ironhorse_iv
Nobody likes being spy on. If you do, then there is something wrong with you. For some of us, hearing the news that the US government has been spying on its citizens in the Americas and its allies for years from an ex-National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, is shocking and disturbing. For others, it was not that surprising, seeing how many have lived under the fear of government infiltration since the days where the Patriot Act was created in 2001. For me, while, the documentary didn't bring much of anything new to the table, that I haven't known for years, because of William Binney, Chelsea Manning, Wikileaks, Anonymous, and other underground websites. I thought, no matter what, Snowden's actions on June 2013 did make big news around the world, as it spark a sense of public awareness of the illegal wiretapping practices of the NSA and other intelligence agencies. This documentary really does captured those moments, with the black computer coded texting narrative in the beginning, and how director Laura Poitras, along with investigative journalists Glenn Greenwald and Ewan MacAskill of 'the Guardian', a British newspaper, agree to meet with Edward Snowden AKA "Citizenfour" in a Hong Kong hotel room in order to spill the beans. While, it perfectly capture the paranoia days before, during and after Snowden's revelations became the world's top news story with intense scenes of suspicious 'hot mic' phones calls, weird arrivals of repairs vans and downright disturbing coincidence like a fire alarm going off, while the group is in the hotel for over eight days to discuss the data and how best to reveal it to the world, and the repercussions of doing so. A bit, of me, thinks, some of it was a bit played off, for dramatic effects. After all, the NSA didn't know for days, who did it, until Snowden put out his name out, there. Plus, it took the US government, a few more weeks to finally requests the Hong Kong government extradite Snowden. So, in short, I don't think, Snowden was in danger, as the film portray, he was. Added to that, the film does feel a bit one-sided to the point, that certain shots, seem staged, like the ripping of the papers, and the close up of author Cory Doctorow's novel 'Homeland', which focus on a technologically clued-in young person, fighting back against the tyrannical security state. It didn't felt like real raw footage. It felt theatrics and an bit propaganda. Another problem with the film is that, it didn't feature much of 'Washington Post' journalist, Barton Gellman's coverage of the U.S. National Security Agency. He too, was provided with top secret documents by Snowden like the 'Black Budget' file. I would love to see, his story, showcase as well. Furthermore, the disclosures made by other publications including 'Der Spiegel' and 'The New York Times' should also be explore. Another problem for the film is, the fact that it didn't explain much in layman's terms, the majority of the vast hundreds of pages of classified NSA documents that he was giving to the public, such as examples, 'Tempora' 'Blackpearl' and 'Xkeyscore'. Because of that, some people couldn't comprehend, what they were seeing on screen. There was one scene that really bug me, in which Snowden felt compelled to put a blanket over his head, while typing on a laptop. I think, he was blocking his face from the laptop webcam as NSA is known to spy through there, but I wish the movie was a little more, clear with that. I also wish the movie used more visuals numbers, charts, and graphs as it is the only thing, that I can think, could had made people understand how much government was intruding on our privacies. Even with visuals, some narrative was needed, as images such as "Google Cloud Exploitation" from NSA MUSCULAR program was hard to understanding. Another problem is that, it didn't follow up, with later leaks by Snowden being put out there, such as 'MonsterMind' & 'Turbine'. Despite that, this documentary indeed shows some of the dark side of where society is heading into the digital age. It did shows the extent to which the U.S. and other governments seek to punish Snowden, Poitras, and Greenwald for their shocking revealed, weeks later. However, it fell to mention the problems in details, when Snowden try to get asylum, such as the infamous Evo Morales grounding incident, or the reasons, why Snowden is trapped in Russia. Despite that, I just surprised, this movie was even released, seeing how the director had to flee to Germany from Hong Kong, in order to edit the film, before the FBI shown up with a search warrant for her hard drives. I guess, the government later decide, that there was no way to stop the film from coming out, so they let it go, and move on, to tightening their own security. Regardless of the so-calls, threats, Poitras was able to release the documentary to the public in late 2014. In my opinion, the world is better, because of it. Overall: This documentary really does deserve the Academy Award win for Best Documentary, that year, despite some flaws, as it show exciting investigative journalism. It's a must watch for sure.
