Interesting, If True

Rating: 7/10 (17 September 2016)

I saw "Snowden", Joseph Gordon-Levitt-The Walk, Halloween H20:20 Years Later; Zachary Quinto-Spock in the new Star Trek movies, American Horror Story_tv; Shailene Woodley-The Divergent movies, The Secret Life of the American Teenager_tv and Rhys Ifans-Alice Through the Looking Glass, Elementary_tv.
This is based on the true story about Ed Snowden, who leaked secrets to the press that he had taken while working for the NSA. You might have heard a little about it. He is living in Russia now, trying to avoid treason charges from America. There was never any doubt about what he did. The hitch is that the NSA, C.I.A.-and a lot of other agencies with initials-say that it is treason to leak sensitive, top secret info to the public, but the info that he leaked was that these agencies were spying on people, using their cell phones and personal computers- including American citizens-without there knowledge. It is known in some circles as illegal surveillance techniques. Joseph plays Snowden, Shailene plays his girlfriend, Zachary plays a reporter that helps break the story and Rhys plays one of Joseph's teachers in his C.I.A. training classes. The story covers 2004 through 2013, beginning with Joseph in basic training as a soldier. After an accident he joins the C.I.A. as a computer analyst-he had a high I.Q.-and then works his way through to the NSA. This is all kind of amazing since he dropped out of high school-because of financial reasons-and basically taught himself everything. It's directed by Oliver Stone, who has a reputation as a conspiracy enthusiast-so this is an interesting story, if it is all true. There are several good cameos; I remember seeing Timothy Olyphant, Scott Eastwood and Nicolas Cage in small but memorable roles. At the end of the movie the actual Snowden is shown in interview footage. It's rated "R" for language and sexual content-including nudity-and has a running time of 2 hours & 14 minutes. I wouldn't buy it on DVD-one viewing was fine-but it would be a great rental.