Snowden: Lost in the World of George Orwell

Rating: Null/10 (17 September 2016)

"Snowden" is directed by Oliver Stone with a stylish approach to a story that could have been written by George Orwell. Stone transports the audience visually into the world of underground security facilities and inside the computers themselves. The result is the nightmare of a national power elite that controls human freedom and civil liberties not by the Constitution, but by modern technology.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is outstanding the role of the self-taught computer prodigy Edward Snowden. Gordon-Levitt hits all the right notes in bringing complexity and an arc of development to an idealistic young man, who throughout his young career and his whistleblowing experience is naive about his goal of making a difference in the world.
There is a stunning scene in the home stretch of the film when Snowden is having a conversation with his CIA mentor, Corbin O'Brian, who is brilliantly played by Rhys Ifans. It is no coincidence that the fictional character O'Brian is the namesake of the villain of Orwell's dystopian novel "1984," who is also called O'Brien. At the beginning of the scene it is appears that O'Brian and Snowden are in the same room. But as the dialogue progresses, it becomes clear that O'Brian is speaking to Snowden on a large projection screen, informing the young man that he has essentially used the technology Snowden has helped to perfect to inform on the personal life of Snowden's girlfriend. The chilling effect of the scene is that of recreating Orwell's concept of "Big Brother."
Another strength of the film was the thoughtful screenplay that effectively portrayed Snowden in his own words in conversation with journalist Glenn Greenwald and documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras. There was a cinéma vérité approach to the story that seemed perfect for the film's theme of the abuses of the law by the United States government.
"Snowden" is a story that needs to be told. The unanswered question of the film is whether or not the case of Edward Snowden will bring about reform. Can we get some sanity in the uses of technology in the intelligence community? Or will we continue to descend into the vortex of the totalitarian world described by George Orwell over sixty years ago?