Oliver Stone's Snowden- a worthy biopic of an international hero

I'll admit now that Edward Snowden is one of my obsessions, he is a fascinating figure both politically and personally. A lone rebel who managed to flee the long arms of American law enforcement through guile, luck and belief in a cause. The leaks of NSA sureveillance programmes and documents which opened our eyes internationally to how Orwellian our lives have become was perhaps one of the most important acts by any individual of the last century. Oliver Stone also happens to be one of my favourite directors, so when I found out he would be making a biopic about Snowden I was more than a little excited.

One of the striking things is Joseph Gordon Levitt's performance. He is slightly uncanny and a little unnerving in his ability to mimic Snowden's soft yet confident North Carolina draw, the small nervous mannerisms and restrained yet sincere manner of holding himself. I had reservations when I first heard he was cast but he actually does a really impressive job, probably making this his best performance since the much loved 500 Days of Summer. The first arc of the film mainly focuses on establishing Snowden as a patriotic walk the line type of guy, he doesn't drink or do drugs and wants to serve in Iraq for the special forces, he's awkard with people, especially the opposite sex. A far-cry from the confident dissident that would captivate the world a few years later. It feels a little slow but pleasantly so, the time spent setting up his background and relationships with CIA agents is an important bedrock for the later acts. Nicholas Cage delivers a solid and charasmatic performance as Hank Foreseter, the kooky and alienated tech genius that befriends a young Snowden. His character's fall from grace and slightly more morally questioning character attracts Snowden, and foreshadows his future well. Some critics felt Cage and Rhys Ifans, who plays the enigmatic and morally gray CIA mentor, were miscast and delivered wooden caricatured performances. I'd argue they actually provided great supporting performances, the film is the retelling of events by Snowden to reporters in Hong Kong, the characters feel like his rememberance of them. Establishing Snowden's life, which was comfortable, his close relationships, helps give weight to the sacrifice he makes. It highlights how easily he could have turned a blind eye, taken the easier road.

However, it is in the second half of the film that it really packs a punch and picks up pace. We see Snowden involved in sleazy field operations in Geneva, slowly being introduced to the most secretive amoral operations of the NSA's snooping and entrapment methods. We see his hopes, like ours raised by the election of President Obama, his girlfriend acting as a brilliant counterfoil to Snowden's burgeoning love of the secret service, in many ways representing his conscience and simultaneously his desire for a normal life. One of the most poignant moments and the turning point being when he explains why he went back to secret service work "..because of Obama actually, I thought things were going to be better...I was wrong". After this the film continues to pick up pace in a slow burning thriller rather than action movie way, the cinematography is really fluid and there are some stand out shots (for example a reflection of Snowden talking in a camera lens when first meeting the journalists from the Guardian). Critics have called it overly "Hollywoodised" but actually for all it's big budget this film has a very indie feeling, they haven't turned Snowden into Jack Bauer and the most moving parts of the scenes regard internal conflicts and moral choices. One particularly tear jerking treat comes when Snowden himself makes a guest experience to speak about what he gave up in Hawaii, his family, a promising career and the love of his life, but it was all worth it to do the right thing. Sure they could have done more about the techhnology or it would have been nice to see more about his family background, yet there was always going to be some editing to this larger than life true story. What Stone has done by using the book written by Snowden's lawyer and the Snowden files as basis for his screenplay is a nice insight into what it means to follow morality and principle and a small glimpse further into the elusive, hard to define figure that is Edward Snowden.