I'm baffled by the Edward Snowden story, if I'm honest. Here we have a guy who leaked classified information from the government, thus exposing that there's illegal mass surveillance going on without our permission. The government, with the most tenuous of reasons, can then access our phones, webcams, emails, etc - both historically and in real time - to see what we're up to. Snowden is now one of the most wanted men in the world. And...we all seem ok about this? Maybe a bit disgruntled, but I don't see anyone decrying technology and going to live off the grid. Here I am blogging about a film about it.
And how do we feel about Snowden anyways? He's exposed a major governmental and international surveillance scheme (well, that's good right?). And now he's sought refuge in Russia, and Putin has granted him asylum (wait, aren't Russia the bad guys?). Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and Barack Obama have spoken out against Snowden's actions (those guys don't really agree on anything, do they?).
That said, the government have acknowledged that they want to avoid another major terrorist event like 9/11 and so it's important to be able to quickly access any information on any person for any related reason, no matter how tenuous that reason...
If the enemy of my enemy is my friend, then what does any of this mean?
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| Ponder... |
Let's just look at the film...
Joseph Gordon Levitt plays the lead role in this Oliver Stone film, based on The Snowden Files and Time of the Octopus. The film provides some biographical background into Snowden, and how injury meant he left the army, came to work for the NSA, and discovered the illegal mass surveillance operations being performed without the knowledge of the public, post 9-11. This interweaves with "present day" Snowden feeding this information secretly to journalists Glenn Greenwald (Tom Wilkinson) and Laura Poitras (Melissa Leo) so the information can be made public.
The cast is impressive, and it feels like these actors (including Nicholas Cage, Rhys Ifans, Shailene Woodley, and Zachary Quinto) are all making a tacit acknowledgement that they stand with Snowden in protest of the governments overarching surveillance programme. That it is an Oliver Stone film feels like it should be a more bombastic affair, screaming about injustice and controversy, but this film feels like it's come and gone as quietly as the story of Snowden itself. Why is this not grabbing more attention?
In some ways, it's a bit like I, Daniel Blake, inasmuch as it's a film with a message to convey, rather than a story to tell. And bits of that story become clunky in trying to get the message across. An early conversation between Snowden and his girlfriend Lindsey Mills seems like a series of straw man arguments about privacy in order to make a point. The film quietly nudges us to remember all the ways in which we are surveyed in our day to day lives - from webcams and texts, to the websites we access, to CCTV and GPS. For me, there was a more interesting story in what was happening to Snowden personally as he tried to come to terms with all he was discovering - his relationships suffer, his physical health suffers, his mental health suffers, and he becomes increasingly paranoid that he is being watched (although, arguably, is it paranoia if someone really is watching you?) A chilling moment comes near the end of the film, when Snowden admits to his NSA mentor Corbin O'Brian (Rhys Ifans) that he is worried that his girlfriend is cheating on him - O'Brian tells him not to worry about it - he's already checked Lindsey's social media, texts and emails. He can guarantee she's not.
I feel I should be leaving this film incensed. But I'm not. This is an important story, and it hasn't been well told. In fact, I'm advised that Citizenfour is the one to watch to get a better factual understanding of this story as a whole. So let's look that one out instead.
But I did leave the film feeling paranoid. I can be traced to the cinema, from the CCTV that was there when I walked in. I can be traced to the film from the details accessed on my cinema card. Even the food I ate can be traced by the details on my receipt and bank card. And as soon as the credits started, all the cinema screens in the cinema went off unexpectedly...
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| Legitimate wear for the 21st century? |
True story.
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