or shouldn't.  For a person's life, it makes sense to go back and forth about a big decision.  But for a movie?  I don't think so.

Another issue is that it had too much information to where it made it a little confusing.  I can tell you the beginning and the end, but as for the details of what Snowden and the government knew, I'm lost.  I don't know all of the tech lingo nor the government lingo.  If you do, then you'll probably love this film, but I'm not one of those people.  2 popcorns.