Snowden (2016) * *

Directed by:  Oliver Stone

Starring:  Joseph Gordon Levitt, Shailene Woodley, Rhys Ifans, Nicolas Cage, Zachary Quinto, Melissa Leo, Tom Wilkinson, Scott Eastwood

Oliver Stone is no stranger to stories involving people who come to question their governments in the search for truth and justice.     Edward Snowden, a government whistleblower who blew the lid off illegal U.S. government surveillance, fits the mold of a Ron Kovic (Born on the Fourth of July) or a Jim Garrison (JFK).     He is at first a true believer in all the nation stands for.   Over time, though, his belief in the system erodes to the point in which he performs a loud and meaningful act of protest against the government he once served without question.     For Snowden, he turned over evidence of illegal government surveillance against everyday citizens to documentarian Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald, which formed the basis of the Oscar-winning documentary Citizenfour.  
He is also living in Russia under political asylum and the threat of extradition, an ironic reversal of the Cold War days in which Russian citizens would defect to the U.S. 

All of this sounds like it would be powerful and moving like Born on the Fourth of July or JFK, but Snowden is muted.    Joseph Gordon Levitt looks and sounds like the real Snowden, who shows up in a cameo at the end, but we don't see who is inside.    We don't feel his internal struggle.    In fact, the only we can determine if he feels anything is when he tells us.    Rarely has a Stone hero been so devoid of personality or juice.    It's as if Levitt didn't want to disturb his nearly perfect imitation of the real man.

We pick up Snowden's story in Army basic training circa 2004.    Due to a broken leg and a degenerative bone condition, Snowden is unable to continue his military career, but he is a wiz with computers and begins working for the NSA and later as an independent contractor.     He begins a long-term relationship with Tiffany Mills (Woodley), which has its ups, downs, breakups, and reconciliations.    Her primary function is to complain to Edward about how his job is killing him, he keeps too many secrets, we don't communicate anymore...etc.     Edward learns about the NSA's various surveillance programs keeping tabs on ordinary citizens.    This shocks him (I think), but the only time he springs into action and arranges a meeting with Poitras and Greenwald in a Hong Kong hotel is when the government not so subtly implies that they spy on he and Tiffany.

While it is possible Snowden's reasons for his whistleblowing were caused by a deep outrage against the government, Stone's version of events seems to suggest that if that dummy boss of Edward's didn't open his yap about Tiffany, then Snowden would have gone right on being a programmer with a lot of information at his fingertips.     Maybe this is why Snowden's sudden conversion from loyal NSA employee to moralistic whistleblower isn't convincing in this film.    It seems he only cared when it became personal for him.   

Because of this, Stone's film doesn't carry the gravitas of his angrier, more powerful films.    We are expected to be outraged because we are told to be more so than we are moved to be.     Edward Snowden is simply too stoic and passive to be a true purveyor of change.   When Ron Kovic finally joins the anti-Vietnam war effort after years of soul searching, we understand how his journey led him there.    When Jim Garrison finally declares "I've been sleeping for three years," and openly questions the Warren Report findings of Kennedy's assassination, we see how nagging questions became truths he simply couldn't ignore anymore.   

I haven't seen Citizenfour, but maybe I should.    Perhaps it will grant me some greater insight into Snowden that this film doesn't really provide.    Perhaps it will connect the dots for me and show me more what led Snowden to become ground zero in the worldwide discussion of what people will give up for their security.     It turns out quite a lot.    The post 9/11 world is all the proof you need.