virek213
Not since Daniel Ellsberg broke the extreme illegality of America's involvement of the Vietnam War with his release of the Pentagon Papers had any government contractor dared to defy their employers and made public huge government dissembling that affected the lives of every man, woman, and child living inside the boundaries of the United States. Just before the end of 2012, an individual who identified himself in e-mails as "Citizenfour" revealed to documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras all-too-convincing evidence that the U.S. intelligence complex, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and most of the major communications conglomerates, were engaged in mass surveillance against the nation's own people in the years and decades following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. As it turned out, "Citizenfour" would be identified as Edward Joseph Snowden. In June 2013, Poitras and noted journalist Glenn Greenwald interviewed Snowden at a high-rise hotel in Hong Kong in which he revealed the first huge batch of what he knew. The end result was Snowden becoming one of the most wanted men in history. What also resulted was the Oscar-winning, and disturbing, 2014 documentary CITIZENFOUR.Poitras had already done two documentaries (2006's MY COUNTRY, MY COUNTRY; 2010's THE OATH) that touched on post-9/11 America; and CITIZENFOUR expands on those two films to focus on what the deaths of nearly 3,000 people on that dark late summer day in 2001 unleashed in the bowels of the intelligence community inside the United States. Poitras, along with Greenwald and MacAskill (the last two of whom worked at the British newspaper The Guardian) went and interviewed Snowden in Hong Kong; and a lot of that interview involves Snowden's chillingly detailed information about how every branch of the intelligence community, and their contractors, including the one (Booz Allen) that Snowden had worked for, used its expertise to monitor the activities of everyone at practically every second of their public and online lives during the day. The revelations that Snowden allowed Greenwald to make public turned out to be every bit as explosive in the media and to the American public as advertised, and then some. Not surprisingly, the kind of paranoia that developed among the three of them in that tenth floor Hong Kong hotel room was extraordinary. And once the first revelations were made public, Snowden was charged with three crimes, two under the U.S. Espionage Act of 1917, basically putting him in the crosshairs of the entire United States government, which was shamed by his revelations, and making him a target for the ultimate charge of Treason.The revelations that Snowden makes to Poitras, Greenwald, and MacAskill (which director Oliver Stone dramatized in his 2016 film SNOWDEN) in his Hong Kong hotel room, along with the e-mail messages he delivers to Poitras and Greenwald while on the run, reveal a great deal about the things the United States government has been doing, to a great degree because of electronic encryption software that was of Snowden's own design, to track the movements of every American citizen possible. It is likely that Snowden first identified himself to Poitras as "Citizenfour" because of his concerns about how the massive bulk-collection program being carried out violates the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. This amendment guarantees that the government cannot search and seize a person or his property without proper cause; but the Patriot Act, signed into law just after 9/11 by then-president George W. Bush after being passed by a Congress that read not one single page of it, basically superseded it (with the acquiescence of a fearful American public) in the name of National Security. In essence, both CITIZENFOUR, and, two years later, SNOWDEN seem not only to indict Bush and, later, Obama in this whole scandal, but to a fair extent We The People in the bargain.The years following the 9/11 attacks saw a huge explosion in the number of feature-length documentaries being made, including Michael Moore's infamous FAHRENHEIT 9/11, and more sober ones like Eugene Jarecki's WHY WE FIGHT, and Charles Ferguson's NO END IN SIGHT. CITIZENFOUR, whose Oscar win in 2014 was richly justified, should be considered another essential addition to the number of films which speak the truth against government power and overreach. It is as darkly spooky as any fictional high-tech espionage thriller, like MINORITY REPORT or THE OSTERMAN WEEKEND, and thanks to its being based on contemporary events, every bit as scary.
