There -- in the city of Hong Kong -- he had meetings with several
people whom he'd chosen to publicly reveal the documents he had
purloined from the secret files of the NSA data ports, which he -- as
analyst for Booz Allen Hamilton -- had become privy to.
Snowden
was twenty-nine, incredibly adept at perusing the whole scope of secrecy
that exists in all the data that is collected every second of every
minute of every day of each year. He maintained that The Government has
been able -- since The Patriot Act was signed right after 9/11 -- to
justify in the name of security the collecting of all data that occurs
when you and I use our charge cards, cell phones and meet any other
persons wherever cameras happen to be whirring. Apparently there are
billions of people who could well be in Government files. Someone right
now might be watching you and me as we talk about Citizenfour.
When
Ed Snowden decided to go public with all the information he had: in his
own words, he wanted to do it in as much of a responsible way as he
could. He got in touch with Laura Pointras-a filmmaker who had produced
several films already that were concerned with the facts about American
involvements that she felt needed truthful revelations. Snowden knew of
Laura-he had seen her on a Watch List that was in one of the files that
NSA held. He e-mailed her -- using the name Citizenfour. He was able to
convince her he was no flake. She, in turn, quite wisely, contacted a
well-known well-respected journalist by the name of Glenn Greenwald.
The
film opens primarily with the three of them in the hotel room of Ed
Snowden-so cramped that Ed is giving them many days of interviews while
propped on a pillow or sitting upright in bed. It's probably the first
ever interview that was filmed before the world, itself, had yet to hear
what the news was. Of course, countless hours were devoted to the
interviews, and -- as film viewers -- we witness two of them. But it's
an enlightening profile of the mind and heart of a man who'd chosen to
be the sacrificial lamb for what he saw as evil.
The film does
show other folks-from the President on down-speaking in stern defense or
denial of what Snowden is accusing: that the U.S. Government has
undertaken massive collections of data without people in the U.S. being
forewarned of it... The American folk had understood that these actions
of surveillance by the NSA or other agencies were done only in order to
keep an eye on terrorist suspects. Surveillance went a lot further --
according to Snowden's interviews with Greenwald.
As film drama, I
think the whole thrust of Citizenfour is spellbinding and raw. The
chemistry between Greenwald and Snowden works quite well. Glenn's a man
of the world-residing in Brazil mostly-speaking Portuguese with an air
of fluency-and having a reputation for journalistic depth: he publishes
Snowden's release in The Washington Post. A similar report also appeared
in The Guardian with English review.
What came of all this has
not been reported yet- other than the way the whole world reacted to the
news that friendly countries as well as those not so friendly had been
subjects of data collection on a plane never before contemplated. All
kinds of memos were distributed world-wide.
The film ends with Ed
Snowden and his girlfriend standing in their Moscow apartment kitchen
cooking stew in a pot. They have been given one full year of asylum in
Russia. From there no one knows...
The filming that Laura Poitras
executes is first-rate -- although her opening scenes showing encrypted
communications back and forth between her and Snowden were hard for me
to read- and I think a clearer format could have worked much better.
When filmmakers get so used to what they're doing, I think they lose
track of the fact that viewers are seeing their work for the first time.
But surely one gets her scheme of it all: is to build a circle of
suspense in which the three of these principals must secretly devise a
way to meet without anybody suspecting it.
... Whether Edward
Snowden is hero or villain- whether he is one who deserves praise or
imprisonment- is not discussed herein. He has expressed his concern that
the American soul should not be besmirched with practices that go
contrary to its believing in freedom and privacy. Personally, I am
always a bit reluctant to jump on the wagon of a guy who acts
unselfishly. It's a noble sounding creed to help inform folks- but often
it helps them little and causes others a lot of unblemished harm.
Truths get exposed; and then later things somehow revert back to where
they were before.
There's a stasis about the world that never lets
one man's revelation transform the conduct of others, so that good
reigns from there on out. But bless any man whose conscience propels him
to speak truth. And the way Ed Snowden tells it, he wants us to know
what's going on with data. Perhaps, if you see him and Citizenfour,
you'll at least learn what you might not know.
As far as my grade I am torn between seven and eight: call it SEVEN PLUS.
What My Grade Grants:
8.) "About as good as it could get."
7.) "Lacking that bit of excellence."
6.) "Somehow it just didn't work well."
5.) "I have to feel bad about it."
4.) "All that work and nothing to show."
