Oliver Stone is back, doing what he does best

Rating: 8/10 (29 September 2016)

I just got home from the preview of the film that had Oliver Stone and one of the producers of the film present, to be interviewed and to talk about the film and Edward Snowden in general. It was shown in Colosseum cinema in Oslo (Norway) which is the biggest THX certified cinema in the world. So they could not have chosen a better place to launch their new piece.
But this is not really only Oliver Stones piece, more so it's a movie that is crafted after several interviews done with Edward Snowden. Oliver Stone traveled nine times to Russia to talk to him, and one of those times he took Gordon-Levitt with him to let them meet. The film script has then been molded around everything Snowden has told them, making the story as authentic to the truth as they possibly could.
I am a big supporter of Edward Snowden and has never doubted his intentions. I have always thought he did the right thing, and i was therefor really excited for what this movie would tell us that we didn't already know. For those, including me, that have seen "Citizenfour" and followed this case in the media, we already know a lot about Edward Snowden and why he did what he did.
I got to say, this film reminds me of the glory days of Oliver Stone, with great films like "Platoon" and "JFK". Oliver Stone has been on a sort of a downward spiral for years, making not so good films like "W.", "World Trade Center", "Wall street: Money never sleeps" and "Alexander", he has finally now returned to what he does best. But he already gave us "a hint" of his greatness with his absolutely brilliant 10 episode documentary series "The Untold History Of The United States" which was released in 2013. If you haven't seen that, see it now.
Most of us already know what the story in this film is about, So i wont go into any details about that, but in short USA is monitoring "everything", reading normal peoples private emails, looking at them live through their webcams and so on, without them knowing any of it. And are doing it on a scale so massive it cannot be justified, no matter how you look at it.
After working for CIA and NSA for years, Snowden did what he had to do, he could no longer sit silent and let this go unnoticed. Snowden thinks the public has the right to know that their country is spying on them, spending tens of billions of dollars storing their lives digitally for all future, so he copies the files, smuggles them out and give it to reporters. And now he has to spend his life on the run, like a criminal, an outlaw without a country, forced to hide.
I think, even after watching this film, many people won't understand the scale and the importance of what has happened here. It is simply to big to comprehend for many. People are willing to sacrifice their privacy for a little more security, not understanding what they are giving up, and how little they get in return. Not to mention what will happen if all this data ends up in the wrong hands, this is basically every dictators wet dream.
But despite the fact Snowden is now on the run, hiding from the very people he tried to help, and has lost his normal life, Edward Snowden has never felt more free than he is now, revealing this to the public lifted an enormous burden off his shoulders, and we should forever be grateful for what he has done.
Oliver Stone shares my views on Edward Snowden and has managed to make a really good film out of this, he explains the system so that most people can understand it. And he is doing a fine job centering Snowden at the core, driving the story forward, brilliantly portrayed by Gordon-Levitt. It took only minutes for me to forget that i was watching him act, all i saw was Snowden himself. And most of the other actors and actresses delivers solid and good performances as well. The movie accomplishes to keep the nerve the whole way through.
The weak parts of the film however, is the portrayal of Edward Snowdens love life with his girlfriend Lindsay Mills. These scenes feels forced at times, and they are there to remind us what Snowden actually was risking giving up. I get that, but i already know what he gave up. The scenes are to short and to few to work the way they were intended. They are not bad scenes, but they don't hold the standard to the rest of the film which is done really well and clever.
My final words, this is an important film, and should be seen by everyone. Edward Snowden is a highly intelligent, normal, shy, neighborhood guy, that just happened to end up working for the biggest agencies in the world, working on some of the most highly classified systems that ever existed. Snowden is a hero, and he deserves recognition.
8/10 - Good