And what they’re doing is illegal, and they keep doing it… Someone out there could be collecting metadata from you.
Advertisement
Gordon-Levitt said he was warned against portraying Snowden in the Oliver Stone directed film, but said he couldn’t say no to the role after reading up on him. The following is a look at the inaccuracies between Stone’s film “Snowden” to be released this month and the actual truth behind Edward Snowden’s story.
Ahead of an upcoming Oliver Stone film about Snowden’s whistleblowing and exile in Russian Federation in 2013, the campaign is calling for a presidential pardon for the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor before President Obama leaves office. Former candidate and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, on the other hand, wants to find a way for Snowden to avoid a long prison sentence.
He labels himself a whistle blower, but critics call him a traitor.
In the film, Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as the infamous whistle blower, and does a terrific job at it. The movie gets this balance right by keeping nearly all of the dialogue in plain English, but throwing in just enough hacker talk to remind us the characters are hard-core computer guys.
It took the pair a few visits in Russian Federation, where Snowden is now living in asylum, before either of them were ready to turn his story into a major Hollywood production. Federal courts in the USA found the NSA went far beyond its authority by eavesdropping on millions of Americans without any links to terrorism, and on hundreds of millions more around the world.
Snowden is Stone’s latest triumph.
Stone’s depiction of this was good, but not great.
“The congressman believes Edward Snowden should be held accountable for his actions”, Moffet said. The film neglects to spend as much time as it should addressing these issues. It’s fair to say we owe these necessary reforms to Mr. Snowden.
As a result, the whole thing feels very safe, and a little bit underwhelming.
The Pardon Snowden campaign, launched by three human rights groups, replied with a thanking note.
Nicolas Cage also provides some needed comic relief as Hank Forrester, in a classic Nic Cage performance that showcases why everyone should both love and hate him at the same time. The story Stone is choosing to tell is what led a 29-year-old government contractor to abandon everything in order to share that conspiracy with the world.
“The most important is not the actions of Snowden, but rather a wealth of information he revealed”.
That apparently is the subtext of “Snowden”, Stone’s movie.
“Being patriotic doesn’t simply mean agreeing with your government”, said Snowden. After all, letting the people decide what’s right always was Snowden’s goal.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey became the first CEO of a publically listed tech company to join the call for the return of Edward Snowden from his self-imposed exile in Russian Federation.
Advertisement
“Worse – far worse – he also leaked details of basically defensible global intelligence operations: cooperation with Scandinavian services against Russian Federation; spying on the wife of an Osama bin Laden associate; and certain offensive cyber operations in China”, the editorial said. Just a quiet guy who’s probably really uncomfortable at parties, but is nice enough when you get him to open up.
