Film tries too hard to make Snowden a hero
SEPTEMBER 22, 2016
JOSEPH DOUMIT
The new biopic Snowden .. is a film about one of the .. most famous .. dissidents .. by a filmmaker .. celebrated for his .. dissidence. It should be a match made in cinematic heaven. So why isnt it? ...
... we meet the titular character .. in basic training .. with montage of mud, bunk-beds, climbing-towers and an angry, African-American drill sergeant ... When .. forced to leave that career path due to injury, he applies for a position at the CIAs cyber-security division. Soon after, he is in a classroom where his teacher .. is setting them a task .. supposed to take four hours. After forty minutes of rapid typing, Edward shuffles up to OBrians desk and, in .. best Kermit the Frog, tells him hes finished.
Around this point you realise youre not watching an espionage thriller, but a biopic about a man in his mere thirties, and .. not a very good one. How many times have we seen basic training in the mud? Or the classroom where the student finishes the exam obnoxiously early? How about the one where the hero meets the love of his life .. online? Shes an amateur photographer and fitness-oriented-pole-dancer whos politically left-leaning. They disagree, right, but they love each other anyway.
Heres a crazy idea: Edward Snowden, as a person, might just be a boring guy ...
http://iris.theaureview.com/film-review-snowden-usa-2016-tries-too-hard-to-make-edward-snowden-look-like-a-hero/
hotrod0808
(323 posts)Some of it was plodding, some of it was exciting. I saw it with my future step-daughter, who is 15 and coming into her own thoughts on ethics and politics, and she enjoyed it as well.
Arazi
(6,829 posts)ancianita
(35,812 posts)I lived as an adult during all the times Stone made his movies about. He's never lied.
I also don't think Stone makes movies about boring people.
BainsBane
(53,001 posts)That's all I need to know to avoid it.