Snowden Will Make You Think

Rating: 8/10 (22 August 2017)

I don't usually have a great deal of respect for Stone's movies but Snowden is another matter. Seems maybe Stone has matured as a movie maker and not showing off as much as some earlier works suggest. This story gives us good reason to think far more about our leaders and the power of current high tech surveillance. It's to be hoped Snowden's motives were as well intended and idealistically slanted towards concerns for the general populace as we are being shown. If so, I salute him and Stone for this work.
Interesting performances, great use of fine photographic technique and a thoughtful music score are a plus for this, at times unsettling movie. The Obama administration, as many of us knew, have much to explain and make amends for. Perhaps the reason this movie was not as popular as expected is that there have been many similarly themed works over the past several years that just may have come out too close to each other. On top of this, the dumbing down of some audiences with comic book type blockbusters never helps intelligent fare to gain strong circulation. As people learn more about these situations, I imagine this movie will benefit from more recognition. Recommended for thinking folk. Language is typical of other Stone works but the original, based on fact story, helps make up for some of it.