Snowden is a 2016 American-German biographical political thriller film directed by Oliver Stone and written by Stone and Kieran Fitzgerald. The film is based on the books The Snowden Files by Luke Harding and Time of the Octopus by Anatoly Kucherena. The cast includes Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, Tom Wilkinson, Scott Eastwood, Logan Marshall-Green, Timothy Olyphant, Ben Schnetzer, LaKeith Lee Stanfield, Rhys Ifans and Nicolas Cage.
Movie Details :
- Directed by : Oliver Stone
- Produced by : Moritz Borman, Eric Kopeloff, Philip Schulz-Deyle, Fernando Sulichin
- Screenplay by : Kieran Fitzgerald, Oliver Stone
- Based on : The Snowden Files by Luke Harding, Time of the Octopus by Anatoly Kucherena
- Starring : Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley, Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, Tom Wilkinson, Scott Eastwood, Logan Marshall-Green, Timothy Olyphant, Ben Schnetzer, LaKeith Lee Stanfield, Rhys Ifans, Nicolas Cage
- Music by : Craig Armstrong
- Cinematography : Anthony Dod Mantle
- Edited by : Alex Marquez, Lee Percy
- Production companies : Endgame Entertainment, Wild Bunch, KrautPack Entertainment, Onda Entertainment, Vendian Entertainment
- Distributed by : Open Road Films
Synopsis :
The film follows Edward Snowden, an American computer professional who leaked classified information from the National Security Agency to The Guardian in June 2013.
Snowden Movie Review :
Snowden (2016) Hollywood Movie Review By Variety
The movie has a deep-focus perspective, and a spine-tingling immediacy. It ends with the real Snowden, who Stone interviewed in Moscow, where he is still living under asylum. He’s presented in a glow of heroism, followed by headlines about how much influence he has had (the new laws restricting mass gathering of data, etc.). Yet Snowden’s presence only reminds us of how unfinished this story is. The real message of “Snowden” is that surveillance is a Pandora’s Box. You may leave the movie grateful for everything that Edward Snowden brought to light, but also wondering if that box can ever be closed.
Full Review
Snowden (2016) Hollywood Movie Review By New York Daily News
I didn’t enjoy this film as much as “The Doors,” but Edward Snowden is no Jim Morrison. Snowden is also still alive. What happens next for him is a very live and interesting question. You might not agree with Stone that the man is a hero, but you probably do want to see the film so you can compute what the whole uproar was about.
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Snowden (2016) Hollywood Movie Review By The A.V. Club
One of the details from Citizenfour that Stone borrows has Snowden cover his entire body with a blanket every time he uses his laptop, to ensure that no unknown camera can pick up his password from the movement of his fingers on the keys. Snowden is like an entire movie made beneath that blanket. It inadvertently deadens material that—as we’ve already seen—should thrum with nervous energy.
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Snowden (2016) Hollywood Movie Review By The Verge
For audiences that aren’t as familiar with the story, Stone is able to mythologize the man’s conflict in terms that everyone can appreciate it: love of country, love of privacy, concern for the people that are closest to us. But that’s not the same thing as creating something electric and memorable, that will drive fierce debate. The issues that Snowden raises are without question some of the biggest issues of our times — but a movie this safe won’t leave anybody thinking about them.
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Snowden (2016) Hollywood Movie Review By The Hollywood Reporter
Stone’s direction is measured, methodical, and totally lacking in the fire and flamboyance that sometimes electrified and sometimes ruined his earlier films. The story moves along without any real sense of urgency or suspense.
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Snowden (2016) Hollywood Movie Review By The Guardian
In his dry and uninvolving dramatic take, Stone has made a film aimed at breaking out Snowden’s story to the masses but it’s made with such limpness that a swift read of his Wikipedia page will prove far more exciting.
Full Review
Rating : 2/5
Snowden (2016) Hollywood Movie Review By Rogere Bert
Stone’s film falters with the relationship drama involving Snowden and Shailene Woodley’s Lindsay Mills. Both actors do their best to make these scenes connect, but some moments feel like they came out of another movie and the pair doesn’t quite have the right chemistry to make them effective. I understand the intention—to balance the inordinate number of sequences in front of computer screens with a flesh and blood dynamic—but they just don’t work, partially due to flat dialogue but also because they don’t have the energy of the rest of the film.
Full Review
Rating : 3/5
Snowden (2016) Hollywood Movie Review By Rolling Stone
Disappointingly, Stone reduces an ethical quagmire to one easily digestible question: Is the U.S. justified in spying on its own citizens in the name of national security? Larger, thornier implications are ignored. Yet it’s those implications, the ones that pit transparency against covert geopolitics, that are more worth exploring than biographical sleuthing. Snowden himself agrees. On screen, he says flatly: “I’m not the story.” Tell that to Stone, who sticks to the surface and buries the provocation.
Full Review
Rating : 2/4
Trailer :
Snowden (2016) Hollywood Movie Review
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